The Nasarawa State traditional rulers and religious leaders have been enjoined to pay desirable attention to child and family health in order to tackle maternal and neonatal health complications and deaths in the country.

Chairman, Nasarawa State Council of Traditional Rulers, Alhaji Isa Mustapha Agwai 1, made the appeal during a media dialogue in child and family health.

Heassured that the State’s traditional council and religious institutions will remain committedto promoting the cause among their subjects.

The dialogue was organised by the Federation of Muslim Women Association Nigeria (FOMWAN) in collaboration with Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) under the aegis of Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) at the Emir’s Palace in Lafia, Nassarawa State.

Agwai 1, who is also the Emir of Lafia, while commending FOMWAN for demanding government’s accountability on their commitments to child and family health, describedtheir move as a brilliant initiative.

Speaking, the MadakinLafia, AlhajiIsiakaDauda, bemoaned the long-standing socio-cultural challenges confronting child and family health interventions.

Speaking at the dialogue, the Project Director, FOMWAN-PACFaH, Hajiya Farida Sada Yusuf, explained that PACFaHcoalition has been working assiduously with policy and decision makers toachieve its objective across eight focal states – Lagos, Oyo, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Nassarawa and FCT.

In a paper titled “PACFaH: A Roadmap to Achieving Effective Child and Family Health in Nigeria”, FOMWAN-PACFaH Programme Officer, Hajiya Adama Musa Kachalla, explained, nutrition contributes to nearly half of child deaths globally, amounting to more than three million yearly.

The Programme Officer urged the traditional and religious leaders to increase advocacy for the implementation of the National Strategic Plan of Action on Nutrition at every level, with emphasis on maternal and child nutrition in the state.

She noted that although up to 30 per cent of maternal deaths can be prevented through adequate access to and uptake of contraceptives, no fewer than 576 women out of every 100,000 live births die as a result of these pregnancies and childbirths. “This figure translates to 111 women and young girls dying daily or five women every hour.”

The representative of development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), Dr. Abdul Aziz Mashi, advocated for an increased domestic budget for RI and timely release of funds for vaccines procurement and establishment of vaccine intervention fund (VIF) to promote contributions from public and private sources.

Mashi added that childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea are leading killers of children under the age of five with over 1.5 million children die globally and more than 400,000 in Nigeria.

She called on the state’s traditional and religious institutions to advocate for adoption of Amoxicillin Dispersible tablet (DT) as the first line therapy (FLT) in the treatment guideline for childhood pneumonia toavert death of children of under-age five.

She further advocated for Amoxicillin Dispersible tablet to be included in the essential medicines List (EML) and the adoption of Zn/ORS as first line therapy for the treatment of childhood diarrhoea.

Mash also demanded for creation of a specific budget line for Amoxicillin DT/Zn/ORS in the Ministry of Finance; and increase (funding, procurement and distribution) of the child health commodities-Amoxicillin DT & Zn/ORS co-packed.

The Chairperson, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Mrs. Lydia Attah, observed that Christianity is not against child and family health and called on the State’s Christian leaders to support the on-going advocacy on child and family health in the state.