A conglomerate of civil society under the aegis of Civil Society in Malaria Control immunization and Nutrition, ACCOMIN have intensified the moves in their combined fight against the dreaded malaria disease ravaging the ancient city of Kano.
The coalition led by ACCOMIN last Wednesday , during a media engagement session tasked the mass media to contribute to Nigeria’s goal of eliminating malaria by advocating for government ministries and agencies to scale-up community-centric initiatives in their programs.
The august session superintended by Kano state Programme Officer, ACCOMIN, , Sheriff Abubakar, appealed to donors to heighten their support to help increase community-centric initiatives.
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The participants at the end of the debated session at a one day meeting held at the council of Ulama conference hall located along Court road, Gyadi Gyadi, Kano urged the mass media not to relent in exercising their role in Nigeria’s fight against malaria.
The coalition further urged the media to help amplify the need for increased funding for malaria interventions by the government at all levels.
Sheriff disclosed that the grant is presently being implemented in the thirteen (13) GF supported states namely Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Kwara, Niger, Taraba, Gombe, Yobe, Adamawa, Ogun, Osun and Delta States.
He further disclosed that the project covers 8 LGA in Kano namely Gaya,Rano,Bunkure,DawakinKudu,Ungogo,Tofa,Danbatta and Gabasawa.
Sheriff said “As part of a national effort to address the challenges of Malaria in Nigeria, ACOMIN has been re-engaged by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) under the ongoing Global Fund (GF) Malaria Grant to continue implementing the civil society component, having successfully done this from 2019 to 2020.
He added that “the National Malaria Strategic Plan (2014 – 2020) presented a very determined plan to commence a transition from malaria control to malaria elimination. The initiatives that have been deployed to fight malaria in Nigeria include but are not limited to the provision of free Long-Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs), deployment of volunteers to carry out Interpersonal Communication at the grassroots level, provision of free malaria test kits and medicines at some health facilities and Community-led Monitoring to ensure accountability in malaria interventions.
Lamenting that “Despite all these, it is no longer news that Nigeria still has a long way to go to achieve control of this deadly disease due to certain challenges confronting malaria intervention.
In his words “Some of these challenges include but are not limited to the following, increased difficulty in accessing hard-to-reach communities due to insecurity ravaging many parts of the country, drug resistance by the malaria parasite, inadequate supply of IPT (SP) at most of the facilities.
“ inadequate toilet facilities in several health centres across the state, insufficient staff in almost all the facilities, insufficient LLIN at most of the facilities, iack of full support by our stakeholder when an issue is presented before them.
Our correspondent reports that , the community based organizations working on the project expressed their resolved to pursue the sustain increased ingenuity, flexibility tackling challenges by identifying and addressing the root cause of failed interventions; and enhanced accountability in the fight against malaria in the state
