Malaria Action Program For State, MAPS yesterday at the pearl ball of Transcorp Hotels held “the end of project dissemination event to mark the end of the MAPS project funded by United States President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) USAID and implemented by FHI360, Malaria Consortium and Health Partners International.
PMI supports the Government of Nigeria to increase provision of Long lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) and preventive anti malarial (Sulphadoxine pyrimethane) for use during pregnancy amongs other deliverables.
Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ivara Ejemot Esu, who represented
the Cross River State Governor, Sen. Ben Ayade said that he was pleased to be part of this significant occasion which marked the malaria action program for states end of project report dissemination in Cross River State. He noted that this five year program which was designed as part of the President’s Malaria Initiative, had the sole aim of increasing quality access and uptake of malaria control intervention in a selected pilot states in Nigeria including Cross River State. According to him the intervention covered the 18 local government areas of the state and led to an increase in the use of long-lasting insecticidal nets, improvements in malaria diagnosis, capacity building of state and local government staff, and enhanced management of malaria data at both the state and national levels.
“I want to express the appreciation of the
government and people of Cross River State to all donors and partners including the Federal Ministry of Health, for selecting Cross River State as one of the pilots for the rollout of the program in Nigeria”. He eulogized the effort of the Chief of Party-MAPS, the State Coordinator of the malaria action program and the state Malaria Elimination Program in the CRS primary health care development Agency.
Speaking earlier, Pharm. Oluwole Adeusi, Chief of Party, MAPS Nigeria said PMI through USAID funded the MAPS project to increase the quality, access, and uptake of malaria control intervention in Nigeria through the scale-up proven interventions, the strengthened program management and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity at the state, and local government levels in line with the National Malaria Strategic Plan. “On behalf of MAPS, I am confident and proud to declare that the overall goal to scale up usage and coverage of life-saving malaria interventions in CRS has been largely achieved. We look forward to partnering with the state again in the foreseeable future”.
The Director General of CRSPHCDA, Dr Betta Edu during her welcome address said the program has impacted positively on the life of many Cross Riverians. She said MAPS has been able to achieved a lot in CRS with the support of th state government and other partners.
She stated that MAPS has been able to carried out over 1.7 million distribution of LLIN’s and mRDT, capacity building for health workers and supplies of antimalaria drugs in health facilities and communities across the state. She went further to state that the wife of the Governor, Her Excellency, Dr Linda Ayade through her pet project Mediatrix Development Foundation has been embarking on Hunt Malaria Initiative were she hs established Hunt Malaria Initiative Club in over 40 schools to sensitize and educate the students on how to prevent the disease. She noted that as part of palliatives for the students LLIN’s is distributed to students across the hostels.
Finally Dr Edu noted that the State Health team led by Hon. Commissioner of Health, Dr Inyang Asibong who was unavoidably absent at the beginning due to national issues in Abuja is very happy with the records achieved by MAPS so far while also applauding the CRSG for their support through counterpart funding. She tasked MAPS to consider CRS in their next phase as the fight to eliminate malaria in Nigeria has not yet been won.
Mrs Rose Nyambi, State coordinator of MAPS in Cross River State listed out their successes in collaboration with other stakeholders and partners in CRS.
” Over 1.7 million LLINs distributed during mass campaigns, 3200 LLINs distributed to school children in 18 primary schools in Calabar Municipal, 3617 health workers trained in various intervention, 560 community care givers and 565 CVs trained on community awareness and referral, worked with SMEP to implement a system for malaria microscopy accreditation and EQA.
The high point of the event was the presentation of an award through the Deputy Governor, to the wife of the governor, Dr. Mrs. Linda Ayade, who
was represented by the wife of the Deputy
Governor, Mrs. Omotunde Ivara Esu as the state malaria ambassador for her commitment to ensure a malaria-free Cross River state.
Dr. Iwara Iwara, Director Community Health/Program Manager, Rollback Malaria; Hon. John Ulafor, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs; Hon. Francis Etta, Commissioner for International Donor Cooperation, Mr Goddy Eta, Commissioner of Education and representatives of WHO, SFH, SIDHAS, ISMO, JSI/DELIVER were present to grace the occassion. The commissioner for health Dr. Inyang Asibong who later joined the event, presented some awards and certificates to deserving awardees.