By Ozumi Abdul
A non-governmental organization under the aegis of Resilient Sustainable System for Health (RSSSH) has charged people living in various communities in Kano state to start taking full ownership and responsibility for projects in their implemented in their neighborhoods.
The organization while hosting other stakeholders and the media in a round table discussion highlighted the success stories and achievements of the project in the outgoing year particularly from August to December.
The State Program Coordinator, and Acting State Program Officer, RSSH/C19RM, Comrade Nuhu Tela said one of the major reasons for the event is to highlight the success stories and achievements as well as discuss some of the challenges encountered so that solutions can be proffered.
Comrade Tela noted that there are 15 implementing CBOs across 5 project locations in Kano Municipal, Kumbotsi, Tarauni, Gwale, and Nasarawa Local Government Areas.
These CBOs have been conducting Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with community members as well as client exit interviews with people who had contracted HIV infection, tuberculosis, malaria, or Covid 19 to ascertain their level of satisfaction with the services rendered, he added.
Also speaking, the outgoing State Program Officer, Zahraddeen Ahmad noted that certain steps are taken to help establish some gaps in service rendered and in turn increase advocacy and orientations based on the gap found in the FGD and client exit interview.
He expressed delights that as a result of such interviews and FGDs, so many successes have been achieved, such as the procurement of a 300kv generator at Gwale, the provision of insecticide by Gwale local government, and the renovation of toilets.
He noted that there are also state advocacy teams that take cases beyond the community level in search of appropriate agencies, or government parastatals to help in solving certain challenges.
Ahmad enumerated such challenges as inadequate staff in some of the facilities, and a lack of HIV testing kits in some of the facilities.
He enjoins the community to take over ownership of all the challenges identified in their neighborhood without solely relying on the government.
