Kaduna community where women go for ante-natal on trucks, bikes

Jummai Sunday Kakura is a mother and housewife resident in Kakura. She tells Daily Trust: “If a woman is in labour during the rainy season, we only pray for safe delivery at home because there is no way out of the community due to the bad state of the road leading to the village.” “If […]

Jummai Sunday Kakura is a mother and housewife resident in Kakura. She tells Daily Trust: “If a woman is in labour during the rainy season, we only pray for safe delivery at home because there is no way out of the community due to the bad state of the road leading to the village.”
“If God helps the woman, she would deliver safely. However, some had lost their lives before we could cross the bridge to go to Maraban Rido. Whenever it rains heavily, we are totally cut off because we cannot go anywhere.”
This is just one of the problems Kakura inhabitants face. It is a community in Kujama ward of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. It is about 15km from Maraban Rido along Kachia road through the Eastern Bypass, and populated by Fulani, Gbagyi and Kadara people who are predominantly farmers.
The Kaduna Eastern Bypass, awarded in November 2002,whichis to stretch from Kakau on the Abuja-Kaduna road to link the Kaduna-Zaria road, leads to the village from Maraban Rido but almost 14 years after, only about 16 kilometres, representing about 30 per cent of the job, have been done.  Presently, construction work has completely stopped and the project abandoned.
The cessation of work on the road further aggravated the sufferings of the people as they are left to ply the road the way it is, since it is the major road leading to their community. Daily Trust observed that some portions of the road cannot be plied by small vehicles, especially during the rainy season.
Kakura is not so far from the city centre yet it’s far from development as it lacks basic amenities including roads, water, electricity, hospital or pharmacy among others. The major means of transportation in and out of the community is either by motorcycle or trucks due to the bad state of the road.
Daily Trust’s visit to the village revealed that inhabitants travel a distance of 15 kilometres from the village to access health care. It was also gathered that pregnant women board trucks to attend ante-natal clinics at Maraban Rido as motorcycles and trucks carrying sand remain the only mode of transportation during the rainy season.
Findings revealed that over 10 women have died in the space of two years during childbirth in the community due to lack of quick access to healthcare. Residents of the community say they are in dire need of a health facility.
Alisabatu Auta, a mother of six, said she gave birth to all her kids at home. “It comes easily for me. In fact, nobody has ever assisted me during child delivery. After delivery, I will tell people in the neighbourhood that I have put to bed.”
On whether she attended ante-natal during her pregnancies, she said “I usually go for antenatal at Maraban Rido. Most times, I go on a tipper truck carrying sand because we hardly get motorcycles to take us out of the community. We just stand by the road and flag them down, and they help us as they carry us free of charge because no commercial vehicles ply our road due to its bad state.”
Ladi Zachariah, 35, delivered four of her five children at home. According to her, it is more difficult to go to the hospital for child delivery because of the means of transportation. “I always find it very hectic and difficult going to the hospital for delivery because I usually go on a motorcycle. You can imagine a woman in labour on a bike, she could even fall down because of pain but then we have no choice. So, I prefer to give birth at home where I will not be faced with the challenge or trouble of travelling some kilometres in pain to access healthcare.”
“The problem with our community is that once it rains heavily, the water over flows the bridge and we cannot cross over, so we remain cut off until the water level goes down,” she said.
For Mary Ishaku, 30, lack of money made her give birth to three of her four children at home. “I go for ante-natal any time I have the money to transport myself to-and-fro. In fact, I have once fallen off a truck while trying to board it. There was a woman who fell and as a result had complications. At the end, she lost the baby,” she narrated.
Lydia Ishaya, 50, lamented the lack of potable water in the community. She said during the rainy season, they depend on the wells and rivers for water while the available few wells get dried up in the dry season. “The borehole that was donated to us by an NGO many years ago is no longer functional. Our children often suffer from diarrhoea due to consumption of unclean water,” she lamented.
Similarly, the village head of Kakura, Ishaya Gwamna, confirmed that some women have fallen from trucks and got injured. “We do not own the trucks; we only stop them when they are passing by. So, the situation is so bad that it is ‘no tipper, no movement’. Our situation here has taught us to call on God when in difficult situations especially when we cannot go out of the community due to the rain. We hardly get motorcycles to take us to Maraban Rido.”
Our reporter observed the presence of only one primary school in the community.
Though the school enjoys the free feeding programme of the state government, teachers sometimes don’t go to school when they don’t get motorcycles or trucks to take them to school, especially when it rains.
Children who attend schools outside the community don’t go to school sometimes for the same reason. “Some of our children in secondary school at Maraban Rido missed some papers during their examination because there were no bikes or trucks to transport them to school,” the Bagudun Kakura, Sunday Kakura, said.