Ahmad Alabira, Dutse
Traditional rulers through ‘Jakadan Lafiya’ programme are to monitor Pneumonia prevalence in Jigawa state by collecting data from health facilities located in both urban centres and hard to reach rural areas of the state.
This was revealed at a two day workshop organized by Save the Children International and GSK for state Actors in health sector to review the “National Integrated Pneumonia Control Strategy and Implementation Plan”held recently at the Manpower Development Institute (MDI) in Dutse, Jigawa state capital.
Speaking exclusively to our reporter, the Advocacy, Campaign and Policy Manager, Save the Children International, Mr Ifedilichukwu Ekene Innocent said the aim of the two day workshop was to review the national strategy and see how it can be domesticated in Jigawa state.
He said the reason for the workshop was to gather all stakeholders and look for what is unique for Jigawa state from the document, with a view to get state government adopt it and solve the problem of Pneumonia once and for all.
“Any document produce at the national level has to be domesticated at the state level. So we are working hard to see that all the states in the federation domesticate this document and implement it”, he explained.
“At the moment Lagos and Jigawa states are leading, but there are conversation going on with UNICEF, WHO and other partners to help other states to domesticate the strategy”.
According to him the state actors who attended the workshop include Primary healthcare agencies, Professional organizations, traditional rulers, Civil Society Organizations, Development agencies, Media and the Hospital Management Boards among others.
Also speaking, Emir of Dutse, Dr Nuhu Muhammadu Sunusi said Traditional leaders in the state had identified over 11,000 communities volunteers known as ‘Jakadun Lafiya’ that will help monitor the cases of Pneumonia and other child killer diseases in the state.
The Emir who was represented by the District Head of Aujara, Alhaji Aminu Dan Malam explained that the attitudes of some health workers in the state also need to be strengthen for effective service delivery.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had lunched the national strategy on the 27th January, 2020 to reduce the higher level of under five children mortality in the country caused by Pneumonia.
