Kaduna community in dire need of facilities, school
The Kurmin Kaduna community, though close to the urban centre, is in dire need of social amenities among others. From Christiana T. Alabi, Kaduna Kurmin Kaduna is a community located in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The community is about 25 kilometers away from the Kaduna Millennium City with its habitants predominantly farmers.
This community, Daily Trust on Sunday learnt, has been in existence for years but there has never been any health facility to cater for the health needs of the people. A Primary Health Care (PHC) is expected to be closest healthcare to residents but there is none in Kurmin Kaduna. Though, there exist vast lands for farming activities in the community, the people lack good access road and water or any other social amenity.
However, there is a government primary school in the community without a secondary school for further education. As a result, many children could not acquire secondary education while tertiary education is a mirage.
The lack of a health facility, it was gathered, has claimed many lives particularly that of women and children as people have to travel many kilometres to access health care.
It was gathered that the community once housed the popular Kawo market but was relocated due to the poor road network and the river separating the community from Rafingusa and other communities. According to residents of the area, construction of a solid bridge across the river could help solve the problem of access to the area.
Our reporter gathered from residents that a private clinic once operated in the community, complaining that apart from the exorbitant fees charged by operator, she was not always around to attend to their needs; hence, their cry for government to provide at least a primary health care centre.
According to Rural Health Information Hub formerly known as Rural Assistance Centre, access to healthcare services is critical for rural residents. It further stated that rural residents should be able to conveniently and confidently use services such as primary care, dental behavioral health, emergency and public health services.
According to a resident of the community, Aminu Yakubu, the distance from Kurmin Kaduna to Kaduna Millennium City is about 25 kilometres. He decried the bad state of roads leading while he stressed that the absence of a health centre is a challenge that has claimed lives especially of women and children.
“As it is, residents of this community travel a long distance to other communities like Rafinguza, Badarawa to access health facilities. Life has not been easy for women and children especially the pregnant women because they find it difficult to go for antenatal due to bad state of the roads and because we are surrounded by a river, our pregnant women have no option but to use canoe to town for ante - natal,” he said.
According to him, it has not been easy because many women have died as canoes have capsized as they cross the river on their way to the town. “In 2015, we lost four people including women. Same happened last year when we lost another four people including a pregnant woman. So, we need help,” Yakubu said.
Daily Trust on Sunday observed that because of the lack of health facility in the community and the distance to reach facilities in other communities, majority of women give birth at home without the assistance of any skilled birth attendant, thereby exposing them to risks.
In a chat with a nursing mother, Hafsat Falalu, she narrated how she goes for antenatal at Rafinguza either on motorcycle or canoe stressing that the community need a government hospital as a health facility will be expensive.
Similarly, another woman, Rakiya, lamented how some women gave birth at home and due to complications, die on the way on their way to far away hospitals.
“The difficulty is too much because the roads are bad. Even going to the market is a challenge because you either go on motorcycle or canoe and if you are not lucky, the canoe may capsize,” she said.
The village head, Malam Yakubu Abubakar, explained that the community has been in existence for years. “We have been here for decades, in fact, since the colonial era. I inherited the throne from my father, now I am the 11th village head. The major problem that has blocked us from development is the river that separated us and Kawo community which ordinarily would have been few a minutes’ drive.”
He said in addition to the call for establishment of a health centre and other social amenities, the village head appealed to the state government to construct a secondary school to meet the education need of their children.
The village head said if children must attend a secondary school, it means they must cross the river to neighbouring communities which is expensive and risky during rainy season.
However, efforts to reach the member representing Igabi West (APC) in the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani, failed as he could not be reached on phone.
But Kaduna State Government in an effort to take health care delivery closer to the people has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU), with General Electric Healthcare to modernize primary health centres and public hospitals. Governor Nasir El-Rufai had also in an interview said his administration is focusing on primary health care by the full implementation of Primary Healthcare Under One Roof, (PHCUOR). The focus, he said, includes a project to fully equip one primary health care centre in each of the 255 wards in the state and at least one General Hospital in each of the three Senatorial Districts of the state.
This means that more rural dwellers will have access to health care once the project of one PHC per ward is completed in the state and Kurmin Kaduna might just be lucky to get out of the woods.