Caroline Chikezie and ONE Collaborate on Health

Dec 3rd, 2008 12:19 PM UTC
By Edith Jibunoh

On Monday, November 24th, ONE’s Africa office organized an advocacy visit to a hospital in Northern Nigeria, in a village called Kubwa, to draw media and public attention to maternal and child health issues in Nigeria. This visit was done in collaboration with Caroline Chikezie, a Nigerian born, Hollywood based actress who was visiting Abuja to present at the first MTV Africa Awards. Caroline starred in the UK series Footballers Wives before moving to the United States to work in the movie industry. One of her major recent appearances was in Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron.

Caroline was a brilliant spokesperson for the day and advocated for the media to focus on the challenges preventing progress in this area of healthcare, as well as policy that would influence change in Nigeria. Caroline was particularly alarmed by how little it cost to prevent the child and maternal related deaths that are commonplace in Africa and insisted she would take the campaign back to the United States and lobby for support from fellow actors and actresses, policy makers and philanthropists, who could collectively make a substantial difference to the continent.

Across the world, young children and pregnant women bear the brunt of failed health systems and Africa is disproportionately affected with a child mortality rate that is 20 times that of the United States, and a maternal mortality rate that is 65 times that of the United States. Nigeria’s maternal and child mortality rates are now among the worst in the world with approximately 136 women dying everyday because of child birth related complications, and 2300 children under five are lost everyday due to preventable diseases. 70% of the maternal deaths in Nigeria occur in the predominantly muslim north. In this part of the country, deeper poverty conditions exist and maternal and child health issues are further deepened by cultural practices of early marriage. As a result, young girls are less likely to get an education and are therefore incapable of understanding the need for early and preventive maternal care in the lead up to child birth.

The Kubwa hospital offered an opportunity to see progress as well as the lingering challenges. A PEPFAR funds recipient, the hospital is one of the few that offers completely free health care to pregnant women and has been doing so for the last year. The hospital administrator, Dr. Miri, informed the visitors that they had recorded zero maternal related deaths in their hospital in the last year. Despite this landmark success, the hospital was clearly overwhelmed. Approximately 120 new registrations from pregnant women are received at the hospital three days a week. There is insufficient bed space for the patients and as a result, new mothers are discharged within 6 hours of giving birth. Continuous access to drugs and skilled health workers is also of primary concern to the hospital management. We left the hospital struck by the dedication of all of the hospital staff we met and the overwhelming sense that just a little could make a substantial difference when applied efficiently.

Akin Jimoh, program coordinator of Development Communications, the recipient of the 2008 ONE Africa Award, participated in the hospital visit and provided the media with tips on how they could make maternal and child health stories headline grabbing news. By holding policy makers responsible for shortfalls in budgets that resulted in drug and worker shortages, and by translating the actions of the policy makers into lives lost or saved, the general public could start to demand action.

-Edith Jibunoh

TAGS: Nigeria, PEPFAR