A Non Governmental Organisation, Women United for Economic Empowerment (WUEE) has donated Personal Protective Equipments to 33 Traditional Birth Attendants in Akwa Ibom.
It also donated food items to women, tuition fee to indigent students and smart tablets to 20 students in higher institutions of learning in it’s quest to improve capacity for women and students.
Speaking shortly before donation of the items, the Executive Director of WUEE, Mrs Iniobong Frank said the decision to equip the Traditional Birth Attendants with PPEs especially in the period of Covid-19, was to forestall easy transmission of the virus during the process of attending to women in labour.
Frank who announced that the NGO was established and currectly funded by the US- based Mrs Aniema Udofa and her partners, to empower women and other vulnerable groups in the society, said the objective of WUEE is to see a poverty and gender discrimination-free society.
She appealed to the TBAs to make good use of the items donated to protect themselves, mothers and the new born babies delivered in their homes.
Frank who also advised the tertiary institutions students on proper use of the phone tablets donated to them, said the items were meant to assist them carry out their researches than get distracted with social media activities which may impact negatively on their future.
She assured that the NGO took time to select only indigent students for the school fees support to ensure that such help was directed only to those who truly needed such assistance.
A representative of Mrs Martha Emmanuel’s Family Empowerment & Youth Reorientation Path Initiative. (Feyrep), Mrs Iniobong Ekanem in her remarks cautioned the students against negative use of the devices handed to them, adding that judicious use of such items could open wider doors into the world.
Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mrs Esther Ebong, a Traditional Birth Attendant, commended WUEE for its timely and consistent interventions. She recalled that TBAs, before receiving enlightenment from the NGO were attending to deliveries with bare hands.
“Let me sincerely thank Women United for helping us embrace safe practices which have really aided our safety, safety of mothers and of new born babies. Before they started visiting our homes to carry out enlightenment programmes, we used to attain to labour cases with bare hands, even our environments were not well kept.
“It got so bad that our husbands were no longer accepting food from us because of our hygiene conditions. But when they came, they took us through some exercises on personal hygiene and safety, they equipped us with PPEs such as what we got today. Today, TBAs in Akwa Ibom can compete with other heath workers anywhere in the world.” Ebong said.
