The Katsina State Government has partnered with the Society for Family Health to boost sexual and reproductive health services across its 34 Local Government Areas.
This effort, disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the Katsina State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Shamsuddeen Yahaya, aligns with the ongoing Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC) 2.0 project.
Mr. Yahaya, represented by Shema’u Kabir-Abba, the Director of Primary Health Care, highlighted this initiative during a recent three-day State Training of Trainers workshop.
Organized in Katsina, the workshop aimed to build capacities for empathy-based counseling and empowering women with counseling options that allow them to make informed decisions regarding family planning and reproductive health.
SFH, in collaboration with the state, officially launched the DISC 2.0 project to drive accessible healthcare solutions across Katsina’s rural and urban regions.
According to Mr. Yahaya, “This initiative focuses on strengthening healthcare delivery through the promotion of self-care solutions as part of a resilient health system, ensuring that families in the state, particularly women, have better access to health services.”
Aimed at empowering healthcare workers, the training provided Maternal and Child Health Coordinators across Katsina’s LGAs, as well as Healthy Child Spacing unit heads from secondary and tertiary institutions, with valuable skills in reproductive counseling.
“The training, which is considered a cornerstone of the project’s success, equipped the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Coordinators across the state. And also selected heads of Healthy Child Spacing units from secondary and tertiary health institutions, with the skills to guide women in making informed choices about healthy child spacing,” he said.
This three-day training, integrating theoretical and practical components, emphasized the importance of empathy and compassion, crucial for effective counseling in the sensitive area of reproductive health.
The project also included the training of 34 local Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) officers to refine their data collection and documentation abilities—a step towards addressing the state’s longstanding challenges in healthcare record-keeping.
“This is with a view to ensuring a more efficient documentation process for healthy child spacing services across the state,” added Mr. Yahaya.
He acknowledged that a significant challenge had been documentation, and praised the DISC 2.0 project’s foresight in prioritizing the training of M&E officers from the beginning.
“The coverage of this project is impressive, and I am confident that this training will significantly improve the quality of healthy child spacing services, particularly in our rural areas where these services are most needed,” he remarked.
The trained participants will now extend their newly acquired knowledge to over 500 service providers statewide, ultimately bringing the benefits of this self-care-focused approach to families, particularly those in rural communities.
“As a next step, the trained participants are expected to cascade the knowledge gained, to over 500 service providers in health facilities across the state, ensuring that the benefits of this innovative approach reach women and families at the grassroots level,” Yahaya stressed.
He concluded by expressing his gratitude to the Society for Family Health and the DISC 2.0 project for their commitment to improving reproductive health services in Katsina.
