The JHPIEGO, an affiliate of John Hopkins University, United States, says that it has spent nothing less than one million U.S. dollars in fighting malaria among women in Ondo State in the last three years.
The JHPIEGO’s Country Director, Dr Adetiloye Oniyire, stated this on Thursday in Akure at the rounding-off of the organisation’s programme tagged: “Transforming Intermittent Preventive Treatment for Optimal Pregnancy (TIPTOP)”.
He said it was pertinent to note that over four million dollars was spent in Nigeria and out of it, one million dollars was spent in Ondo State.
Oniyire stated that the project called TIPTOP was to support women to have access to malaria treatments and drugs and it was implemented in three states including Niger, Ebonyi and Ondo.
“It is a three-year project and we are winding up now,” he said.
Oniyire noted that in the course of the project, the organisation renovated the Iwoye Basic Health Centre in Akure as well as renovated and equipped a mini laboratory at the Arakale Comprehensive Health Centre, Akure.
According to him, the TIPTOP also facilitates the maximum utilisation of maternal data record booklets, integrated health data management and others.
The country director tasked the state’s Ministry of Health to reach out to partners that could help the government achieve its goals in the sector and making the state healthy.
He promised that JHPIEGO would start another programme in April by providing qualitative family planning services to women.
In his speech, Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State noted that the overall aim of the project was to ensure that mothers and children are healthy, during and after delivery, thus reducing maternal and child mortality in the state.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government ( SSG), Mrs Oladunni Odu, the governor said that the TIPTOP project had helped to build the capacity of health workers as well as the people of the state.
He added that the state had continued to experience low-birth-weight babies and rapid reduction of malaria infection among pregnant women.
According to the governor, the activities of JHPIEGO has built a stronger health care system in tandem with Item 5 of the Redeemed Agenda of the state government.
The governor assured that the legacies of the project would be sustained, while thanking JHPIEGO and other stakeholders including professional health workers in the state for their support towards the success of the project.
Similarly, the Ondo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, appreciated JHPIEGO for its positive impacts in the state, describing its project as a very huge one.
According to Ajaka, malaria is a great burden in Nigeria and indeed in Africa.
He added that malaria was responsible for one out of 10 deaths in the state and three out of 10 deaths in pregnant women.
According to him, malaria causes three out of 10 admissions in hospitals in Nigeria.
The commissioner commended the JHPIEGO for choosing the state to be one of the beneficiaries from the TIPTOP project.
The Permanent Secretary of the state’s Ministry of Health, Mrs Folukemi Aladenola, lauded the JHPIEGO’s project, TIPTOP, in the state, describing it as impactful and immense.
Aladenola promised that the state would consolidate on the gains of the project and improve in any area that the state had lacked.
According to her, the state will continue to work with the organisation in moving the sector forward and for betterment of the state.
Also, Dr Francis Akanbiemu, the Permanent Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), showed his gratitude to the organisation for the great intervention in the state and for its support to the agency.
Akanbiemu noted that people of the state had benefitted directly from the project, saying that its effects were massive.
He said that the state would sustain the JHPIEGO’s projects, which he described as holistic and universal.
Mrs Olamide Falana, the Special Adviser on Gender to the State Governor, said that the intervention had worked positively in the state.
Falana stated that the TPTOP project would strengthen health sector and the community system in the state.
Dr Dele David, a representative of the World Health Organisation ( WHO) in the state, asked the state government to seek more partners to transform the sector and in making people’s lives better.
