The Faith and Cultural Champions project has equipped couples in six council areas of Kaduna with communication skills to promote open dialogue and joint decision-making.

The community dialogue and confidence-building session is being organised by the Ummulkhairi Foundation under the FCC Project in Panbeguwa town, Kubau LGA.

The programme brought together couples, traditional rulers, religious leaders, health workers and transport union representatives to strengthen communication between husbands and wives, address fears of criticism and promote informed decisions on pregnancy, childbirth, birth spacing and emergency transport planning.

Speaking at the event on Thursday, the founder of Ummulkhairi Foundation, Maryam Sani, said the initiative sought to encourage pregnant women to register early for antenatal care, deliver in health facilities and receive postnatal care.

She said regular hospital visits enabled health workers to detect complications early and provide timely interventions for the safety of mothers and their babies.

Ms Sani appealed to traditional rulers, commercial motorcycle operators and other transport providers to support pregnant women by ensuring prompt transportation to health facilities during emergencies. 

She said community collaboration would help reduce delays in accessing skilled healthcare and ultimately save lives.

The monitoring and evaluation assistant for Kubau LGA, Muhammad Murtala, described the FCC initiative as a pilot learning project being implemented for the first time in Nigeria.

He said the project was currently being implemented in six LGAs selected across Kaduna State’s three senatorial districts to test community-based approaches to improving maternal and newborn health before possible statewide expansion.

According to him, the selected LGAs include Kubau and Zaria in the Kaduna North senatorial district, Jama’a and Kagarko in the Kaduna South Senatorial District, and Birnin Gwari and Chikun in the Kaduna Central senatorial district.

Mr Murtala said the project initially saw low attendance, particularly among men, as many community members expected financial incentives or were engaged in farming and business activities.

He, however, said sustained engagement with traditional and religious leaders had significantly improved participation and increased male involvement in the dialogue sessions.

The M&E assistant said that although encouraging participants to seek healthcare at hospitals remained a challenge, the project was already yielding positive results.

He cited a health facility that recorded an increase in antenatal care attendance from 50 pregnant women in May to 75 in June, attributing the improvement to sustained community mobilisation and awareness campaigns under the FCC Project.

He expressed confidence that lessons from the pilot phase would support expanding the initiative to other parts of Kaduna State.

(NAN)