2 million women get aid from Britain
The UK’s International Development
Minister, Stephen O’Brien has announced that its government will double
the coverage of existing project across four northern states in
Northern Nigeria to improve the health of two million women of child
bearing age.
Mr Brien made this known in Jigawa on
Thursday saying “I am proud to announce this expansion of the UK’s
support to maternal and child health in Northern Nigeria. In this visit
I’m seeing with my own eyes the challenge, but also the success of our
support in saving lives. We must all continue to work together to bring
on these encouraging results – and there is a lot more that needs to be
done” he said.
According to the British High
Commission, the country’s development agency; DFID, support for routine
immunisation in four states in Northern Nigeria has seen the number of
children fully immunised double from less than 5% to nearly 10%. It
also raised the proportion of children vaccinated against polio from
14% to 38% leading to a 98% case reduction in polio in the past year.
It’s noted that DFID (with additional funding from the Norwegian
government) is working with state agencies to improve maternal and
child health services, and making these services more accountable by
involving communities and neighbourhoods.
Leave a Reply