Media practitioner in Taraba State have been urged to go the extra mile to turn out key messages that will assist in promoting and supporting the health and well-being of Tarabans and Nigerians.
The call was made by the Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency (TAPHCDA), through a statement from its Executive Secretary, Alhaji Aminu Hassan Jauro, during the quarterly review meeting of the activities of its Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Committee organised by The Challenges Initiative (TCI) in Jalingo recently.
Jauro called the presence of the TCI in the state as a “blessing” and called on media practitioners to tread extra legitimate miles to bring out key messages that would go a long way to support the “health and well-being of our people”.
Also, Jauro encouraged health educators in all the 16 local government councils of the state to be up and doing by reaching out to communities in their councils with family planning and childbirth spacing messages, as well as other integrated health messages.
Describing the health educators as the “mouthpiece of the agency and the local governments,” Jauro underlined the need for the people to take advantage of the services presently being rendered by the TCI, especially as regards family planning and childbirth spacing, as both can never be “over-emphasised”.
Jauro said he was elated by the decision of the TCI to train no fewer than 75 social mobilisers on mobilisation best practices, while reiterating the determination of the state Ministry of Health to keep up with its effort in taking health services to rural communities, irrespective of difficult terrains through the agency.
He further beckoned on the leadership of the TCI to endeavour to scale-up its services to local government councils not yet captured in its activities, stating that “partnering with TCI is, indeed, a great blessing to us as an agency and as a state”.
The State Programme Coordinator, TCI, Dr. Othman Sariki, who in turn handed over the trained social mobilisers to the state government, said the mobilisers were trained on global best practices on mobilisation which, according to him, would assist in addressing the various health challenges bedevilling rural areas.
Demand Generation Officer, TCI, Victoria Mohammed, said the mobilisers “are to help members of the community adopt positive health behaviours on health interventions, due to the integrated demand generation strategy practiced in the state.”
