The Rotary Health Community Challenge (RHCC), says the community of Dagimu village in Argungu Local Government Area of Kebbi State is seeking more CHIPS agents to effectively combat three child-killer diseases.
CHIPS stands for Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services.
Dr Festus Adetonwa, Head of the Advocacy Committee, Rotary Health Community Challenge (RHCC), stated this while debriefing the Kebbi Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Sama’ila Yakubu-Augie, in his office in Birnin Kebbi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the head of advocacy spoke during a meeting between a delegation of RHCC, Rotary International Foundation, PATH, the Commissioner, Permanent Secretary and other Directors of the ministry.
NAN reports that the RHCC project is a major healthcare initiative designed to combat malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea, the three top killer diseases for children under five in Nigeria.
The project is a three-year intervention co-funded by the Rotary International Foundation in partnership with the international non-profit organisation PATH and is being implemented in Kebbi and Akwa Ibom States.
NAN also reports that the team is in Kebbi to get first-hand information on how effective and beneficial the programme is to the benefiting communities.
Adetonwa told the health officials that the team appreciated the warm reception accorded them by the village head and his people.
He said the village head showed an understanding of the programme and stressed the need for more CHIPS agents in the area.
Consequently, Adetonwa noted with satisfaction that training was ongoing for another batch of CHIPS agents in Argungu, observing that the move would go a long way in meeting the needs of the community.
“We took time to go and see the training and we are happy with the conducive training environment. We interacted with both the facilitators from the ministry as well as the participants.
“We were able to interact with the trainees to see their understanding of the project they will undertake in the field, and the feedback we got from them was very encouraging.
“We are happy with what we saw on the field and we hope this will continue. And where our sustainability plan is, we still want to encourage the state on that,” he said.
In his remarks, Dr Dele Balogun, the Country Lead, Rotary Health Community Challenge (RHCC), expressed delight over what they saw in the field.
Balogun, a Public Health Physician, said: “We have had a good visit to the site and we saw the impact of the CHIPS agents, the supervisors, and the focal persons, and we saw the impact within the community.
“We rounded off by visiting the training centre, which shows how committed the Kebbi government is to this project. We met the trainees in about 11 classrooms and all the classrooms were filled up.
“And we saw the zeal and enthusiasm with which they look forward to this project. It is technically very important that these well-trained CHIPS agents be put out in the field, their activities supervised, their data supervised and so on.”
He stressed the need for RHCC to saturate Kebbi “with all our agents” so that at the end of the day, Kebbi would be one of those states that could beat its chest and say it had done well.
“Not just malaria elimination, not just diarrhoea management, not just pneumonia. We are even talking about antenatal services and nutritional services.
“Therefore, a lot is being done to ensure that Kebbi will have better statistics. Statistics that we can beat our chest about. We look forward to the promises of the state government so that our sustainability plan will succeed,” he said.
Responding, the Commissioner appreciated the team for taking time to visit the field to get first-hand information about the project.
Yakubu-Augie assured the team that the state government would never allow the project to die, adding that its sustainability was very vital to the state.
“On behalf of the state government and our Comrade Governor, as we discussed here, we are going to do everything possible to make it work, and I pray we will meet again to discuss milestones,” the commissioner said.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Zaki Abubakar, said he was very delighted to receive positive feedback from the team and promised that the government would do everything possible to support and sustain the programme.
“Let me assure you that we are going to take ownership of the programme and we will continue from where you stopped. We will ensure that we integrate the project into our healthcare system across all 21 Local Government Areas, not just limited to 11 LGAs.
“I am delighted to say we enjoy a harmonious working relationship with you over the years. Not just you, we are going to support any partner that will bring progress and development to Kebbi,” he assured.
