By Bashir Hassan AbubakarĀ
If one is in tune with the activities of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria, one would know that the World Body has been actively working to improve the lives of children and families in the country. All their support, activities or interventions are geared towards making the life of the child meaningful, helping to create the enabling environment for children to grow to their full potentials in life.
These lofty ideals do not stop at the child alone, the mother also benefit in the process. Because, nature has made women to be carriers of pregnancy, UNICEF always advocates for child care from conception, where the child could be taken care of through the mother before delivery.
These levels of care can be seen in how pregnant women are encouraged to go for antenatal care (ANC), delivery in health facility, post natal care, nutrition intake, exclusive breastfeeding, family planning and other forms of healthcare services. After delivery, the child development becomes another major area of focus of UNICEF.
UNICEF Nigeria focuses on supporting Government at National and Subnational levels in ensuring every child has access to good nutrition, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, and protection from violence and exploitation.
Without doubt, the Bauchi Field Office (BFO) of UNICEF have gone extra miles in harvesting a Cohort of Trained Journalists that are focused on amplifying issues around child health and development, hand in hand with that of mother’s health and general wellbeing.
In most of their 2024 activities, these cohort of Journalists were carried along by UNICEF BFO. Some of the objectives of such engagements were to keep Journalists abreast with issues that concern children wellbeing with a view to using their various channels in amplifying such issues. These amplification had galvanised Government at all levels and other partners into taking actions, aimed at addressing some of the concerns.
It is imperative to note that BFO’s collaboration with the media is in line with UNICEF Nigeria’s move to leverage on the impact of the media in creating awareness and social behaviour change in their focused areas of support to Nigerian Government.
This was attested by UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Cristian Munduate in April 2024 , when UNICEF, Nigerian Guild of Editors and, the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME) signed an MoU. That MoU was a significant move to advance the rights and welfare of children in Nigeria. The partnership was aimed at leveraging media’s influential power to promote and protect childrenās rights across the nation.
During the occasion, Cristian Munduate was quoted as saying, āThis partnership with the Nigerian Guild of Editors and DAME harnesses the media’s immense potential as an advocate for the welfare of children. The media not only informs public opinion but also influences those in power to enact changes that favour childrenās rights. By joining forces, we are setting a course to transform how childrenās rights are reported and addressed in the media, ensuring every childās rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled.ā
Some of the activities of UNICEF BFO was empowering young people to take the lead in advocating for children’s rights. They provided space for young minds to share ideas, voice concerns, and express their dreams for every child. This year, BFO created a platform where the children spoke directly to the leadership of the Bauchi State House of Assembly and the State First Lady, Dr. Aisha Bala Mohammed. During that particular engagement, the presented their needs for possible intervention by the Bauchi State Government.
UNICEF BFO also partners with government agencies, NGOs, media and private sector organizations to advance children’s rights and well-being. These partnerships had provided technical support to the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Board (BSPHCDB) in establishing community resource initiatives like the Mama2Mama and Fathers for Health (F4H). Such community structures have been assisting the BSPHCDB in mobilizing caregivers to allow their children, wards and women to access healthcare services at the community level. The activities of these community volunteers had also led to improved immunization coverage especially during the HPV, Measles integrated immunization, and other other routine immunization campaigns.
In UNICEF BFO, besides carrying the cohort of Journalists along in their activities, specific programs and activities were organised for the journalists drawn from BFO’s focused States of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Plateau and Taraba.
Such engagements provide an avenue for cross fertilization of ideas on how best to develop impactful stories aimed at driving policy changes that could benefit children’s and women’s welfare. The engagements also serves as resource meetings that provides Journalists with current statistics of children/women related issues within Nigeria, Regions and States specifics.
Some highlights of UNICEF BFO’s engagements with Journalists in 2024 were media dialogues organised on:
- āChild nutrition , Complementary feeding , Exclusive breastfeeding
- āChild poverty and social protection
- āChild Immunization campaign to address zero dose challenge
- āBasic education and safe school environment
- āImportance of first 1000 days of children’s life after birth
- ā Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), and Environmental Sustainability in relation to child development , among other engagements
The most recent media dialogue organised by UNICEF BFO was in November 2024. During the engagement, conversations were centered on child mortality in Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba States. That engagement was aimed to raise awareness, foster action, and stimulate both public and government responses to address this problem. The primary goal of that engagement was to ignite a meaningful conversation about child mortality in Bauchi, Gombe, and Taraba states, focusing attention on the root causes of child mortality, its socio-economic and health impacts, and the urgent need for collective action from a broad range of stakeholders.
Another milestone in the twilight of 2024 achieved by UNICEF Nigeria was the engagement of celebrities like Ali Nuhu, Kate Henshaw etc that served as UNICEFs Ambassadors that supports States in their campaigns for improved immunization coverage to mitigate all preventable child killer diseases.
UNICEF BFO also engages journalists in commemorating all significant dates set aside by the United Nations (UN) . It was during one of such days, the 2024 World Polio Day, that UNICEF BFO launched a song jingle done by select group of celebrities drawn from some West African countries that includes Nigeria.
Another giant stride made by UNICEF in 2024 where the Media were fully carried along was the handing over of a Multimillion Naira Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Plant and a Level 2 Newborn Care Unit at Azare General Hospital, constructed by UNICEF in collaboration with IHS Nigeria and the Government of Canada, which was handed over to Bauchi State Government in early December 2024.
In the same vein, Journalists were also mobilized by the BFO to assess the Open Defecation Free (ODF) statuses of some Local Government Areas of Bauchi State. This was done with a view to disseminating lessons learnt in the attainment of ODF so that other communities can key into such best practices.
It is instructive to note that all these engagements, activities and programs carried by UNICEF BFO in partnership with Journalists and other broad range of stakeholders were all geared towards child survival and wellbeing. This much was attested by UNICEF’s Chief of Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique at the launching of 2024 second round of MNCH Week in Gombe State when she said, “The main focus of UNICEF is to ensure that children and women live healthy lives , reaching their full potentials in life”.
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