Some communities in Jigawa State have raised concerns over the increasing number of pneumonia cases threatening the lives of under-five children in Nigeria.
Wards Development communities raised the concern while commenting at a town hall meeting held at Manpower Development Institute MDI, Dutse.
The town hall meeting is part of the INSPIRING project Community accountability interventions that brings together healthcare providers and their catchment facilities to explore and address health quality issues by working in partnership.
Some of the key issues raised include the increasing cases of Pneumonia, poor antenatal care and immunization attendance, shortages of medical personnel and facilities in the country.
A leader of Shuarin Ward Development Community Mallam Musa said despite identifying Pneumonia diseases as a major killer of the under five children, it’s receiving less attention from Governments compared to other children’s kiiller disease.
“In Kiyawa local government in Jigawa state through community scorecard and action planning process where community representatives and healthcare providers in their communities comes together and identify health service quality issues, planned and carryout activities to address those issues we have overcomes all these problems.
They however urged governments to give more emphasis on pneumonia cases which was a one of the major killer diseases in the state and the country in general.
The UK representative and Head of Health, Save the Children Mr Samy Ahmar said INSPIRING project was the only program that aimed at eliminating preventable death from pneumonia in particular in Nigeria.
According to him, “all of these deaths are preventable. As you know, the majority of these cases can be avoided. And so, this program really doesn’t belong to save the children is Belongs to You, belongs to the people of kiyawa in jigawa to the man, and women out there and to the children, who make it a reality,
” Save the children will be gone from kiyawa someday but the people of kiyawa will stay here and the children need a healthy future. And they need to thrive in life and they need to be equipped with the cognitive, physical and emotional assets that they need to thrive in life and these Stars here. So, we are incredibly proud of being a part of the story of this journey”
Also speaking, the District Head of Kiyawa Alhaji Adamu Aliyu said based on record out of 2000 birth no single death was recorded recently in the local Government.
He however commended Kiyawa local Government and Save the children International for responding to most of the problems raised by the WDCs
He therefore urged Governments to replicate for effective service delivery and the brighter future of the country.
COV/USMAN MZ
