Isiyaku Ahmed
In an effort to reduce the cases of gender-based violence (GBV) in Kano state, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with Plan Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN), has trained 30 head of facilities in Tarauni and Nassarawa Local government areas (LGAs) of Kano on how to use andriod phone to get improve access to health services in their respective communities.
It also launched a USSD code tagged “Text4life” to address the challenges of GBV, pregnancy complications, COVID-19 cases, child sickness and other health issues.
Each of the head of facilities was given an android phone with the text4life application. They Android phones will allow them access to text messages from users who require health assistance.
Also, 50 community members including traditional, religious, women and youth leaders were sensitized and trained on how best to tackle the rising cases or gender-based violence, family planning, covid-19 cases and other health complications at the grassroot level.
Kano State PPFN Project officer, Adamu Garba Shittu explains how the USSD code works;
“Any person wishing to send complaint on any of the identified issues should dial *347*161# on his mobile phone,” adding that the code titled ‘text4life’ was to make access to health facilities easier to people.
“It is just like USSD that we use for our bank. No money attached. You don’t need any amount of money to access it. All what you need is to dial the number, register yourself. Send complain on gender-based violence, pregnancy complications and other health issues
“Each one you choose, I as the state project officer will get the message and the health facility that we gave the android phone will get the message and it will alert civil society organizations (CSOs) on the platform too.
“So far, we have 16 facilities in Nassarawa and 14 in Tarauni LGA. We provided these facilities with personal protective equipment and all the training the require.
“Recently, under the project, we had distributed a lot of materials and we are going to distribute mats, wrappers, slippers, dignity kits, sanitary pads, buckets, birth kits to help people get access to reproductive health services at grass root levels,” he said.
The training would improve health support by heads of facilities commitment and engagement to their communities.
An action plan with commitments on how to sensitize community members and implement the project at grass root level was produce at the end of the training in both LGAs.
Adamu said the action plan by the community members in the two LGAs would enhance the knowledge of the participants towards addressing their community health challenges.
