The Ekiti State Government on Tuesday commenced training of recruited health volunteers who would reach out to pregnant women in all 177 districts of the state to ensure their access to primary health care facilities and ensure their safe delivery.
The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Oyebanji Filani, revealed this on Tuesday at the launch of the 354 “Health Vanguards” drawn from the 177 districts of Ekiti State.
Tasks
Filani said the role of health volunteers would be to encourage pregnant women, inform them about prenatal care and delivery services, and ensure that they can link them with Primary Care Center (PHC) services so that they can have safe deliveries. .
He said: “Health vanguards are community volunteers who live in their communities. There are 354 at the moment. They will obtain the phone numbers of all pregnant women in the state.
“You have a responsibility to help us. Contact all pregnant women in the communities and obtain their phone numbers. I'll follow up by calling them randomly.
“I will also contact them (pregnant women) randomly, but most importantly they will encourage them, inform them about prenatal and delivery care services and ensure that they can link them with primary health care services to that they can have safe delivery.”
Other responsibilities
The commissioner said volunteers will also carry out other health promotion activities, such as informing people about accepting health insurance and some elements of malaria treatment.
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He said: “This is purely a state issue, but we recognize that the federal government has also initiated a community health worker scheme similar to this, so we align with them.
“But in terms of objective, we want to ensure that all pregnant women in Ekiti State have access to safe delivery in our primary care centres. “Our aim is to encourage pregnant women to attend the facilities and also ensure that people suffering from malaria can receive treatment safely and effectively in our communities.”
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The project director speaks
Also speaking at the event, the Project Director of Solina Health under the IMPACT project, Ayodele Alegbeleye, said healthcare services could be brought to the doorsteps of service beneficiaries across the state in partnership with the state government .
He said that if any pregnant woman passes through the existing structure, the Basic Health Care Provision Fund or “Ulerawa”, she will enjoy free services at the 177 primary care centers located one per ward that provides free health care services to each woman. pregnant woman entering the center. .