Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency has commenced a 3- day orientation/training for the newly recruited Ad hoc Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) under the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization – Health System Strengthening GAVI-HSS program.
While declaring the training open in Jalingo, the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Innocent Vakkai congratulated the Ad hoc staff for the privilege to serve as Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) under the GAVI-HSS program.
The Commissioner represented by the Executive Secretary of the State’s Primary Health Care Development Agency Dr Aminu Hassan, charged the newly recruited staff to be good ambassadors of the Agency and be guided by the standing order of community health practitioners in discharging their responsibilities.
He said the purpose of the training was to orient participants on the activities and programs of the Agency to reposition them for the effective and efficient provision of primary health care services across the state.
The Commissioner also explained that the training was a climax of a process that began three years ago under the watch of the agency in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
According to him, the exercise embarked on a rigorous process of situation analysis, program support rationale, work plan development, and reviews among several other things.
“These processes eventually led to the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Taraba State Government led by the deputy Governor Alhaji Haruna Manu and GAVI in February 2022.
“Taraba State is one out of eight states selected for the GAVI support fund.
“The support which has been released through UNICEF is geared towards Health System Strengthening (HSS) in the state”, he said.
The Executive Secretary Dr Aminu Hassan in his separate remark explained the passion shown by his team and the effort put in by the government to ensure that a workable primary health system in the state is systematically paying off.
He disclosed that among other success stories recorded was the recruitment and the ongoing training of qualified Adhoc CHEWs who were being re-engineered to drive the Health System in the state through the GAVI support fund.
He disclosed that the 250 newly engaged adhoc Community Health Workers were drawn from across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Dr. Aminu attributed the achievements and success stories of the Agency to the continuous support of Gov. Darius Ishaku.
Radio Nigeria report that organizations such as NPHCDA, WHO, UNICEF, and SEDAN who are partnering with the Agency delivered goodwill messages and reassured continuous support for the state.
COV/Sani Sulaiman
