By Edwin Philip, Lafia
A United Kingdom based Non Of Governmental Organisations by name Transaid in partnership the National Union Of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has  successful transported 2,200 rural women in six local government areas of Nasarawa to access health services when they are in labour.

This is in an effort to support the Nasarawa state government in reducing maternal mortality rate in the state using the concept of the Emergency Transport Scheme ( ETS) which came into being since 2016.

With the training of 150 volunteer drivers and their subsequent engagement in the six local government areas of Nasarawa state, the local government  covered are  Awe, Nasarawa Eggon, Doma, Wamba and Obi as beneficiaries.

Transaid, which has been providing the charity service to the poor rural women for the past two years are  rounding off their services, for it to be continued by the technical steering group for effective management and sustainability of the project.

Speaking on the rounding off of the scheme in Nasarawa state, Mr Edward O’Connor the programme support manager of Transaid said:

“This is not the end, it is only the beginning, we have just started the process of ETS, this is not the end because we are leaving, but it is up to you to keep it up, we maybe leaving, maybe you will not see us again but we believe that we will get many reports in many years in the future on how successful ETS is and how many lives have been saved”.

Standing in for the commissioner for women affairs  Nasarawa state, Hajia Jamila Dogara Sarki  represented by  the permanent secretary in the ministry Mrs Abigail Wire conveyed the message of the commissioner. In her speech she  appreciated the enormous job done by Transaid and the drivers under the umbrella of the NURTW.

She added that women constitute the large segment of the population of Nasarawa state and have been contributing meaningfully to the development of their communities as mothers, home managers, builders among other numerous commitments.
She however regretted that women are facing numerous challenges and disadvantages which not only threaten their survival, growth and optimal development but also limit their contributions to the society as a whole.

“Ordinarily the birth of a child should bring joy, laughter and happiness to the family and community as a whole, however it will interest you to know that a high number of women died during pregnancy and child birth remains a serious concern especially the hard-to-reach parts of of our state and Nigeria as a whole “

She decried the lack of access to medical centres, the quality of  health care services, parental care etc, and emphasised that no women should die as a  result of bringing forth a live of another, noting that the loss of a woman at child birth creates a lot of vacuum in the life of the family.

The commissioner solicited, that the success story made posible by Transaid and NURTW should be extended to the entire state to alleviate the suffering of expectant mothers.