By Danhassan Abubakar
A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) Global Impact for Rural Innovation Foundation (GIRIF) has carried out an integrated awareness campaign on Cholera Prevention, Cervical Cancer and the importance of Human Papilloma Vaccination (HPV) in two hard-to-reach communities of Abdullawa and Jura in Itas Gadau LGA of Bauchi State.
The GIRIF team lead in Bauchi State, Ahmed Sani Ahmed said that the purpose of the awareness campaign visit was as a result of an assessment of the communities’ ignorance on basic preventive measures needed to curtail the spread of cholera in the communities.
Ahmed said that the team also seized the opportunity provided by the cholera prevention awareness campaign to sensitised the inhabitants of the two communities on the importance of Human Papilloma Vaccination (HPV) for girl child aged 9 -14 years, which is aimed at preventing cervical cancer among women.
According to Ahmed, the team also took time to promote the importance of environmental sanitation and personal hygiene as the first step towards prevention of cholera in the communities.
Other areas of the awareness campaign the GIRIF team focused on during the visit was the need for caregivers in decisions relating to taking HPV.
While appreciating the effort of the team for taking their time to reach out to the two remote communities, all the community leaders admitted that prior to the visit by the GIRIF team, the communities are ignorant on the causes of Cholera and the measures needed to prevent it.
They all pledged to immediately put to practice what they have learnt from the GIRIF team and also champion the promotion of accepting HPV by the target group. They further pledged to embrace environmental sanitation and personal hygiene as measures to curtail the spread of Cholera and other communicable diseases in their respective communities.
Our correspondent reports that due to the topography of the two communities, accessibility by car is impossible. Only motorcycle can travel there and even at that, the team had to cross three different rivers on canoe to get to the two communities.