Cross River State Health Implement New Strategy To Tackle Maternal And Child Mortality.

CRSG COMMITTED TO USING INFORMATICS TO TACKLE MATERNAL AND CHILD MORTALITY, AS STATE SET TO IMPLEMENT CHAMPS PROJECT

Cross River State Government have committed to the implementation of the CHAMPS project in the state. This commitment was made by the Honourable commissioner for health, Dr Janet Ekpenyong when the project partners of CHAMPS paid an advocacy visit to the Honourable Commissioner and her team to intimate the state about the project.
The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network is an ambitious global project that seeks to reduce childhood mortality around the world by identifying what exactly is killing children under five.

The team which was led by Prof Martin Meremikwu debriefed the Honourable Commissioner and an enlarged group of health professionals and workers of the state on the goal of the project, which is The CHAMPS Network using innovative approaches to generate data and share knowledge that improves understanding and prevention of maternal and child mortality.

He explained that CHAMPS is a global health surveillance program created to gather better data, faster, about how, where, and why children are getting sick and dying.

Speaking further a member of the group Associate Prof Dr.Mrs Oku speaking on behalf the programme representative Prof.Mrs. Oyo Ita added that the sole goal of the project is to reduce mortality by building knowledge through accurate, timely, and reliable data on the causes of death and sickness in children under five years U-5. She stated that CHAMPS is a collaborative, multisector effort led by The Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) which gets funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who upon consideration of their interventions in Nigeria chose Cross River State as one of the states to be beneficiaries.

She also noted that it was expedient that the team paid her first call to the state ministry of health who are the drivers and executioners of health policies in state hence the need for the advocacy visits before setting out for project execution at the field.

Responding, the Honourable commissioner for health, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong thanked the CHAMPS project team for finding the state worthy of selection as pilots in this initiative. She stated that the menacing toll of child mortality and how it can be prevented in the state has been a worrisome and reccurent decimal that surely requires prompt attention in Cross River State.

Dr. Ekpenyong said that Nigeria has become the hub of Child mortality in the past and this gives rise to why it is of utmost importance to identify the most common causes of death for children U-5 in high-risk areas, improve the level of health and quality of life, help local health officials address these root problems earlier as a way to prevent unnecessary deaths. She noted that this critical research will help determine why so many children under five U-5 are dying in the state and in the country whilst proffering a lasting solution to curbing nay eradicating the ugly menace.

She however solicited with the group to reconsider their plans on the choices of Local Government Areas to be used as pilot to consist of a mix from the 3 senatorial district so as to ensure an even spread across to achieve the much needed coverage and results.

The permanent Secretary of the ministry Dr.Pauline Ebute who was full of praise for the organisation welcomed them to the state and noted that this visit was timely as it will put an end to the queer believes and myths that exists amongst locals in the rural areas which often leads to this large indices of child birth and U-5 mortality.

The team however promised to keep liaising with the ministry in the course of their further engagements during their advocacies and execution of project goals to achieve the much envisaged results.

Kenneth Anam
SMOH,Calabar
24.05.2023