Communities in Jigawa State have raised concerns over the increasing number of pneumonia cases threatening the lives of under-five children in Nigeria.
Wards Development Communities (WDCs) raised the concern while commenting at a town hall meeting held at Manpower Development Institute MDI, Dutse.
The town hall meeting is part of a project of community accountability interventions that brings together healthcare providers and their catchment facilities to explore and address health quality issues by working in partnership.
Some of the key issues raised include the increasing cases of Pneumonia, poor antenatal care and immunization attendance, and shortages of medical personnel and facilities in the country.
Malam Musa a leader of Shiwarin Ward Development community (WDCs) said despite the fact that Pneumonia has been identified as a major killer of under-five children, it is receiving less attention from governments compared to other childhood killer diseases.
“WDCs in Kiyawa local Government in Jigawa State through community scorecard and action planning process where community representatives and healthcare providers in their communities come together and identify health service quality issues, plan and carry out activities to address those issues we have overcomes all these problems”
They, however, urged the government to give more emphasis on pneumonia cases which is one of the major killer diseases in the state and the country in general.
UK representative and Head of Health, Save the Children Mr Samy Ahmar said the project is the only program that is aimed at eliminating preventable death from pneumonia in particular in Nigeria.
” All of these deaths are preventable. As you know, the majority of these cases can be avoided. And so, this program really doesn’t belong to save the children it belongs to you, belongs to the people of Kiyawa in Jigawa to the men and women out there and to the children, who make it a reality,
” Save the children will be gone from Kiyawa someday but the people will stay here and the children need a healthy future. And they need to thrive in life and they need to be equipped with the cognitive, physical and emotional assets that they need to thrive in life and these Stars here. So, we are incredibly proud of being a part of the story of this journey”
District Head of Kiyawa, Adamu Aliyu said, based on records, out of 2000 birth, no single death was recorded recently in the local government, he, however, commended Kiyawa local government and Save the Children International for responding to most of the problems raised by the WDCs
He, therefore, urged the governments to replicate for effective service delivery and a brighter future for the country.