
As part of activities marking its 100 years of existence in the world, Save the Children International (SCI) is celebrating the successes achieved at the end of a three year programme for capacity building of health workers in Gombe State.
The Gombe State Project Manager of SCI, Altine Lewi, said it was no coincidence that the international Non-Governmental Organization was marking a hundred years of its existence with a colourful celebration of the achievements made at the end of a three year programme for Health Workers’ Capacity Building (HCB) in Gombe State.
She said, the programme donors, Glaxo Smith Kline and Save the Children had set out at the beginning of the project in June 2015 to improve access to lifesaving quality healthcare by directly building the capacity of 5,000 frontline health workers and influence policy change to improve the delivery of quality health services to mothers, new-born babies and children under the age of five in Gombe and two other States of Kaduna and Lagos where the project execution is rounding up.
A recent report released by World Health Organization (WHO) shows that Neonatal, infant and under five mortality rates in the Northeast are 33.62 and 115 per 1000 live births respectively. In Gombe, the figures are 35, 62 and 162 per 100 live births respectively; the Gombe rates are higher than the Northeast and the national average.
Giving an overview of the programme in Gombe State, the Advocacy Officer, Mr. Apeh Joseph said the programme successfully trained 1,291 health workers with several of them receiving multiple trainings on Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses, Essential Care for New Born, Active Management of Third State Labour and immunization related trainings.
According to him, the number trained exceeds the target of 1,235 by 4.5 per cent through the HCB programme adding that Save the Children had recorded some successes on advocacy and influencing of policy makers.
He said, “The task shifting policies have been adopted, some changes have been recorded and some commitments made. In line with Save the Children’s theory of change to build partnerships, all advocacy activities were jointly conducted in partnership with Human Resource for Health Technical Working Group (HRH-TWG), Maternal New-born and Child Health (MNCH) Coalition, Health Workers Union and Professional Associations. These are technocrats with various degree of expertise and influence within the state”.
He however enumerated some of the challenges faced during the programme to include, uncoordinated trainings by several partners in the State, no strategies to ensure sustainable HIV/AIDS programmes in the State, weak referral system among health facilities and poor funding from the State Ministry of Health as well as the Primary Health Care Development Agency to conduct trainings, monitor and supervise trainings are mostly partner driven.
In his goodwill message, the Gombe state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Kennedy Ishaya, said even though lessons may appear not to have been learnt from the programme, he however assured that the lessons have definitely been learnt. He also assured that the lessons identified must have to go to the State’s Development plan, or else it will fail.
SCI then made a donation of training materials to the State Ministry of Health comprising, breast feeding stimulators, Neonatalie, Suction (mucus extractor), Malaria and Diarrhea flow chat, Essential Management of Primary and Childbirth as well as ENCC Provider Guide Training Modules among many others.