By Emmanuel Awari, Jalingo
A community volunteer group, known as ‘Mama-to-Mama‘ has lauded Governor Agbu Kefas for his conserted efforts at reducing maternal death and child mortality in the state.
In a voice note obtained by SUMMIT POST News, the group made this commendation in Lau, Lau local government of Taraba State, during an awareness campaign on the importance of women visiting Healthcare centers in their areas during pregnancy, child birth and after child birth.
They called on the state government to support them in the areas of transportations, water and power, adding that such will go a long way in reaching out to other communities with the Mama-to-Mama awareness.
Speaking, Mrs Christiana Habila, Assistant Health Educator for Advocacy and Health Promotion, noted that, with the UNICEF initiative of Mama-to-Mama, funded by GAVI has reduced drastically cases of maternal death, child mortality and the urgent need for the State Governor, Dr Agbu kefas to assist the volunteers to increase awareness.
She said that the activities will greatly reduce maternal and child mortality and improve child immunization in the state.
According to her, “I want to plead with the state government to assist UNICEF and GAVI on with issue of stipends. The Mama-to-Mama volunteers are not being paid anything. The only money they are given is just little token for transport fare, which is not even enough for those in the remote areas.
“If government steps in, it will be a source of encouragement and that will boost their activities and give us a better results than what we have now.
“We are appealing to Governor Agbu kefas to help the Mama-to-Mama with ambulances or tricycles, that can go a long way to reducing some of the difficulties,” she said.
Mrs Christiana while appreciating the volunteers for the job well done, encouraged them to ensure that the set goals of improving services for maternal and child Immunization in Taraba communities was achieved.
In the same vein, head of volunteers, Rukaiya Mohammed and Routine Immunization Officer, Felicia Francis all thanked the UNICEF and GAVI for their efforts toward saving the lives of Taraba women and children, promising to make a judicious use of their gesture.
SUMMIT POST News report that Community leaders also expressed their happiness with the Mama-to-Mamma project.