Maternal Mortality: Ekiti recruits volunteers to preach antenatal services to pregnant women

Ekiti State Government on Tuesday commenced training of recruited health volunteers who would reach out to pregnant women in all the 177 wards of the state to ensure they access the primary health care facilities, to guarantee their safe delivery.

The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Oyebanji Filani, disclosed this on Tuesday at the launch of the 354 ‘Health Vanguards’ drawn from the 177 wards of Ekiti State.

Tasks

Mr Filani said the role of the health volunteers would be to encourage pregnant women, inform them about antenatal care and birth services, and ensure that they can link them up with Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) services so that they can have safe deliveries.

He said: “The Health vanguards are community volunteers who live in their communities. They are 354 at the moment. They will get the phone numbers of every pregnant woman in the state.

“You have a responsibility to help us. Reach out to every pregnant woman in the communities and get their phone numbers. I will follow up myself by randomly calling them.

“I will also reach out to them (pregnant women) randomly, but more importantly, you will encourage them, inform them about antenatal care services and birth services and ensure that they are able to link them up with PHC services so that they can have safe delivery.”

Other responsibilities

The commissioner said the volunteers will also carry out other health promotional activities, such as enlightening people on the uptake of health insurance and some elements of malaria treatment.

He said: “This is purely a state thing, but we do recognise that the federal government has also started a community health workers scheme similar to this, so we align with them.

“But in terms of target, we want to ensure that every pregnant woman in Ekiti State has access to safe delivery in our PHCs. Our goal is to encourage pregnant woman to come to the facilities and also to ensure that people who have malaria can be treated safely and effectively in our communities.”

Project director speaks

Also speaking at the event, the Project Director of Solina Health under the IMPACT Project, Ayodele Alegbeleye, said healthcare services could be brought to the doorsteps of service beneficiaries across the state in partnership with the state government.

He said if any pregnant woman goes through the existing structure, the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund or “Ulerawa,” they will enjoy free services in all the 177 PHCs located one per ward that provides free healthcare services for every pregnant woman who comes into the facility.