Men should be key partners when it comes to maternal and child health care. They should show endearing support in every possible way because this greatly contributes to the welfare of both the child and the mother.

The call was made by the Minister of health Dr. Diane Gashumba last Friday during the activities that were held in Nyamagabe district to mark the end of Maternal and Child Health Week.

The week-long activities were aimed at promoting combined efforts that are effective and efficient in terms of family promotion.

Joint sensitizations were carried out to sensitize the Rwandan community in promoting good health.

Activities included vaccination of children between 9 to 59 months against measles, administration of Vitamin A, deworming, measuring nutrition status, and provision of family planning services.

In Nyamagabe district, 107,821 children from the age of 1 to 15 were dewormed totaling to 71%. 26,352 (60%) children were given vitamin A, 35,918 (70%) children were screened for malnutrition symptoms, men and women who received family planning services were 1,077 (1%) adding on to the 56% who had already received the services.

On the national level, more than 93% of children were dewormed, 84% of children got vitamin A, 86% were vaccinated against measles, 44,354 men and women got family planning services. 

Dr. Gashumba emphasized that men should show support to mothers more so when they are expecting.

"In partnership with our male counterparts, we can achieve more and nothing can be impossible. This will favor the growth of the child and can be a great start for the first 1000 days,” she said.

She also recognized the role played by community health workers in terms of promoting good health for mothers and infants.

"Community health workers do an incredible job; they are where the family starts from and handle issues at the root of them. They represent us in a lot of ways and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. We observe what they do and appreciate it, what we promise is continued partnership such that we continue curbing issues such as maternal and infant mortality rates,” she said.

The Minister also used the platform to call upon people to maintain a healthy hygiene and put efforts in immunizing children since the celebrations coincided with the celebration of World Polio Day and Global Hand-washing Day.

Dr. Gashumba called onto all citizens to own the programs saying that without their involvement little can be achieved.

Ted Maly, the Representative of UNICEF Rwanda commended the efforts of the ministry of health in improving maternal and child health through various interventions such as measles and vitamin A vaccinations, early antenatal care and malaria prevention among others.

He also commented on the issue of hand washing saying that it not only protects our health but also helps build our future.

"Hand washing is one of the most efficient and inexpensive ways of preventing infectious diseases. This simple behavior saves lives, significantly reducing deaths associated with diarrhea and other infections. When we talk about hand washing and hygiene we also talk about sanitation. Poor sanitation is also associated with polio which Rwanda has successfully eradicated,” he mentioned.

"Only through concerted efforts can we be able to have long term impact on child and maternal care, UNICEF is a proud partner to ensure a healthy future for all children in Rwanda and have our continued support,” he added.

Lisa Godwin, Health Office Director USAID said that the health of children and women has greatly improved in the recent years and there is clearly much to celebrate.

"In the last five years Rwanda has reduced maternal mortality rate to more than half and decreased child mortality rate by over a quarter. Globally this achievement is unmatched. USAID is proud to continually support Rwanda’s health sector,” she said.

She pointed out that USAID is willing to partner with Rwanda to even further reduce the rate of child and maternal mortality.

Every child and mother deserve a healthy life. To achieve this ambitious goal together, USAID is focusing on maternal and child health in four key areas; stunting, malaria, skill delivery for mothers and babies and family planning.

"We are also working to address the issue of malnutrition with some activities including food security, dietary diversity among others. We also plan to continue promoting sanitation to decrease cases of diarrhea,” Godwin said.

A successful fight

Marie Rose Mureshyankwano, Governor of the Southern Province appreciates the good governance of the country attributing this to all the success registered so far.

"It is the good partnership with the Ministry of Health that has made it possible to achieve all that we have.”

Mureshyankwano also highlighted that it is through such celebrations that emphasis on vital aspects such as the welfare of couples, mother and child health care, hygiene are brought to light and that it facilitates constant sensitizations.

The Governor said that more efforts are set in place to ensure a better livelihood for every household.

"We are ready to work with the Ministry of Health in all programs. We are working hard to see that each household has a toilet and good hygiene. We also want to strengthen the fight on malnutrition, embrace family planning, such that we continue registering progress in all those areas,” she pointed out.

Josephine Nyiracumi, a community health worker n Kigarama village, Nyamagabe district said that one of the initiatives they embraced to fight malnutrition is to set up day care centers.

The centers accommodate children of three months to the age of two or three years.

"We set up these centers because malnutrition had become an issue. This way, we pool resources and it becomes easy to cater for the children,” she said.

Nyiracumi said that though they still face obstacles such as lack of enough food, limited access to milk, a lot has been achieved in terms of fighting malnutrition.

On the issue of polio in the area, Console Mukamurigo, another community health worker, said that the disease is not an issue because they don’t even have any prevailing cases.

She however said that regardless of how safe it is now, they always carry out sensitizations to deny any cases that could crop up.

"On this day we get a chance to continue sensitizing people against the disease. As community health workers, what we do is to go to the different families and see to it that children who have reached the time of immunization get the services. We always call upon families to take kids for immunization and they do,” she said.

N.B: This is a sponsored article.