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NGO advises couples to harness benefits of child spacing

NGO advises couples to harness benefits of child spacing

By Mohammmed Ahmed Kaigama
Spacing
Bauchi, Oct. 17, 2019 (NAN) The Challenge Initiative (TCI), an NGO, has advised couples to harness the benefits of child spacing for effective planned parenthood and child development.
The Bauchi State Coordinator of TCI, Mrs Rabi Ekele, gave the advice at the sensitisation programme on maternal and child mortality for community leaders in Bauchi on Wednesday.
Ekele said child spacing was hugely beneficial to effective growth of children and future planning.
The TCI coordinator said that longer birth intervals reduced the chances of low birth weight, saying “the mother will have time to recover physically after child birth”.
According to her, allowing time before another pregnancy enables the woman to give proper attention to the children.
“Birth spacing benefits the family hugely; it can protect the child and the mother against the danger of loss of life.
“It improves the health of the child and that of the mother, it promotes family health and happiness,” she said.
Ekele commended a Bauchi-based drama group (Yanke Yanke) for its use of theatre in sensitising communities on the advantages of child birth spacing.
Alhaji Auwal Jatau, the state Commissioner for Health, described the event as `educative and highly informative’.
“Child spacing is an important aspect of family and parenthood planning, it reduces infant and maternal mortality rate,” he said.
The commissioner urged traditional and religious institutions in the state to join the crusade on effective child spacing.
“The involvement of these institutions will deepen the spread of this message to the grassroots,” he said.
The District Head of Triun Village, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammmed, lauded the organisers of the programme, describing it as `very timely and helpful’. (NAN)
MAK/AZU/MST
Edited by Azubuike Okeh/Muhammad Suleiman Tola

Health

HIV couples give birth to 72 negative babies in Bauchi 

HIV couples give birth to 72 negative babies in Bauchi
By Mohammed Ahmed Kaigama
Couples
Bauchi, Dec. 2, 2018 (NAN) Dr Muhammad Alkali, the Chairman, Bauchi State Agency for the Control HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Leprosy And Malaria (BACATMA), says some HIV positive couples has given birth to 72 negative and healthy babies in the state.
Alkali disclosed this at a news conference to mark the 2018 World AIDS Day celebration in Bauchi on Sunday.
“Around 156 HIV couples in the state have kicked the dreaded infection in the womb with medical interventions.
“The 72 babies of HIV-positive couples have delivered them healthy and negative of HIV,” Alkali said.
According to him, since the establishment of the agency in 2008, it organised and supported matched making marriages of 156 couples resulting in the delivery of 72 babies tested negative.
He said the agency also procured and distributed 120,000 units of HIV rapid test kits to 323 health facilities to strengthen prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus.
Alkali said the agency is supporting HIV/AIDS victims with food stuff of varying functions in the body to encourage the people living with HIV.
The state Chairman of Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Malam Usman Abubakar, commended the agency for helping to organise the marriage of couples living with HIV/AIDS in the state.
Abubakar noted that the state government had spent about N3.8 million on the project by paying between N20,000 and N30,000 as bride price for each couple who got married during the period.
“The government supported and organised marriages that had brought our members closed to people and government which impacted positively and encourage the impressive number of babies that tested negative to the HIV virus,” he said. (NAN)
MAK/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola

Health

Divorce: Don advocates spiritual guidance for intending couples

Divorce: Don advocates spiritual guidance for intending couples
By Ahmed Ubandoma
Guidance
Abuja, May 26, 2018 (NAN) An Islamic scholar, Prof. Salisu Shehu of Bayero University, Kano, has advocated for stronger spiritual guidance for couples to check the increasing rate of divorce in Nigeria.
Shehu made this call on Saturday night at the 2018 annual Ramadan lecture hosted by the wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The theme of the 2018 lecture was “Endurance in marriage: Challenges for mutual benefit – An Islamic perspective’’.
He admonished the participants to always seek for moral guidance before engaging into marriage contract.
Shehu who decried the rate of divorce, said the only way to address the problem was for the intending couples to always seek for God’s guidance before marriage.
“Impatience and ignorance of religious obligations is one of the reasons militating against the success of many marriages in our society.
“Today, divorce has caused many social problems to our children, especially children of broken homes are expose to drug abuse, child labour and trafficking,’’ he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Shehu Galadanchi, said the best way to address marital problems was for the couples to always tolerate one another.
Galadanchi said tolerance was key to any successful marriage.
He therefore commended the wife of the president for organising the enlightenment programme for Nigerians to understand their marital rights and obligations.
In his goodwill message, Retired Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau, the Minister of Interior, also lauded the efforts of Mrs Buhari for improving the life and physical wellbeing of women and children in Nigeria.
He said the Federal Government has put in place mechanism for the sustainable provision of school feeding programme for school children in the country.
Dambazzau prayed for the success of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in its bid to tackle security challenges and corruption in Nigeria.
Mrs Buhari, represented by the former Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Aisha Dukku, promised to sustain her humanitarian support to less privileged Nigerians and solicited for collaboration to succeed. (NAN)
AMU/MST
Edited by Muhammad Suleiman Tola