Yesterday, the wife of the Senate-President, Her Excellency Mrs. Toyin Saraki received a courtesy call and goodwill visit from the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria (WRAN) board, of which she has been the Chair since 2012. The visit led by Deputy Chair, Professor Benjamin Anyere – Director of HERFON, and Mr Tonte Ibraye – National Coordinator and CEO of White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, presented the report and minutes of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the WRAN.
As a champion of White Ribbon Alliance Global, supporter of WRAN since 2010 and recently named Maternal Health Hero by Social Good Moms (a powerful global coalition of 3000+ bloggers), Her Excellency Mrs Saraki has worked tirelessly to not only reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality indices in Nigeria, but to improve the quality of Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) that every woman in every region of this country and across the African continent receives.
During the goodwill visit today, Mrs Saraki commended the work of the WRAN and expressed her delight at the RMC training that has been given to midwives, doctors, and nurses in Kwara State. Having advocated for the Kwara State Safe Maternity Services Act in 2010, which lay the legislative foundations for raising the standards of all medical facilities in the state that provide maternity care, she expressed her joy that RMC will now be delivered in all newborn deliveries in Kwara.
As the former First Lady of Kwara State, Mrs Saraki holds the state closely to her heart. Indeed, Kwara is central to WBFA’s frontline programmes. Earlier this year, the WBFA in partnership with Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) brought global innovations in emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC) back home to Kwara. The ‘skills and drills’ training package for EmONC is an innovative programme that has the potential to reduce maternal mortality by up to 15% and still birth rates by up to 20% in Kwara. The programme seeks to ensure the improved quality and availability of skilled birth attendants (SBA) and emergency obstetric care and early newborn care (EmONC), with a measurable increase in knowledge and skills of healthcare providers.
In support of RMC and the work of the White Ribbon Alliance globally, WBFA Felicity Ukoko, WBFA’s Head of Programmes and Advocacy spoke at the first Human Rights in Childbirth Africa Summit today in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her speech explored solutions for introducing RMC in healthcare facilities, drawing on her own experience as a midwife and interventions developed by the WBFA – including the Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Child Personal Health Record (PHR).
The visit today from WRAN was one of many goodwill and courtesy visits to Mrs Saraki this week. Visitors and well-wishers have included workers from the Office of the Senate-President, the Wife of the Governor and wife of Deputy Governor of Kwara State, Senators of the NASS, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, and notably, a UK delegation led by former British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Sir Richard Gozney. In his visit, Sir Richard Gozney commended Mrs Saraki for the achievements of her Foundation, encouraging her to maintain it’s sustained focus towards reducing maternal newborn and child mortality.
Signed: Communications