Nigeria's Leading Newspaper Features MCHIP's Work in Northern Nigeria

MCHIP's Prof. Emmanuel O. Otolorin, Nigeria Country Director, was recently interviewed by The Guardian, one of the country's leading newspapers, on the organization's donation of  hospital equipment and its programs to help reduce maternal and newborn deaths in Kano state. In discussing MCHIP's efforts to build capacity of health workers and strengthen health systems, Otolorin told The Guardian:
 
“On average, we have trained about 600 healthcare workers per annum for the past four years. What is most encouraging is that when you look at the results, you would find that maternal mortality in Kano has gone down tremendously.
 
“From the statistics at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, maternal mortality ratio has dropped from over 2,000 to 900 in three years, which means that less people are dying because the quality of care has improved and this is the objective of the programme. All our community mobilization effort and facility equipment is designed to reduce the number of women and children dying from childbirth.”
 
Otolorin went on to say, “Over the last four years, we have been able to support the state government to build capacity building for healthcare workers in 10 of the 44 councils of the state and we know that this is something that is unsustainable in Kano forever. We think it is better to strengthen the schools of midwifery and nursing so that they can improve the training of their students to be better equipped.
 
“With this, we don’t have to keep training people in basic emergency obstetrics and newborn care. The use of the model helps to build confidence and reduce the risk to patients, which is what motivated us to donate these equipment to the schools.”