The Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Agency in conjunction with the Restoration of the Dignity of Womanhood (ROWDOW) on Thursday trained health workers in the state on the administration of Vitamin A, Albendazole, and Micronutrients to nursing mothers and children in the state.
Also, the Woman Group gave 300 nursing mothers gifts such as baby diapers, detergents, and food items for regularly taking Vitamin supplements.
The Chief Executive Officer of ROTDOW, Mrs Olabisi Omolona said the partnership of her organization with Vitamin A to transform the lives of mothers and children with a consistent supply of essential nutrients had yielded good results.
Mrs Omolona stated that a regular supply of life-saving commodities helped strengthen the state’s routine immunization program as well as provide support during Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Week in the state.
She said the Vitamin interventions have helped to reduce maternal mortality rates, increase antenatal clinic attendance, decline reliance on traditional birth attendants as well, and improve the local economy from the donated commodities worth millions of naira.
She said, “We started partnering with Vitamins Angels in 2018, and since then, they have been supplying us with drugs we gave to children in Ondo State.
“We have also been training health workers on how to administer the drugs.”
The state Deputy Director, Nutrition, Dr. Kike Adejuwon, said the training and retraining of health workers were necessary to make them abreast of discoveries.
Adejuwon said “It is good to train and retrain because there is always a new thing. There are new things that they don’t know.
“The vitamins help keep eyesight good and build immunity in children. When a child is dewormed, the body will be able to develop, and the child will grow well.”
The Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Deaconess Lola Fagbemi, who was represented by Mr. Ibukun Akindele, thanked ROTDOW for ensuring maternal and child health.
She said the government remained committed to improved health care for women and children in the state.
Representatives of Vitamin Angels, Oluwatoyin Adebayor, said the supply of Vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets commodities, and Multiple Micronutrient supplements aimed to improve maternal health outcomes and nutrition outcomes for children.
