Institute graduates 216 birth attendants in Kaduna

The chairperson of Womenhood Association of Nigeria, Maryam Abubakar, at the 3rd matriculation and convocation ceremony said the association is aimed at assisting women and children. “We focus attention on vulnerable women including widows, divorcees and orphans among others,” she said.According to her, the 216 traditional birth attendants that graduated from the institute can work […]

The chairperson of Womenhood Association of Nigeria, Maryam Abubakar, at the 3rd matriculation and convocation ceremony said the association is aimed at assisting women and children.
“We focus attention on vulnerable women including widows, divorcees and orphans among others,” she said.
According to her, the 216 traditional birth attendants that graduated from the institute can work with private hospitals, local government hospitals and can also open their own chemist.
“We train them basically on family planning, ante-natal, first aid, labour and delivery and HIV/AIDS control. In the Northern part of Nigeria, most women don’t like going to the hospital probably because of the cost implication or because they don’t want to expose themselves but with the help of these TBAs at home, maternal mortality in the state will be reduced.
“We are graduating four sets today; the first set are 26 in number, the second set are 48 in number while the third and fourth sets are 142. In addition to the 216 that graduated today, about 92 also matriculated.
“The vulnerable women pay the sum of N7,500 for their uniform and instruments throughout the one year of their training while others who are not vulnerable pay N35,000,” she said.
Explaining further, Hajiya Maryam, a dental therapist, said, “Initially, we were paying to train the women in other sisters organisations and other sister schools of health but we saw that it was capital intensive so we decided to organise a mini health institution since most of us are health workers. We started the programme with only three students but when the school started growing, we registered with the state, local government and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).”