The Katsina State government have employed not fewer than 52 nurses and midwives and graduates of the Foundation Year Programme, FYP under Women for Health, W4H project to address shortage of female health workers in health facilities as well as address infant and maternal mortality in the state particularly in the rural communities.
The W4H National Programme Manager, Dr. Fatima Adamu, disclosed this during the graduation of a set of 107 students of the Foundation Year Programme, FYP, in the state.
Dr. Adamu called for automatic employment of the beneficiaries under the project in the state in order to bridge the shortage of health workers gap and meet the health demands of women and children in the rural areas.
W4H programme is an initiative funded by the UK-Department of International Development targeted to recruits young women, single and married from rural areas and helps them to get professional training in health related courses to return to their communities as qualified health workers – where they can have the greatest impact on maternal, infant and child mortality and act as role models and champions.
Delivering his speech, Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State said the appointments of beneficiaries of the programme will be tired down to clinics in their communities.
Masari expressed worry over attitude of some elites and health workers who influence to serve in the urban and semi urban areas leaving people in the rural communities to suffer while stressing the need for the programme to be extended to the hard to reach areas and rural communities to meet the health demands of populace.
Earlier, the Katsina State Chairman, FYP, Suleiman Saulawa said the programme have started yielding positive results and helping to reduce the needless death (maternal and child mortality) among women and children in the rural communities.
Meanwhile, the Emir of Katsina, Dr. Abdulmumini Kabir Usman, called on the graduands who were employed to persevere, remain committed to selfless service to humanity and be God fearing while discharging their duties.
The W4H programme is a 5-years programme implemented in 5 Northern States (Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara and Yobe) designed to address the shortage of female health workers in Northern Nigeria especially rural communities and reduce Infant and maternal mortality which is prevalent in the Northern states.
