The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and Social Mobilisation and Technical Committee, SOMTEC, have collated names of Volunteer Community Mobilisers, VCMs, for Njikoka LG following the just-concluded sensitisation meeting with their stakeholders.

In a speech at the council headquarters on September 6, Chineze George-Ileka, the SOMTEC desk officer, pointed out that each community was to nominate 10 volunteers of unquestionable characters.

George-Ileka said that the VCMs would help to improve the healthcare infrastructure in the various communities by reaching out to people at Churches, markets and village meetings, as well as house to house visitation.

“A volunteer must be healthy, be of proven character and determined to deliver on the job.

“The job is not for Women Leaders and Presidents General but if you are one of them, by the time your tenure lapses, you are still a VCM unless otherwise stated,’’ Ileka said.

She said that the VCMs should always advice pregnant mothers on the need for them to attend Antenatal and post natal cares at the government designated health centres as they had qualified nurses.

“A Traditional Birth Attendant, TBA, does not know how to screen blood, the degree of tear to be administered during child delivery and how to sterilise delivery equipment,’’ she said.

The desk officer enjoined the volunteers to always accompany pregnant women to health centres after which they would chart their names in the exercise books given to them for follow ups.

George-Ileka while noting that nurses were health givers and life providers, cautioned the officers in-charge, OICs, of health posts to relax when handling pregnant mothers, especially those at delivery stages.

She urged nurses to treat them with empathy as most of them were battling family problems.

Maurice Peters Anetoh, a former president-general, Anaocha LGA, a major stakeholder from the inception of the programme in Anaocha in 2014 to date, said that the UNICEF wanted healthy children.

“UNICEF’s dream is to have children that are healthy, loved, well-nourished, educated and protected,’’ he noted.

He emphasised that VCMs were non-payable individuals, who volunteer to be going round communities to mobilise and educate people on healthy lifestyle, especially as it concerned accessing health facilities.

Anetoh urged women leaders and presidents-general of communities in Njikoka LG to live up to their responsibilities of seeing that those facilities were maintained and accessed.

He enjoined them to borrow a leaf from Anaocha LG as pace-setters to actualise their mandate.

The six communities that made up Njikoka LG nominated 10 volunteers each with their leaders as follows: Josephine Ilokanuno, Nimo; Ngozi Anusi, Abagana: Ngozi Kanemeh, Abba and Franca Nwigbo, Nwafia.

Others are Mercy Onubiyi, Enugwu-Agidi and Fidelia Okafor, Enugwu-Ukwu.

– Sept. 7, 2018 @ 17:19 GMT