Not fewer than 165 persons from 10 local government areas of Niger State are to be trained on the effective health promotion of immunisation and primary healthcare (PHC) services during the forthcoming community engagement programmes expected to take place in 10 LGAs of Niger State.
The UNICEF state coordinator, Mrs. Grace Adeyemi, disclosed this during the community engagement orientation meeting organised by the Niger State Ministry of Primary Health Care with the support of UNICEF for health facilitators from the state, NOA officers, the media, and other stakeholders held at the Dogon Koli Hotel Minna.
The community engagement orientation meeting was held to prepare the minds of the facilitators that will be going out to various local government areas of the state to carry out the assignment of enlightening, informing, educating, and sensitising the beneficiaries on the activities of PHC services, which include vaccination, nutrition, breastfeeding, malaria, diarrhoea, and pneumonia, amongst others.
The community engagement beneficaries in 10 LGAs in the state are Agwara, Borgu, Wushishi, Kontagora, and Mashegu. Others included Bosso, Chanchaga, Gurara, Gbako, and Suleja.
The UNICEF state coordinator said the team composition will include two state facilitators, LGA Health Educators, and Unicef, while the local government-level composition has four clusters with 40 persons and 160 per LGA except Gurara, which has an additional five, making 165.
She therefore called for a change of attitude from all the stakeholders handling the activities for improved performance, pointing out that she was aware of the difficulties encountered during the field visit to the eight LGAs in the state.
Mrs. Adeyemi, while acknowledging the role of the media in the exercise, described communication as a key and instrument for information dissemination that will help to promote immunisation and other PHC services, urging the media to continue to do their best by creating awareness among the beneficiaries.
She also called on the participants not to use a harsh approach while meeting the people from the community during the training; rather, they should embrace their culture, norms, and traditions in order to win their hearts and get results.
The State Health Educator (SHE), Niger State Ministry of Primary Health Care, Mohammed Alhaji Usman, who welcomed the participants to the meeting, said that the orientation meeting was organised to increase awareness on the benefits of immunisation and other PHC services through mass media, to strengthen the capacity of community engagement structures, to mobilise mothers and carers to access immunisation and PHC services, and to engage community, religious, and political leaders across the 10 target LGAs to advocate for the uptake of immunisation and PHC services among their community members.