The Saving-One-Million-Lives (SOML) initiative of the Federal Government has trained 400 health care providers across the 16 Local Government Area of Kwara State.
Speaking to newsmen recently in Ilorin, on the sidelines of the training, the Programme Manage for SOML in Kwara, Dr Omar Hassan explained that the training included health workers being introduced to modern health care best practices.
According to him, these include provision of immunisation, ante-natal care to HIV/AIDS mothers, to prevent mother to child transmission, Vit A supplement for children -six months to nine months, arresting abortion and treatment, among others.
Hassan lamented that the country is still struggling with high Maternal and under-five mortality rates with about 900,000 women and children dying each year, largely from preventable causes.
“The Federal Government felt that through the SOML, all the states of the federation will adopt their different approaches to ensure maternal and infant deaths are reduced.
“SOML is an elaborate scheme to expand access to essential primary health care services for women and children,” he said.
He noted that the training included capacity building, provision of free basic equipment to health facilities across the state, and delivery of maternal kits to mothers.
The SOML Programme Manager expressed hope that the programme is yielding results in the state, as the state is improving.
A Consultant for the SOML training, Dr Mubashir Uthman told newsmen that the sixth batch out of ten are currently undergoing training.
“So far about 164 health care workers have now been trained on best practices to manage new born and mothers,” he said.
Uthman who is also a Public Health Physician at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) explained that the programme is about integrating maternal child training to community health extension workers across the 16 local government area.
According to him, indicators suggest that infant mortality rate is high in the state, which prompted the state government to empower health care workers.
Mrs Florence Afolabi, Officer in Charge, at Amoyo Basic Health Centre, in Ifelodun local government area, said the training from the SOML has increased their knowledge in Primary Health Care.
Another Health care provider, Mrs Olubunmi Okunloye, Officer in Charge at the Primary Health care center, in Orolodo, Omuaran, Irepodun local government area said she was able to also train her staffs on what was learned from the SOML training.
Some of the health care centres visited included Amoyo Basic Health centre, Ifelodun local government area, Primary Health Centre, Orolodo, Omuaran, Irepodun local government area, as well as the Training centre for the health care providers at Omuaran.
