Dr Dele Balogun, the Country Lead, Rotary Health Community Challenge (RHCC), says the organisation aims to curb children’s deaths resulting from malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia in two states in Nigeria.
Balogun, a Public Health Physician, disclosed this while interacting with journalists on Tuesday in Argungu, during a tour of selected Local Government Areas for the Malaria Diarrhoea Mitigation Programme to assess its impact.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the pilot intervention scheme which focuses on malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia has been ongoing in Kebbi and Akwa Ibom as pilot states.
NAN also reports that the Rotary Health Community Challenge (RHCC) is a three-year initiative launched to curb under-five child mortality from the three killer diseases in Nigeria.
The country lead added that they were in Kebbi together with their funders, the Rotary Foundation and PATH to ascertain the level of impact the RHCC project had made in various communities.
He said: “So far, we are happy with the response we are getting from the communities and the state. Our target is, at the end of three years, we should have been able to reduce the incidence of malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia among children under five years of age.
“And we should also be able to reduce the deaths of children from diseases like malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia amongst children under five years within the communities where we are serving and the result is very encouraging,” he said.
On the possibility of extending the programme, the country lead expressed hope to extend the scheme if the foreign donors find it convenient to provide funds as well as the local sponsors, including the state and local government areas also provide counterpart funds.
“Already, the programme has been extended, because we started with six LGAs in Kebbi but now have 11 LGAs and we hope to capture the remaining ten LGAs,” he added.
Also in an interview, Jeannine Galloway, the Programme Manager, RHCC, Rotary Foundation, expressed delight to see the programme in action in Kebbi.
She said: “We are here to observe the programme, to meet the community health workers, the supervisors, the officials in the Ministry of Health to observe how the programme is being executed.”
The Programme Manager said they interacted with the benefiting communities to see how excited they were about the programme.
She noted that the team was satisfied with what it saw on the ground, saying the programme had been wonderful, the community workers were very knowledgeable and knew what they were doing.
Galloway was excited that the families were cooperating and working with the community workers, adding that the community workers were going into their homes to treat malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia.
She lauded the support the programme received from the Ministry of Health, traditional rulers and other leaders in the state which culminated in the success of the programme.
According to her, if the programme continues to record more success, “We would like to be able to extend it to all the local government areas in Kebbi. We will continue to have conversations about that.
“The Rotarians in Nigeria are extremely excited and want to continue to support this work.”
She expressed satisfaction with the commitment and assistance from the Kebbi Government towards the success of the programme, noting that the RHCC was looking forward to more in 2027.
On his part, Mr. Oluwa Femi-Oketoyo, Project Manager, RHCC, said the team was in Kebbi to evaluate the project, to see how the caregivers were receiving the Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) and how they were delivering to the communities.
“We want to see their reception of the project, what their perception is like and the possibility of improvement on this project.
“I can see a good reception of this project from the angle of the caregivers as well as the angle of government officials. Not too long ago, we were at the office of the Commissioner for Health.
“In that office, we received good promises of the state government’s commitment to increasing the procurement of non-malaria commodities which are the commodities the health workers use in the field,” he said.
Earlier, the team held a meeting with officials of the Primary Healthcare Centre, the State Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Sama’ila Yakubu-Augie and proceeded to pay homage to the Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Sama’ila Muhammad-Mera.
Both the commissioner and the emir lauded the intervention project and pledged their commitment and support towards the success of the programme.
The duo appreciated RHCC for finding Kebbi worthy of the project, adding that the project had not only reduced the spread of malaria but also curbed child mortality across the participating local government areas.
(NAN)
