Dr. Praise Ebimeye Tangbe,(L-R 4th on blue ) CEO, Moms and Infants Care Network in a group photograph with the women beneficiaries during the Health Care Services event organised for Pregnant Women and Nursing Mothers at Mom Civic Centre in Warri, Delta State recently
By Victor Umukoro Kobodokuni.
A Non-governmental organization,under the auspices of Mom’s and Infants Care Network (MICN) has given a robust health care services to women especially pregnant women, nursing mothers aged mothers and children in Delta State through her health programmes.
The foundation which was founded by Dr. Praise Ebimaye Tangbe, working with a team of experts, has also empowered many of the women with various items like ; pad, breast pump, baby bed, baby carrier, pampers, delivery pads, baby wipes, baby food, among others. The programme which took place in Warri in Delta State recently was unique in its respect.
In her addresse. Tangbe said that MICN is a non- governmental organization committed to foster its mission in line with the United Nations Women and the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) to reduce global material mortality rate and World Health Organization’s (WHO) strategy on addressing inequalities in access to and quality of reproductive maternal and newborn care services.
According to her, the primary aims of the Moms and Infants Care Network ( MICN) is to primarily provide care support services for pregnant women, nursing mother’s and their families adding that the mission is to foster equitable environment that protects, improves and promotes optimal health and well -beings of mother’s, children and families.
According to Dr Tangbe, the organisation accomplishes its mission through active partnership with the government agencies,community based organization, health care providers, academic and research agencies, faith based entities, families and advocates.
She further revealed that 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and child -birth around the world, adding that, Nigeria is among one third of the world’s total death population just as she said there are over 40,000 maternal deaths in Nigeria.
According to Dr Tangbe, among other things, one of the goals of MICN is to reduce maternal and child’s death and illness, increase skilled traditional birth attendants, improve maternal health, advance research across translational spectrum for the MCH population and increase access to high quality and culturally competent health services for families
She further maintained that some of the activities of this initiative they have in future to execute include: community engagement, post partum home visiting, care for children with special needs, adolescents health, training and MCN research, maternal and innovative pod cast, STEM, Queen’s Scholarship scheme, mobil food pantry and annual consortium saying that these initiatives make up team members.
Dr. Praise Ebimaye Tangbe, a full time Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Movement Sciences, bagged her Doctorate degree in Public Health from Jackson State University, Master of Public Health from Ohio University and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alabama, at Birmingham.
The health expert previously served as the Programme Manager in the Mississipi State in the Department of Health known as Maternal and Child Health Block Grant with office health sciences.
She has six years of research experience incorporated in health education programmes: planning, implementation and evaluation. Her research interest focuses on maternal and child health, minority health, social determinants of health, health disparity and health equity.
Dr. Tangbe’s research and work experiences incorporate evidence based community, based participatory and school based health education approaches and initiatives to focus on lifestyle behaviour change.
She hoped to mitigate maternal and child morality through MCH’s initiative that seeks to improve the health and well being of women, children and families across the globe.
In his presentation, one of the guest speakers, Dr. Damian Avar, who centred his speech on” inequities” said a lot of pregnant women during pregnancy, as a result of many factors, over 240,000 infants or children die yearly in Nigeria during pregnancy just as he said about 58,000 women die yearly in Nigeria
According to him, the factors responsible for this include, lack of access to quality health care, poverty, poor educational background, cultural background, inadequate skilled health personnel and lack of political will or budget that needed to circulate every sectors of the economy, insecurity in Nigeria among others.
Dr. Avar therefore recommended that for Nigerians to save more women’s lives in the country, factors such as policy implementation,funding, training of medicals personnel, integration TBA’S, Health Promotion and others should be considered.
Among the beneficiaries are: Mrs. Simon Glory, Mrs. Favour Douperegho, Mrs. Ozuem Lillian, Mrs. Ese Chukwuma, Mrs. Ella and many others.
Responding,one of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Favour Doupereghp, who hails from Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area Delta State, maintained that she really enjoyed the programme as she was given a piece of baby bed and baby pampers, in addition to another baby bed given to her as well at Okerenkoko. She therefore used this medium to appeal to the government to support the initiative to enable the organizers touch more lives in the same way.
On her part, Mrs. Ozuem Lillian, one of the beneficiaries also commended the good efforts of the organizers and advised that the team should continue to feature the programme across the state to enable those that have not benefitted to do so just as she prayed to God to bless them in this regard.
Highpoints of the ceremony were raffle draw ticket where over 222 pregnant women, breast feeding mothers and other guests won various items such as pads, breast pump, baby bed, baby carrier, pampers, delivering pads, baby wipes, baby food and baby shower for nursing mothers; the luncheon where different kinds of art works were sold for thousands and millions of naira by different bidders; a symposium which featured discussants on breast feeding and difficulty on child’s delivery, one year remembrance of Ms Queen Oguma Tangbe and Ms Queen’s Scholarship Award among others.