Gombe procures N35m worth of child spacing commodities
By Chima Azubuike
The Director of Community and Family Health Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency Maryam Abubakar, says the State Government has procured about N35million worth of child spacing commodities.
She made this disclosure in her address, while the Agency alongside The Challenge Initiative commemorated International Women’s Day with the theme; “DigitAll: Innovation and Technology For Gender Equality”.
According to her, previously Federal Government procured and supplied states, adding that Gombe was first to make such procurement to augment the various efforts.
Abubakar said the step by the Gombe State Government was supported by United Nations Population Fund towards encouraging child spacing.
She said, “The government made the first procurement of family planning commodities worth N35 million and we are the first in the country to do that.
“Usually commodities are supplied from the Federal Government to the states but this time around the government made an effort to make our own family planning commodities and they are in medical store. Courtesy of UNFPA that supported us because they are the largest in making procurement we went through them and luckily for us they are available.”
Speaking on the essence of the activity, the Director of Community and Family Health, disclosed that a healthy woman would play sufficient role in child and Nation development.
She called for empowerment of women through various stakeholders, adding, “We are soliciting for more support for women. A woman is mother, daughter, wife, sister and grandmother.”
“The role of a woman can not be over emphasised. As we know child bearing is a physiological condition but it comes with health issues and some changes. If she is made to space her child she can participate effectively in whatever way you want her to participate. The productivity is not the same with the one that spaces her child between two to three years,” Abubakar added.
On his part, Chairman, Advocacy Working Group, Alhassan Yahya, explained further on the relationship between child spacing and education.
He said, “Giving a woman chance to get education, will go a long way in the uptake of child spacing. If a woman is educated , she is knowledgeable by using technology. With that we can improve the uptake of child spacing in our state.
“For us from Civil Society we are coming on government to invest more on women and above all to give women opportunity to excel to get higher positions.
“If a woman is educated, she will be able to use technology and it will improve our CPR and reduce the unmet need in Gombe.”
Speaking on reducing unmet need Yahya said, “through working as a team, reaching out to those in hard to reach areas, they can come out to facilities to access family planning commodities will go a long way in meeting our unmet need.
“For the media, let’s give adequate opportunity for visibility for voices to be heard at the same time give airtime so that we can express the situation as it is in our communities.”
Also, State Programme Manager, The Challenge Initiative, Yakubu Abubakar, noted that working towards empowering women means alot, while lauding collaborative partners for supporting women related issues in the state.
He said, “The ministry alongside development partners are working towards improving the quality of health of women and children. When they are healthy they have access to so many things, access to Education, governance.
“We are supporting the state to make sure that gender is adequately mainstreamed into the system so that everyone will have equal chances, opportunity to access services, empowerment even though our focus is child spacing our approach is to help, strengthen the system in a way that empowerment is part of the approach I’m sure Gombe State is doing well through Ministries of Health and Women Affairs.
On sustainability plan, he added, “from the very beginning we started with sustainability the state invited TCI, after realising that the state has gaps. We agreed on what the state is going to contribute and you know our approach is business unusual, if the state doesn’t contribute we won’t contribute. The state has been contributing. Most of the people here are coaches, some are master trainers. I’m happy to tell you that last time we did review meeting in November, 2022 Gombe was the best in coaching out of the 11 states. This means Gombe is taking ownership, Gombe is investing alot.”
