By Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
Jegam Yapa, an isolated community of over three hundred children in Lau Local government area of Taraba State, on Friday celebrated the assistance from the United Nations Children’s Education Fund UNICEF in providing motorcycles that aided health care workers to
access the community for Routine Immunisation and other free medical services.
The community of over a thousand persons has no medical facility and most of the children are not vaccinated due to the remote nature of the community, which makes it difficult for pregnant women to also access Antenatal Services.
The motorcycle was donated by UNICEF in collaboration with Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative (GAVI) as part of the health interventions in rural communities.
The community head Mr Ishaya Sanva said that all efforts to get the government to set up a medical facility in the community have failed and most times, pregnant women have to rely on untrained traditional birth assistants for delivery.
Sanva, who said that the remote nature of the community has also made it difficult for medical personnel to visit the area, noted that with the provision of the motorcycles have made it possible for the health workers to visit the community and cater for the health needs of especially, the children and women.
“In the past, it was difficult for people to take their children to the town for vaccination. Even when the health workers were to come to the community, most women ignored them and went to their farms because they always had to wait for long hours for the health workers to arrive.
“Things changed since the motorcycle was given because our women are very sure that the health workers will arrive promptly and that is why you can see this large turnout today. Almost all the children in the community have been brought out for vaccination. Most of the women are able to vaccinate their children quickly and go back to their daily routines.
“We lost two children not long ago. I explained to the medical personnel and they suspect Hepatitis. If they were attended to on time, they may have survived. So having the intervention from UNICEF is a great relief for us. I believe that the health of our children and women will improve greatly. Most of these pregnant women don’t go to the hospital throughout their pregnancies. The road to our community is extremely bad so it is not easy for the women to go to the nearest Health facility, which is several kilometres away from here. Now, they can be examined and taken care of easily”
The head of Primary Healthcare Facilities in Lau Local government area Mr Anthony Benjamin, who commended the UNICEF for the intervention, said that lack of access roads has been a major challenge for field health workers as motorcycle riders are often very reluctant to go to certain areas that are hard to reach.
He maintain that “our work as field workers is now made much easier as we can just ride to our locations without much huddles. Before now, we depended mostly on motorcycle riders and most of hem do not like going to these hard to reach locations. Even those who are willing to go often charge us exorbitant amounts. These are some of the benefits of this intervention”.
Our Correspondent reports that UNICEF and GAVI donated a hundred motorcycles to the Taraba State to strengthen Integrated Routine Immunisation and Primary Healthcare services in the state.
Director, High Impact Country Programmes of GAVI Mr Tokunbo Oshin said that the motorcycles were donated to ease movement and ensure delivery of Primary Healthcare services to hard to reach areas in the state.
UNICEF Chief of Field, Bauchi Field office
Mr Tushar Rane in his remarks urge the community to embrace the opportunity and avail themselves for the free medical services.
He called on the Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency to maintain the motorcycles and use them for the purpose they are meant, while assuring that the UNICEF will continue to intervene in any ways possible to ensure assess to quality health care for all especially women and children, irrespective of their location.
