NGO trains religious leaders, others on reproductive health right in Sokoto

The Creative Actors Initiative for Development (CRAID) has trained 230 religious leaders and heads of men groups on the promotion of sexual and reproductive health right services (SRHR) for rural women in Sokoto State.

A statement by Bello ShehuGwadabawa, the Project Coordinator of CRAID in Sokoto, said that the objective of the training was to promote access and uptake of the services in the state.

Sokoto State has an estimated population of 5.4 million with almost half been females and an average of seven births per woman.

According to the statement, the state has worst health indicators in the North-West zone.

“It is the 36th out of 37 in the country’s Reproductive Health Index and also has the lowest ANC service uptake at 17.4% compared to 98.2% in Osun State. Only 0.7% of married women use modern contraceptives.

“In 2019, only 90,589 pregnant women had Antenatal 4th Visit in the state, 70,874 deliveries by skilled birth attendants and 122,282 new family planning acceptors,” it said.

The goal of this project, it explained, was to ensure a 50% increase from baseline uptake of SRHR services among rural women in Sokoto State.

According to the statement, participants were drawn from the 23 local government areas and the activities were conducted in four clusters.

“The services discussed during the training were antenatal, postnatal, hospital delivery, family planning, rape and gender-based violence, early marriage among others.

“We also discussed how men and religious leaders could be mobilised to support SRHR in the State,” it added.

The statement also noted that the training was part of activities outlined to achieve the goal of GAME CHANGER Project, implemented by CRAID and funded by AMPLIFYCHANGE.