Raphael Ede
No fewer than 239,795 families in Enugu State have access to family planning services, the Enugu State Ministry of Health has revealed.
The IntegratE Project Regional Programme Manager for the Southern Region, comprising Lagos and Enugu, Jennifer Ladokun, made this known during a one-day Enugu State IntegratE Mid-Project Dissertation Meeting.
He said this was made possible through the state Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the IntegratE Project, made up of five partners – Society for Family Health; Population Council; An Impact; Nivi, and the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria Foundation.
Ladokun explained that the IntegratE Project, which began in 2021, had provided women with over 10,103 oral pills as well as 190,878 condoms to assist in their sexual and reproductive health.
Also, about 303 health personnel and about 105 people without proper medical knowledge like the patent medical dealers, popularly known as chemists, were trained and offered medicare.
She noted that sexual and reproductive health was important, which is why the five partners, including the Enugu State government as well as the PSN, came together to kick-start the project.
Ladokun said that the project ensured that they built the capacity of those they trained to enable them to offer good family planning services.
She said that the exodus of quality medical health personnel from Nigeria to overseas for greener pastures, thereby leaving a lacuna, was what prompted the training of the medical personnel for family planning.
“We had an exodus of health providers, who travelled overseas and we had to train medical helps to carry out healthcare delivery,” Ladokun added.
Enugu State Commissioner for Health, Professor Emmanuel Ikechukwu Obi, who was represented by the Legal Head of the ministry, Mrs Lovina Ene, commended the partners for working tirelessly to ensure better and quality healthcare delivery in the state, especially as it concerned sexual and reproductive health.
Obi commended them for their achievements since the programme began three years ago in 2021.
Also, the Executive Secretary of Enugu State Primary Healthcare Programme, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku, commended the partners for coming together to do something about sexual and reproductive health.
She said that IntegratE was meant to upscale people who render quality family planning services.
The Chief Deputy Project Director of the SFH, Michael Alagbile, said the IntegratE Mid-Project Dissertation Meeting was organised for them to give the scorecard of what the project had done since inception to the stakeholders in sexual and reproductive health.
He said that the project empowered communities and women, as well as created opportunities for the young ones to have access “to quality healthcare.”
According to him, they have trained medical personnel who in turn would teach the community what he called ‘injectibles and implants.’
He added, “We are here to present our scorecard of what we have done in Enugu State in IntegratE Project. We started in late 2021. Today we are presenting what we have been able to do in the past years in Enugu State.
“IntegratE is about empowering communities, empowering women, then children to access quality healthcare.”
“In Enugu State, our focus is family planning and we are working with the community pharmacists. What we have done in Enugu is to conduct training and build capacity, train them on reporting and documentation. We trained them on injectibles and implants.”
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