.BY: VITALIS UGOH, Calabar
Teachers from ten Secondary schools in Calabar South Local government area in Cross River state are currently undergoing a 3-day training on Social and Behavior Change as a means of eradicating malaria in our society.
The program is tagged BA-N Nigeria – School SBC Program 3-Day Training of Teachers from September 20-22 holding at Adsuit hotels, Calabar.
Nine out of the ten selected schools were fully represented with two participants in attendance.
Declaring the training program open, the Cross River state Program Manager, Malaria in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Asuquo Ekwe, that the training was organised to take the awareness of social and behavior change down to our secondary schools where we are more of the adolescents.
It also seek to create a positive intervention in the way and manner the issue of malaria is perceived in our schools and homes.
He said that there are about 1300 health facilities in Cross River state where people can easily access good medical treatment as far as malaria is concerned.
Ekwe, therefore appealed to all and sundry especially those residing in the state to take advantage of these health facilities and treat themselves.
Presently, he said, records show that there is only 19.5 percent of malaria cases in the state.
He blamed some private health institutions for the hike in the figure due to greed and urge to make quick money fro m their victims. This ugly scenario had inadvertently influenced the data
.
Therefore, he on behalf of the commissioner for health charge the teachers to start from today to change their social and behavior change towards malaria, its cause, treatment and myth in our society.
Also speaking, the state Coordinator, Malaria, Dr. Kennedy Kenechukwu, had earlier welcomed participants to the 3-day training of Teachers.
The objective of the training program is to equip them to go back and train students on social and behavior change in their different schools as well as in their homes.
Malaria, he said, can be eradicated through our joint efforts such as this collobration.
The is also designed to increase secondary schools Social and behavior change program, to build the capacity of Teachers, implement and coordinate the activities of school health clubs and to promote the practice of positive behaviour.
Delivery her lectures, the Facilitator, and Program Officer -Malaria, Linda Osaji, took the participants through “Overview of the school SBC program, Introduction to the Teachers toolkit, causes of malaria and its effect,when to seek care for malaria and effective treatment of malaria amongst others.
It was an interesting and rewarding session as participants were given ample opportunity to ask questions for clarity.
