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The National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Niger State, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), has trained religious leaders on ‘Faith for Life’, an initiative to promote maternal and child health practices during the era of COVID-19 pandemic.
Malam Yahaya Gbongbo, the State Director of NOA, said at a two-day capacity workshop for religious leaders across the 25 local government areas of the state, that the training was to keep abreast religious leaders on “Faith for Life, an initiative adopted by Nigerians to communicate health issues using religious platform.
Faith for Life Initiative is an adoption of a Kenyan strategy that uses Spiritual teachings to address issues and create awareness on maternal and child health survival and development, especially in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.
Gbongbo explained that the role of religious leaders was to help promote health issues such as infant and maternal health, child protection, and environmental sanitation using religious scriptures.
“Both Qur’an and the Bible are very rich in all these aspects and considering our mandates as an agency in communicating government programmes with the support of UNICEF, we believe religious leaders play vital roles as their opinions are respected by their followers, ” he said.
Also, Social and Behaviour Change Specialist, UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, Mrs. Adeola Olunloyo, disclosed that Faith for life was launched at the national level to work with the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Janaatu Nasril Islam (JAI) as religious umbrella.
She said the religious organizations were to help promote acceptance and uptake of maternal newborn and child health services across the country.
According to her, religious leaders were influential and powerful that have members and congregations that respect their instructions, hence the need to use them to promote women’s and children’s health.
“We have formed an alliance to use their platforms across different faiths to ensure that accurate timely information on positive health-seeking behavior is promoted while preaching to their members.
“The effort is to ensure that no woman loses her life due to any maternal health issues and no child is denied life-saving services that can enable the child to grow, survive and develop,” she said.
In their separate remarks, Pastor Raphael Okpwoye, Secretary of CAN in Niger, and Alhaji Abubakar Bosso, Head of JAI, Niger state Chapters, described the training as timely as it would help improve the health of families.
They promised to ensure that pastors and imams include health messages in their sermons and preachings to their congregation as well as ensure that parents prioritize the health of their family members as well as ensure that their family members were not at risk.
The Deputy Director, NOA and UNICEF Focal Person in Niger State, Malam Bala Musa, said one of the objectives of the training was to equip religious leaders with knowledge and skills to promote positive maternal and child health practices in households, communities and state levels.
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