Red Cross trains 40 professionals on “health care in danger’’
by Emmanuel OkogbaRed Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Nigeria delegation says 40 healthcare professionals benefitted from its two-day training of trainer workshop toward introducing “Health Care in Danger” into Medical Tertiary Institutes in the country.
ICRC Deputy Head of Delegation in Nigeria, Dr Jean-Francois Quéguiner, made this known in a statement by ICRC Public Relations Officer, Aliyu Dawobe, on Monday in Abuja.
Dawobe quoted Quéguiner as saying “during this workshop, we initiated a discussion about specific risks healthcare workers face in armed conflict areas and other situations of violence.
“We hope these discussions would serve to introduce comprehensive training modules on medical ethics.
“We also hope it would help to introduce rights and responsibilities of healthcare personnel in medical school to deepen the knowledge of medical students.”
Quéguiner said that the workshop, organised in partnership with Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, took place in Abuja on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6.
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He noted that the aim of the training was to discuss challenges preventing the teaching of medical ethics and the legal framework protecting the wounded, sick, healthcare personnel and facilities and to identify how these challenges could be tackled.
According to him, Nigeria has witnessed incidents of damage and looting of healthcare facilities, attacks on patients and healthcare workers and prevention of access to healthcare.
He said migration of qualified healthcare personnel from areas affected by armed conflicts was another serious issue affecting access to health in some parts of the country.
Also in the statement, the ICRC indicated that it supported 80,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Benue with food.
According to the statement, the organisation is also carrying out a livestock deworming campaign for over 100,000 cattle and other small ruminants belonging to pastoralist communities affected by violence.
“We provided this assistance to alleviate the sufferings of people in conflict areas.
“The humanitarian situation here is difficult, and the ICRC helps the most vulnerable communities,” it quoted Majid Bakhtiary, the Head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Jos as saying.
Bakhtiary said that the six weeks of deworming campaign which started on Nov. 12 in Awe, Keana and Nasarawa local government areas of Nasarawa State, aimed at improving the health of the livestock.
Simultaneously, he said, ICRC also concluded food distribution in collaboration with Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) to some 80,000 people in displacement camps in Guma and Makurdi local government areas of Benue.
In addition, he said, the ICRC in partnership with Department of Livestock and Veterinary Services in Plateau, trained 1,600 people, among them NRCS volunteers, community animal health workers and community leaders.
The training covered basic animal disease and treatment, enabling participants to assist livestock herders in remote areas where veterinary services were not available. (NAN)