Cross River State has been selected as the only state in the Federation to benefit from project C. U. R. E. aimed at maternal and child health intervention. This was disclosed yesterday by USAID Senior programme manager, Dr Joseph Mongeham along side Pathfinder International country representative, Dr Farouk Jega during advocacy visit at Ministry of Health headquarters, Calabar.
Cross River Commissioner for Health, Dr Inyang Asibong lauded USAID, Pathfinder international for their partnership in drawing project C. U. R. E. intervention to Cross River State on maternal and child health..
Commissioner Asibong expressed delight in the choice of the state as the only one in the country to benefit from this partnership between USAID, Pathfinder international in securing project C. U. R. E. Intervention meant for saving mother and giving life to new born child.
Dr Asibong said ‘In the state, we continue to achieve significant stride in Maternal and child health due to consistent funding, effort and attention giving by His Excellency, Senator Prof Benedict Ayade to sustain results as a health priority in the global vision of development for 2030. Our health sector will continue to make progress and come out best in any selection, we have a robust data system to measure the coverage of evidence based intervention for reducing Maternal, newborn and child mortality which is needed to enhance services, improve health and monitor achievement. However more efforts are needed from us and partners to fully eradicate a wide range of diseases and manage our patients’.
Dr Betta Edu, DG, Primary Health Care Development Agency, who was also in the meeting said ‘Project C. U. R. E. Initiative is very interesting as it will fill the gap of equipment to work with and the need to ensure that people living in the remote parts of the state have access to health care facilities’. Dr Edu added that pregnant women and children already enjoy free medical care in the state and assured of Senator Prof Benedict Ayade passion for sustainable health care delivery for the citizenry towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Health in Cross River State.
Earlier the program Director, Project C. U. R. U. Amy Greene intimated that the equipment and materials for the implementation of the special program will be shipped into the state within reasonable time frame adding that the Donor agency and development partners had jointly assessed and determined the facilities for the project.
Mrs Greene assured that their equipment will be installed as soon as they arrive and sustainably maintained, stating that their program includes capacity building and Training of health and other relevant personnel on how to turn and maintain the equipment among other services.
Project C. U. R. E. is the largest provider of donated medical supplies and equipment to developing countries around the world, is ranked by forbes as one of the 20 most efficient large US charities.
Coco-bassey Esu is the PA to Cross River State Commissioner for Health on Media