Kwara Targets 1m Pregnant Women, Children In Integrated Health Campaign

Kwara State Deputy Governor, Mr Kayode Alabi, has flagged off a statewide integrated health campaign aimed at improving access to essential healthcare services for women and children on Thursday.

The campaign on maternal newborn and child health week targets over 200,000 pregnant women, about 800,000 children aged 0–5 years expected to receive life-saving interventions such as deworming, Vitamin A supplement and other nutrition-sensitive services.

The campaign, which includes the maternal, newborn and child health week (MNCHW), polio immunisation, and HPV vaccination, will run from November 29 to December 3, 2025, across the 16 local government areas of the state.

At the flagg-off the campaign, the deputy governor, who also serves as the chairman of the state taskforce committee on Immunisation and Primary Health Care, emphasised that the campaign was designed to promote preventive healthcare and reduce mortality rates among vulnerable populations.

He assured that the committee would engage all local government chairmen under the auspices of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGO) to ensure the timely release of counterpart funds and active participation in the campaign’s activities and meetings.

Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina El-Imam, said the state government has consistently worked to increase the reach of life-saving vaccines to all eligible children across the state.

She noted that despite successes in integrated polio, measles, and Primary Health Care (PHC) interventions, some challenges still exist, but efforts were ongoing to address them.

The Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Professor Nusirat Elelu, stated that the campaign will wrap up the year with the National Immunisation Plus Day (NIPD), which targets children aged 0–59 months with the polio vaccine.

Represented by the Director of Primary Healthcare Systems, Dr Michael Oguntoye, Elelu added that the HPV vaccination is targeting girls aged 9 years and above, particularly those who were not reached during the previous campaign.

Speaking on behalf of development partners, World Health Organisation’s (WHO) representative, Dr Emmanuel Eyitayo, noted that insecurity in some local government areas had hampered health workers’ access to certain communities.

Eyitayo called for a strengthened security measures to ensure that no child or mother was left behind.