A Non-Governmental Organisation, known as Integrated Health Programme, has donated medical equipment, worth millions of naira, to the Ebonyi Government.

The state Coordinator of the NGO, Dr Gladys Olisaeke, presented the items on Friday, when she led members of the group on a courtesy visit to the Commissioner for Health, Dr Daniel Umezurike, in Abakaliki.

Olisaeke said the equipment would be used for the training of health officers in the areas of family planning, maternal and child care.

She also said the items would be distributed to the 198 health facilities designated for the training.
She said the project was being funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

Olisaeke said that records show that maternal, child mortality and morbidity were higher in Ebonyi compared to other states in the South-East.

“The USAID-sponsored IHP is concentrating on the state because of the high statistics of maternal, child mortality and morbidly records here.
“When you compare the statistics for women, children and adolescents, it is not as good as other states.

“So, this is why we are concentrating our work here. This is because we have USAID funding six projects on health,” she said.

Olisaeke said the IHP-sponsored USAID project would focus on maternal, new born health, reproductive health, family planning and child health..

She said that these areas fell under the integrated management of childhood illnesses, routine immunization and nutrition.

“The books they will be using in the training are here and they can also refer to those manuals after the training, when they are doing their work and they somehow need reminder.

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“We have engaged three local organisations to lead the rollout of these trainings in the health facilities.

“We have the orchard. We have life helpers initiave leading the training for child health.

“And the Society for Obstetrics and Gynecologists in Nigeria, Ebonyi chapter, are leading the maternal and newborn training in all those facilities we have mentioned,” Olisaeke said.

Responding, Umezurike thanked USAID and IHP for the donations and promised that the equipment would be properly deployed to serve their objective.

He gave an assurance that the state would ensure adequate security for the equipment and success of the training.