Niyi Akande, Osogbo
A contraceptive provider in Nigeria, DKT International, has donated N24 million-worth of family planning kits to health care centres in Osun state.
The organisation made the donation on Tuesday in Osogbo, during a formal flag off of a five-day training programme for family planning service providers that would dispense the kits.
The regional manager of the organisation, Mrs Sarah Odeniran, who presented the items on behalf of the company, said the organisation was in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health to make available, especially to the rural women, methods of contraceptive at no cost, by so doing minimizing maternal morbidity and mortality rate in the state.
Odeniran further said the group was on a mission to ensure women in the state get the right contraceptive methods and prevent unwanted pregnancies and promote healthy living among them.
She said, “So far, we have trained over 360 health care workers, and we have donated over 134 million worth of IUDs to states across Nigeria. We discovered that the reason for low uptake is lack of trained providers and lack of commodities.
“Donating N24 million worth of IUDs to a state means that we want women in Osun to have access to possible contraceptive options at no cost.
“We are trying to address the issue regarding lack of trained providers to ensure that when a client gets to the facility, they are able to counsel them adequately on the available contraceptive option, to increase uptake and acceptability across all health care centres in the country, thereby increasing the number of women who would opt for family planning and in other to reduce maternal mortality rate in the country.”
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Osun Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Oluwole Fabiyi, who recieved the kits on behalf of the state government, reiterated the importance of strategic family planning as a save medium to ensuring healthy living of individuals, families and the nation.
While assuring of the state government’s readiness to collaborate with implementing partners, the Board Secretary maintained that the partnership will afford the state the opportunity to contribute its quota in achieving the National Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) of 27% by 2030.
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