Residents of Tudun Wada, a semi-urban community ensconced in the heart of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) were pleasantly surprised over the weekend when officials of PeachAid Medical Initiative (PMI) paid them a memorable visit where free birthing kits, mosquito nets and drugs were distributed to women and children. Aljazirahnews was there.

By Tosin Omoniyi

A rugged journey into Tudun Wada

The road to Tudun Wada is certainly not a smooth ride but the tenacity and focus of the group of volunteers of PeachAid Medical Initiative (PMI) more than made up for the arduous journey as they patiently drove down to the semi-urban community.

A prior alert sent by the team comprising of medical personnel to the leadership of the village had pre-supposed that the team would be met by a multitude of women and children for whom they were making the strenuous trip.

A shocked team however meets with just a handful of village officials and women who mill patiently around the entrance of the palace of the community chief.

An undeterred team led by NkasiObim Nebo, Founder and Project Director of PMI decides to wait out on this noble sacrifice. Of course, it is a weekend when most households take time out to rest and do some chores.

The mission of PMI is a to provide clean and safe birthing environment for women and children in the poorest rural communities across Nigeria, it was ready to carry out its assignment despite obvious challenges.

“It is unlike our previous outreaches. We always meet residents of the communities we visit already waiting for us and most times it is always a hectic task attending to them due to the mammoth crowd that we have to take care of,’’ Nkasiobim tells with a slight apologetic smile at the corners of her lips.


A volcano erupts

The ‘prophetic’ words are hardly out of her mouth before a ‘human pandemonium’ erupts.

From virtually all the corners and cracks of the community, as bees attracted to a honey, a massive crowd of men, women and children converge on the small spot provided by the community for the exercise.

Anyone who was not stouthearted would have though there was massive protest building up.

In just a little over 10 minutes after Nkasiobim’s statement, a long winding line like an ailing anaconda forms from the entrance of the chief palace to a nearby mini market from which a much more massive human inflow comes in.

Despite the early morning heat occasioned the harsh weather, women and children jostle for spots on the rapidly enlarging lines of humans.

A few fights break out amongst the throng which is quickly brought under control by patient volunteers and village officials.

For close to 2 hours, the volunteers battle to distribute the huge amount of materials they have brought to this community and ensure an equitable distribution of the materials.

It is a task latently laced with wisdom without which volunteers can quickly become enemies of those who don’t get to receive the materials.

At the end of the exercise, the volunteers, suffused with sweat, record a near hundred percent success as majority of the women and children go home smiling clutching diverse medical materials in their hands.

An elated community reacts

Uloma Nkechi is one of the pregnant community women who wish there could be others with a golden heart like the PMI.

Clutching birthing materials that she just got from the initiative she says enthusiastically that “it is a nice initiative but we need them to do more training for the women so they can be better educated in birthing methods. I am proud to be part of those that benefitted from them.’’

An equally happy Agatha Makut says she will use the kits she was given judiciously.

“We thank them (PMI) for everything they have done for us. They should however focus on children ailments also such as malaria and render other forms of medical assistance.’’

Huleira Idris runs after Aljazirahnews breathlessly in an attempt not to be left out of the mini interviews being conducted.

“I thank them for the mosquito nets and hand gloves (one of the items contained inside the birthing kit pack) and I have promised to use them,” she says and immediately darts off.

The village chief, Muhammadu Usman is not left out of the effusive gratitude.

He tells Aljazirahnews that his people would remain eternally grateful to the PMI

“I sincerely thank PMI for the initiative. All the materials would be judiciously used by our people and are well appreciated,’’ he says briefly.

But like Oliver Twist, he quickly asks for more.

“We want the government to provide us with basic amenities such as schools, good roads, hospitals, water etc. The community only depends on private schools for its educational needs and this is not good enough. We don’t have a single public school,’’ he says.

He adds jocularly- “Tudun Wada dey very very big and our women don born plenty plenty children. Make government no forget us.’’

Volunteers perspective

Ijeoma Nwankwo, a pharmacist on the PMI team says she is satisfied with the outcome of the outreach.

“Although we had initial hiccups, we surmounted the little hitches we faced on the field. We are generally happy. Initially we weren’t happy but we are glad it turned out well at last.

“We gave out birthing kits, mosquito nets, undies, and for children we gave them Vitamin A supplements, Albendazole for de-worming.’’

She adds that the basic challenges still facing rural communities was lack of access to basic health facilities “as some don’t even have Primary Health Centers (PHCs) or non-functional ones.

“That is why we brought them birthing kits. Most communities don’t have skilled birth attendants and some don’t even have any birth attendants. For the children, it is skin diseases and infections that are basic challenges.’’

A nurse on the team, Mariam Ameh says she is proud to be part of the team.

“Initially it wasn’t encouraging but at the end we depleted all we came around with. As a whole the event was successful,” she says.

PeachAid Medical Initiative is all about helping women and children- Project Director

NkasiObim Nebo says the initiative is all about creating a clean and safe birthing environment for every pregnant woman and her child in mostly forgotten rural communities. Adding that it is purely a sacrificial gesture.

“We are a Community-based Humanitarian Organization. We work to reduce the incidence of infant and maternal morbidity and mortality in rural communities across Nigeria. We are achieving this by engaging in a wide range of interventions which includes medical outreaches, health education and advocacy activities.”

She says the direct beneficiaries are children under 5 years old, pregnant women and women of child-bearing age in rural communities.

“We also extend our intervention programs to pregnant women, Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) living in the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps, and also women living with Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF), specifically in the Northern part of Nigeria.”

She explains why the initiative is so dear to her heart by giving startling statistics.

“Nigeria loses about 2,300 under five years old and 145 women of childbearing age in a day, making it the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal mortality rate in the world. It is estimated that every 10 minutes, one woman dies on the account of pregnancy or childbirth in Nigeria, giving a total of 53,000 per year.

“Again, about 5.3 million children are born yearly in Nigeria, that is about 11,000 every day. Nigeria’s newborn death rate (neonatal mortality) which is 528 per day, is one of the highest in the world. The painful part is that the technologies needed to prevent most of these deaths exist, but still more than a quarter of the estimated 1 million children who die under the age of 5 are tagged by World Health Organization (WHO) as deaths caused by preventable diseases”

How does PMI bridge the gap?

“At PMI, all our humanitarian efforts are geared towards reducing the high rate of maternal and child death, resulting from health negligence and injustices due to lack of functional healthcare facilities to refer women with complications during delivery in rural communities, across Nigeria.

“To encourage justifiable changes, we engage in a wide range of activities including identifying Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and women that practice home delivery, train them on the proper use and disposal of our clean birthing kits, how to respond to minor complications when attending to delivery, and how to recognize danger signs and major complications and refer the women to the healthcare facilities where Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs) can be accessed. For health facilities, we include education on safe abortion and post-abortion care, family planning and obstetric care.”

She adds: “We carry out a household survey every quarter to evaluate the impact of the kits distributed. Results so far has shown that the use of our clean delivery kit joined with an educational intervention about the “six cleans” healthy behaviors needed for a safe delivery has had a positive effect on reducing both cord infection and puerperal sepsis…”



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