Nigeria's road transport workers tackle maternal mortality with new scheme

Nigeria's National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has joined the fight against maternal mortality in the country with the introduction of its Emergency Transport Scheme (ETS). This was announced by the union's president, Alhaji Najeem Yasin, President.


He said ETS is a scheme under the Maternal and Child Health project of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P MCH) for reducing maternal newborn mortality. In an interview, he said the scheme was aimed at reducing maternal child mortality through effective referral mechanism during emergencies in rural communities.

ETS, he said, is implemented through the participation of union members who serve as volunteer drivers to transport pregnant women experiencing maternal complications to healthcare facilities for quick medical attention.

"With this scheme, accessibility to health will be brought to the doorsteps of all pregnant women in the target areas. The need for ETS cannot be over-emphasised taking cognisance of the critical situation of many pregnant women, especially in the remote areas of the country.

"Such pregnant women die from preventable deaths not because of lack of doctors or equipment but due to delays in reaching heath facilities," he said.

He said the move by National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) by providing financial support to NURTW to implement ETS would go a long way in bringing smiles to pregnant women and their families.

Yasin the project would ensure that "no lives can be lost in the process of giving birth to our children.

"This will also greatly contribute towards attaining MDGs 4 and 5 which are reduction of maternal mortality and improvement in the health of children respectively."

NURTW on April 3 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NPHCDA for implementation of ETS. The MoU was signed to carry out a six-month pilot ETS at selected SURE-P MCH facilities.

The NURTW chief said the facilities were in the FCT, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Anambra, Ebonyi, Bayelsa and Imo states. He said resources provided by NPHCDA would be used judiciously to implement the scheme.