₦airaland Forum

On the 9th of February 2016, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) led by Founder-President, H.E. Mrs. Toyin Saraki, met with the UNAIDS Executive Director, Mr. Sidibe, to discuss the progress of HIV/AIDS reduction in Nigeria and explore ways to build synergy between both organizations for the improvement of the livelihoods of Nigerians living with HIV/AIDS. With an estimated 50% of people living with HIV in Nigeria being women aged 15 and up, Mrs. Toyin Saraki expressed that HIV/AIDS should be deemed a critical women’s health issue in the country. Since 2004, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has worked to refine its interventions to deliver successful solutions to people living with the virus, such as its client-held Personal Health Records (PHRs), which can help in the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (eMTCT) of HIV.

To empower people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and curb the spread of the disease, the Foundation established the Alaafia Universal Health Coverage Fund (AUHCF) in partnership with Hygeia Community Health Care - a local health insurance provider - and the PharmAccess Foundation, to fund the insurance premiums of 5,000 people each year – including pregnant women, children under five, adolescent girls, people living with HIV and AIDS, and the elderly – in line with the guiding principles of universal health coverage (UHC). Absorbing the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s original PLWHA frontline Positive Lifeline Programme which helped thousands of lives affected by HIV/AIDS for twelve years by providing counselling, home-visits and direct healthcare for persons living with HIV/AIDS in north-central Nigeria, the Alaafia Universal Health Coverage Fund (AUHCF) continues to play a key role in discovering incidences of PLWHA, while helping them access adequate therapy and much needed medical attention.

During the meeting, Mrs. Saraki stated, “I am…pleased to share with you that the Chief Program Officer of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Mr. Tajudeen Arowolo recently pronounced Kwara as the only state in the north-central zone of Nigeria with the lowest number of HIV/AIDS cases, and one of the lowest in the country, evidence indeed that our intervention approach that integrates improving social determinants within a continuum of care package, by capacitating the patient as an informed partner, is exceptionally effective.”


Signed: Communications
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa
Email: communications@wellbeingfoundationnig.org
Web: www.wbfafrica.org

On Saturday 6th February, the world will mark the International Day for Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). As a global health and women's rights advocate, I join the call for zero tolerance for FGM and other harmful traditional practices because the practice has a drastic impact on health and strips young girls of their agency when committed without informed consent. The harmful effects of FGM on women's health are both physical and psychological. FGM can cause infertility, maternal death, infection, and post-traumatic stress disorder, impacting the future of the 200 million girls and women globally, living with the effects of FGM.

A UNICEF report released today revealed that the number of women affected by FGM was 70 million higher than previously thought, emphasising that despite legislative changes across the world, FGM is practiced more widely than we know. Global Goal 5 has included the elimination of all harmful practices, such as child, early, and forced marriage and FGM within its targets. This inclusion will go a long way to encouraging countries that continue to permit FGM in making the requisite legislative changes to protect girls. However, making legislation a reality will require community sensitisation and mobilisation against FGM. In 2015, Nigeria banned FGM but a quarter of Nigerian women have already been affected by the practice. Legislation must be accompanied by cooperation with community and religious leaders to change cultural perceptions of FGM. Encouraging community reporting and vigilance will protect adolescent girls and women as we work together to enact this law.

As a women's health issue, we must also mobilise midwives as part of community responses to FGM and other harmful traditional practices. Across the African continent, local midwives are active in their communities and well respected by both men and women. As community focal points for health, midwives can educate communities about the importance of banning the act. Midwives can also be trusted confidantes for adolescent girls and women at risk of FGM and help communities 'self-report'.

But how do we take this further and embed the rights of adolescent girls and women within our societies in more than just zero tolerance for FGM? For me, this starts with adolescent children. As a mentor for the Girl Effect and proud signatory to the Girl Declaration, I believe we must empower young girls to lead and change the cultural attitudes that have put them in harm's way. Their empowerment will fundamentally transform community perceptions on girl's education, on women's health, on FGM, and on women's rights. Their empowerment will mark a shift in consciousness within our communities, proving once and for all, that gender equality benefits every member of society, in every way. In empowering young girls through the Girl Effect, we must also consider the 'boy effect' and make UN Women's He For She campaign a key part of all national education programmes for community cohesion and gender equality in line with Global Goal 5. If we can engage young boys, we can raise male allies who, alongside our empowered young girls and women, will protect future generations from FGM and harmful traditional practices.

Follow Toyin Ojora-Saraki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ToyinSaraki

Last week, we kicked off our ‪#‎MaternalMonday‬ Stories campaign, sharing the moments that inspired the Wellbeing Foundation Africa team to dedicate their lives to improving reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. Through our #MaternalMonday online advocacy, we seek to create a tool and platform for health education for every woman and every child. However, we also see the need to get offline and into the homes, classrooms, medical centres, and even Internally Displaced Persons camps, to ensure that a high quality health education can reach everyone, in every community. This is why we began our Maternal Monday antenatal education classes in Nigeria, delivered by qualified midwives. The engaging, culturally sensitive, and highly informative antenatal classes are delivered free-of-charge to both mothers and fathers in various communities across the country. In December 2015, we even delivered this class at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Wassa, Abuja. Read the #MaternalMonday Stories from the #MaternalMonday team below!
Jesse Cheto, Head of ICT and Communications
My moment of obligation came in 2011, when I realized that the excellent work of WBFA needed more visibility in the social media scene. In an increasingly technology driven age, we needed to drive the consciousness of users towards an alignment with health and development priorities. At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, part of my role is developing ways to leverage the influence of social media as a tool for advocacy, as well as, a tool for health education. This has been made evident through WBFA's #MaternalMonday campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. From the inception of this initiative, I have been actively involved in the preparation and dissemination of context-specific and time-relevant information on RMNCAH: the status quo, the challenges, and the way forward.
I am happy that I am part of a growing wave of Nigerian men who are engaging with issues around women's health and issues on female empowerment as demonstrated in the UN Women HeForShe campaign. As a man, I have welcomed the privilege of learning about women's health, developing messages, and actively participating in health education in order to save the lives of women and children, in line with the United Nations' Secretary-General's Every Woman, Every Child initiative. Researching information on women and children has been at the core of my work and I am extremely passionate about their wellbeing. At WBFA, I am able to use my savoir-faire of communications and media not only for the furtherance of education and advocacy, but to easily collect data on the experiences of mothers and healthcare workers, and, by extension, use their testimonies to reduce stigma and provide peer, social and emotional support.
Yewande Ayoola - Programmes Manager (Nigeria)
My moment of obligation came when I lost a friend and her newborn due to complications in labor. I was distraught but I realized that if this could happen to an educated woman in an urban setting, women in deprived or rural areas would be further disadvantaged in survival during labour. Across Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, we continue to lose pregnant women as a result of causes that could be easily avoided by access to primary healthcare, timely referrals for specialist care, and access to WBFA Personal Health Records to track pregnancy progress and patient history.
Joining WBFA has given me the opportunity to carve a niche for myself in the advancement in RMNCAH and help prevent the death of women and children like my friend and her baby. Through our numerous advocacy engagements like the renowned #MaternalMonday campaign and implementation of projects like the EmONC training for health workers with Johnson & Johnson and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the USAID supported Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement project on basic and inclusive education for the girl child, WBFA continues to advance the cause of women and children and empower them in areas that directly and indirectly improve their health and wellbeing.
Eunice Akhigbe - Maternal Monday Antenatal Education Class Lead and Midwife
My moment of obligation came in August 2015 when I heard Toyin Saraki speak passionately about the need to empower pregnant women through antenatal health education. As a midwife with a passion to save every mother and child in my care, I did not hesitate to make this vision a reality alongside WBFA and the very same month; I delivered the first antenatal education class at the Medicross Hospitales in Lagos. The excitement of the class was palpable and the success of the first class led to women inviting their pregnant friends to attend further classes, citing that that they had never had health education as informative as the WBFA antenatal education programme. In the classes, we discuss topics such as minor illnesses in pregnancy, nutrition, signs of labour, coping with labour pains, breastfeeding, immunization, and family planning following birth. The class has grown from strength to strength, with further health centres joining our programme in November. In December, we even delivered a class at the Wassa Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Abuja. It was an honour to empower expectant mothers in the IDP camp as they face serious challenges in accessing adequate care and attention. My hopes are that the Maternal Monday Antenatal Education Classes can reach and empower every Nigerian mother with life-saving knowledge.
Mrs Komolafe, Nigerian Midwife at Wellbeing Foundation Africa
As a midwife, it is my dream - and my obligation - to empower and engage mothers in their health to ensure their survival during pregnancy and childbirth. I began work at WBFA in March 2015 to prepare, organize, and deliver antenatal education classes for expectant mothers in Kwara State. The programme funded by WBFA was created to reduce maternal mortality in rural areas across Kwara. This programme has broadened my own perspective on health education and enabled me to empower so many mothers across Kwara. Indeed, I regularly hear feedback from women saying that they are so grateful to learn more about their bodies and the health of their child at such a pivotal time.


Follow Toyin Ojora-Saraki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ToyinSaraki

Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s Toyin Saraki Co-Authors report in Newly Launched Lancet Series on Ending Preventable Stillbirths

Speaking at the global launch of the Lancet ‘Ending Preventable Stillbirths’ Series that took place at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 19/01/16, the Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA), H.E. Mrs. Toyin Saraki, has called for stillbirths to be taken out of the shadows of healthcare - removing the cultural stigmas that have made it an invisible death and an invisible grief for mothers suffering the devastating loss of their children.

While research has indicated that stillbirths account for almost 2.6 million deaths annually worldwide, 75% of these deaths take place in sub-Saharan African and South Asia. Currently, Nigeria has the world's second highest estimated stillbirth rate, with 42.9 stillbirths per 1,000 total births. Moreover, with a 1.3% annual rate of progress in reducing stillbirths between years 2000 and 2015, Nigeria ranks 123rd of 159 in the world for progress on stillbirths reduction. Given these dire statistics, it is evident that progress must be accelerated in order to meet the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) stillbirth target of 12 per 1,000 total births by 2030.

As Newborn Champion for Save the Children Nigeria; Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwifes; Grand Patron of White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria; and Global Champion for White Ribbon Alliance Global,, Mrs. Saraki has called for increased understanding of stillbirths at the local, national and international levels, and continues to work towards scaling up access to skilled midwives who can both provide care that prevents stillbirths and psychological support for grieving families in the aftermath of a stillbirth.

Co-authoring one of the series’ reports entitled ‘Stillbirths: economic and psychosocial consequences,’ Mrs. Saraki and WBFA have provided unique perspective on stillbirths in sub-Saharan Africa; sharing interventions such as the WBFA Personal Health Records; the Foundation’s emergency obstetric and newborn care training with Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; and their work on Respectful Maternity Care for expectant and new mothers.

Over the years, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has worked to prevent stillbirths through various initiatives including its ground-breaking ‪#‎MaternalMonday‬ social media campaign, which educates mothers about potential risks to survival; its Alaafia Universal Health Coverage Fund (AUHCF), which prevents pregnancy risks escalating into stillbirth by providing pregnant women to access antenatal care; and its WBFA Personal Health Record – a vital accountability and tracking tool that enables mothers to make informed decisions about their health while enabling health professionals to provide timely, effective care.

Signed: Communications
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa

Every year over there are over two million still births around the world, but two thirds of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. New research published in the Lancet shows that Nigeria has the highest rate of stillbirths in Africa. It's a harrowing and traumatic experience and something which Toyin Saraki has gone through. She is the Founder and President of Wellbeing Foundation Africa which offers help to other women. She's been speaking to Akwasi Sarpong.

https://soundcloud.com/bbcafrica/majority-of-still-births-occur-in-africa-but-how-does-a-mother-deal-with-the-loss#t=0:00

As we embark on 2016 and the beginning of the Sustainable Development Goals, I would like to express my gratitude to all our partners and participants since we started in 2004 as a small NGO with the aim of ending deaths in childbirth in Nigeria through developing best practice models of health information delivery and vital statistics tools that could create behavioural change for the wellbeing of mothers, newborns and families. I must congratulate my Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) Team, for being named one of the Guardian Development Professionals Network'sNGO Heroes of 2015. From more than 100 nominations, WBFA were featured and celebrated for how we have brought global best practice models back to my home state of Kwara, including the development and distribution of WBFA Personal Health Records, and a partnership with Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to deliver emergency obstetric and newborn care 'skills and drills' training in the state could lower maternal mortality by up to 20%. I would like to join the Guardian in celebrating my team, and in their honour, I will be dedicating today's Maternal Monday column to sharing their stories.
Much is known about my story - my journey as a reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) advocate began after I lost one of my first pair of twin daughters during my first childbirth, over twenty years ago. My experience was also my moment of obligation - I realised that this tragedy and grief is an unavoidable reality for so many women and children across the world. As we embark on the SDGs journey, it is important that we do not lose sight of the people, the lives, and the stories behind the targets - stories like mine, stories like yours, the stories of the mothers, and the stories of the medical workers, most especially the stories of the midwives deliver new lives, daily. Every Monday, WBFA's#MaternalMonday campaign conducts online advocacy and health education centred on RMNCAH. Every Monday, we will now share your stories too - your individual journeys to advocacy, your experiences as a mother, child, health worker or ally, and your work on every aspect of RMNCAH. Simply use the hashtag #MaternalMonday to share your story via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - or even via our onlineMaternal Monday advocacy space. We hope that the #MaternalMonday space can become a platform for harmonising local and global ideas, programmes, actions, and successfully pioneering support for initiatives like Every Woman, Every Child,International Confederation of Midwives, World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts, Rheumatic Heart Disease, family planning, stillbirths, Girls, Not Brides, and more.
Here are the #MaternalMonday stories of my WBFA team!

Felicity Ukoko, Head of Programmes and Adocacy, Wellbeing Foundation Africa
As a midwife working in the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) for over twenty years, I feel acutely the loss of a baby being born too soon and leaving the world too early. Working closely with mothers, I have - like many midwives - developed bonds with women and their families and witnessing their pain following negative health outcomes such as a preterm birth was always difficult for to handle. Driven by my passion and experience as a midwife, in March 2015, I joined the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) as the Head of Programmes and Advocacy to develop initiatives that can save the lives of mothers and babies across the African continent. It is in this role that I am proud to announce that I have been appointed as the representative for Nigeria on the United Nations' Every Newborn Action Plan's Global Public-Private Partnership to Prevent Preterm Birth's Global Steering Committee. Joining this committee enables the WBFA and I to advocate for mothers and premature babies, and help prevent preterm births on a global scale.
I am honoured to work at an organisation that has placed midwifery and midwives at the heart of its programming. From the development of an antenatal education programme that can be delivered by skilled midwives in communities across sub-Saharan Africa, to bringing midwives together for an upcoming International Day of the Midwife conference, and reinvigorating the Baby Friendly Initiative to leverage the power of midwives to encourage the uptake of breastfeeding in Nigeria. Over the next few years, I am sure we will meet our obligations to Nigerian mothers and reach my dream of dedicated birthing centres across the nation.

Dr Luther-King Fasehun, Nigeria Country Director
My moment of obligation came in New York in December 2013, as I noticed I was the only Nigerian in the room at a World Health Organisation and UNICEF gathering of global stakeholders to chart a way forward in the prevention of newborn deaths and ending stillbirths. I felt obliged to raise my voice for the women and families in the slums of sub-Saharan Africa; to ensure that the realities of the challenges that healthcare workers face in preventing peri-natal mortality are captured in the pre-final draft of the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP); and to ensure that the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) continues to build on its advocacy to ensure that the improvement of care around the time of birth retains a position of primal importance in our work.
This led to WBFA playing a crucial role in the Advocacy and Communications Working Group of the ENAP Steering Committee. Alongside Save the Children, we hosted a Nigeria country consultation on the finalisation of the ENAP and H.E. Mrs Toyin Saraki, Founder-President of WBFA was inaugurated as the Save the Children Newborn Health Champion for Nigeria. Since WBFA's participation in ENAP's launch in June 2014, the world has witnessed national launches in Nigeria, Ghana, India and several other countries. Further, we are excited that the prevention of newborn deaths and stillbirths are captured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and WBFA continues to be a major contributor to national and global policies in the field of health and development, including the State of the World's Midwifery Report (2014) and the Roadmap for Measurement and Accountability in Health (2015). My membership of technical working groups of national interest, including the National Essential Medicines Coordinating Mechanism (NEMCM) and the National Child Health Technical Working Group, amongst others, have allowed me take my moment of obligation to the broader needs of our communities, including through a strategic communications partnership to eliminate Ebola fever and Lassa fever.

Rachel Firth, Head of Partnerships and Strategy
Having worked with smaller NGOS for a number of years I have always understood the significant impact that smaller organisations like Wellbeing Foundation Africa can have ‎in international development due to their wealth of knowledge and expertise in key areas. The struggle was always to make these NGOS and their work visible, in the shadows of larger international development organisations working in the same field and how to scale up effective programmes locally. I realised that instead of competing for space and recognition, partnerships between local NGOs and larger INGOS was the way to ensure impact and enable scaling.
Partnerships such as that between WBFA, Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to deliver Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care training in Kwara Strate, Nigeria, bring together the strengths of different organisations. The local knowledge and expertise of WBFA and the formalised processes, procedures and scope of work that characterise larger INGOS have resulted in a truly effective programme and a stronger combined capacity to achieve mutual goals.
Though my experience in forging partnerships with the private sector, I have been able to incorporate a social enterprise approach to the development Wellbeing Universal Health - a social enterprise that will scale up access to innovative essential health interventions. Through this social enterprise, we can support early childhood nutrition through the provision of breastfeeding equipment and more!
Follow Toyin Ojora-Saraki on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ToyinSaraki

With the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) has taken rapid steps to elevate awareness of this deadly disease and its prevention.

Having already claimed at least 41 lives of the nearly hundred reported cases in at least 10 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has released info-graphics and behavior change communications to equip the general public with critical information that can potentially save lives.

An acute hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus, Lassa fever can be transmitted through contact with an infected rodent or contact with the bodily secretions of an infected person, including mother-to-child transmission and consumption of infected food items.

Focusing on the effect of Lassa fever on pregnancy, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa shared that pregnant women, especially those in the third trimester of pregnancy, face a higher risk of contracting the disease – which causes mortality in 95% of cases. As studies have indicated, the increased likelihood of mortality at this stage of pregnancy is due to immunosuppression associated with the third trimester of pregnancy. To prevent Lassa fever, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, led by H.E. Mrs. Toyin Saraki, has placed emphasis on hand-washing and rodent control, while warning against contact with infected bodily fluids.


In light of the prodigious threat posed by Lassa fever to an already fragile public healthcare system, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa also aims to facilitate capacity building for healthcare workers, especially in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), in order to minimize morbidities and mortalities resulting from the disease.

Signed: Communications
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa
Email: communications@wellbeingfoundationnig.org
Web: www.wbfafrica.org

NOTES:

About the Wellbeing Foundation Africa:

For over a decade, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) founded by Her Excellency Toyin Saraki has led global efforts to reduce Nigeria’s unacceptably high maternal, newborn, and child mortality indices. Through collaboration and consultation with local, national, and international partners, WBFA has developed innovative solutions that have been adopted into the very frontline of the Nigerian health system.

These solutions include the copyrighted and trademarked WBFA Integrated Maternal, Newborn, and Child Personal Health Records, WBFA Universal Maternal And Child Health Notes and Record Books, the WBFA Clean Birth MamaKit, the WBFA BabyKit and BabyKitBox, WBFA EMONC Skills And Drills Training, #MaternalMonday Demand Creation for Birth-Preparedness, WBFA Baby-Friendly Breastfeeding Manual, WBFA Antenatal Education Curriculum, and Inclusive Access to Health Insurance Capacitation Grants.

As partners to the United Nations Every Woman, Every Child initiative since 2011 at the invitation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, WBFA has consistently worked to bring global best practice innovations back home to Nigeria including the Alaafia Universal Health Coverage Fund, which provides health insurance for 5000 Kwaran residents annually, and the recent partnership with the Johnson and Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to provide ‘skills and drills’ emergency obstetric and newborn care training for health-workers in Kwara State.

The WBFA’s work as a non-governmental civil society organisation has been recognised globally by the United Nations, as demonstrated by the awarding of special consultative status to the UN Economic and Social Affairs Council, and by it's being conferred with prestigious Board Observer status at the WHO Partnership For Maternal Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), while the WBFA also led Nigeria Health CSO's recent Position Paper on Health, presented to The Presidential Transition Committee.

Strategic partnerships are central to the work of the Foundation and through the Founder President’s roles as inaugural Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), the Save the Children (Nigeria) National Newborn Champion, and the Chair of the Board of the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria (WRAN), WBFA works to achieve shared goals of improving maternal and child health.

Former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning, Dr. Robert C. Orr has previously commended the Wellbeing Foundation for its life-saving interventions, writing “African philanthropy for women's and children's health is something that could catalyse much needed resources toward the issues that you have championed for nearly a decade in Nigeria, including the Personal Health Record (PHR) of Nigeria.”

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa does not solicit nor accept general donations. For partnership opportunities, or to support our advocacy and actions, please visit www.wbfafrica.org or contact globaloffice@wbfafrica.org.

For social enterprise enquiries regarding our tools and resources, please visit www.wbuhealth.com or contact globaloffice@wbuhealth.com.

Unfortunately, all of the petty lowlifes won't use their heads. Anyways, #IStandWithSaraki