MEDICAL OUTREACH: ROTARY CLUB KADUNA TAKES MATERNAL & CHILD  AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TO PHC MANDO

MEDICAL OUTREACH: ROTARY CLUB KADUNA TAKES MATERNAL & CHILD  AWARENESS CAMPAIGN TO PHC MANDO

Zainab Tanimu

Kaduna Northwest Nigeria

It was an impressive turn out at Mondo primary health care centre, (PHC) Monday, the 14th of July, 2025 where women gathered for a health care programme organised by Rotary club Kaduna.

The programme was meant to sensitize women on how best to go about caring for themselves and their babies.

According to the newly elected President, Alhaji Ahmad Tijani, the event was simultaneously taking place across the nation.

Maternal and Child Health Care he explained is one of their annual area of focus. It is a programme scheduled to come up every year in June and is meant to positively impact on the lives of mother and child.

The government he said cannot do it alone.They have been carrying out their outreach programmes in other areas but decided to extend it to those living within Mondo axis.

Ahmad called on well -to – do Nigerians and individuals to assist in making the public health sector viable by supporting the maternal and child programme as it  will go a long way in reducing maternal mortality rate.

He commended the PHC Mondo for its excellent job. The response is impressive. He added.

“It is an excellent response. We targeted one hundred and fifty people but had about two hundred women in attendance. What l appreciate the most is the fact that the hospital is doing very well in terms of engaging the community as well as  teaching the women some basics because from our interaction with them, we discovered that they have learnt and known a lot about maternal and child welfare. It is very encouraging.

“For our future projects, we want to go to the rural areas, we want to go to the villages where our impacts will be felt better. It is one of our cardinal objectives for the year.”

Speaking, the immediate past President Mrs. Porptia Aji informed that the activity was in commemoration of the rotary maternal and child health month.

She expressed satisfaction with the turnout and pledged her support for the new president in taking the club to greater heights.

“Last year during my tenure we did it at Gambo Sawaba’s hospital in Zaria and this year we are here in Mondo to extend the same gesture to nursing mothers.

My advise to mothers is, they should know that these children are gifts from God and our future leaders of tomorrow.

Therefore, they should do everything in their power to ensure that their health are adequately taken care of.

Porptia speaking on some of her achievements urged the new president to do better.

“During my tenure, apart from the outreach at Gambo Sawaba’s hospital in Zaria, we were also able to donate 120 desks in demonstration school Kakuri Hausa. We planted 1000 trees, 500 in KASU and 500 in Rimi college and we kick- started a process of donating mammogram machine (for detecting cancer ) to ABU hospital Chika which is currently on-going.” Not only that, there was also an organized health programme she said in collaboration with NMA whereby they visited the former Kaduna prisons and treated inmates who had health issues as well as donated drugs worth over one million naira.

The Chief Executive Officer, Women Connect initiative, (co-partner)  hajiya Murjanatu Suleiman-Shika speaking on the exercise at Mondo public health centre said the turnout was commendable.

“It is a call for humanity and this is a way of contributing our quota. Reaching out to pregnant women to make our own impact. It is something that is well taught of and Alhamdulilah it all worked out.”

“The attendance is impressive.This is what we have been asking for. That women do come out for immunization, do come for checkups and do take care of themselves. You can see that we have pregnant women, nursing mothers all present here. It is fabulous.”

The Club Secretary Rotary Club Kaduna, Alhaji Niyi Waheed Adepoju in his overall assessment of the programme has this to say.

“It is a very good one. In fact the turn-out is beyond our expectations. We have a lot of people in attendance and the message of personal hygiene well comprehended as seen from the responses of the women during the interactive session.

Distributed were mosquito nets, and some personal hygiene items.

Former District Coordinator for District 9125 Nigeria, Rotary Family Health Days’, (RFHD’s), Grace Sadiku and some members of the PHC Mondo took charge of the health talk. They sensitised the women on health related issues.

Some of the women who spoke thanked rotary club Kaduna for the items and  services extended to them.