A non-governmental organization, CARE Nigeria, has launched a program to train and empower 2,000 Healthcare workers in Katsina State to better provide healthcare services for communities in the state.
Speaking in Katsina at the launch of the three-year project tagged ‘Enhancing Resilience in Frontline Community Health’, EnRiCH, the CARE Nigeria Country Director, Mrs. Jennifer Orgle, said the project is targeted to reach one million people with quality healthcare services in the state.
She explained that the EnRiCH Project which will be implemented in collaboration with the Katsina State Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the Life Savers Foundation will cover Mani, Charanchi and Katsina local government areas in the first phase.
“CARE Nigeria’s partnership with the the Katsina State government and other stakeholders is to ensure that EnRiCH goes a long way in achieving a strong health system which will improve health outcomes for the people in Katsina State.
“The project is targeted to reach one million people in 200,000 households over a period of three years in the selected local government areas”, Orgle said.
She pointed out that besides training and providing a digital learning platform for the 2,000 Healthcare workers, the project will also empower them through Village Savings and Loans Associations.
The State Coordinator of the EnRiCH Project, Dr. Aminu Hamisu Rimaye, said by creating a safer and more supportive working environment for healthcare workers, the project will assist in addressing the ‘japa’ syndrome where healthcare workers leave Nigeria in search of greater pasture overseas.
“The ‘japa’ syndrome in the health sector has town levels, first you have healthcare workers in the rural areas moving to the urban centers where they feel the working conditions are more convenient, then those in the urban centers are also moving overseas in search of better working conditions.
“Statistics show that this syndrome is very real and it is affecting healthcare service delivery in the country very adversely, the Nigerian Medical Association has also raised an alarm over this trend.
“The EnRiCH project will try to see how we can retain these health workers, one of the ways we intend to do that is by improving their capacity through trainings and we have simplified it by developing a digital learning platform.
“CARE Nigeria through the EnRiCH program will support the state to develop the platform which has videos, animations and other practical learning formats imbedded in it, we will also provide them with digital tablets and data to enable them download or watch these tutorials online”, Rimaye said.
In his remarks, Executive Secretary of the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Shamsuddeen Yahaya, lauded the EnRiCH initiative which he said will go a long way in enhancing the quality of human resource for health in the state.
Besides pledging the agency’s readiness to support the program, Dr. Yahaya noted that the agency has also signed an MoU with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the Federal Ministry of Health to employ and train more health workers in the state.
Wife of Katsina State Governor, Hajiya Zulaihat Dikko Radda, commended the EnRiCH Project’s focus on nutrition health services and the training of Healthcare workers on maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
Represented by the state commissioner for Women Affairs, Hajiya Khadija Abubakar Yaradua the Wife of the Governor said her NGO, Safe Space Humanitarian Initiative, will support the EnRiCH Project and other interventions that seek to promote maternal and child health.
Frontline healthcare workers that spoke to Radio Nigeria expressed appreciation to the sponsors of the EnRiCH Project and urged the Katsina State government to absorb their colleagues that are serving on a casual or part-time basis into the state’s workforce.
Isma’il Adamu
