HEALTH

With over fifteen (15) years of pioneering programmes in girls’ education and empowerment, GCC equally has expertise in community programmes on reproductive, maternal and child health in Northern Nigeria, especially on the cultural and social linkages that affect reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) in Northern Nigeria. To strengthen RMNCAH in Borno state, GCC is advancing an enabling environment for Empowering Rural Adolescent Girls as Village Health Workers in Borno State, Nigeria. With support from MSD for Mothers, GCC is implementing a program that will train young women as Village Health Workers in their communities. We have currently trained 246 young women as VHWs and 40 existing CHEWS as supportive supervisors drawn from within the communities. All trainings were based on NPHCDA training documents for the cadre. We are already receiving positive feedback from the communities including from World Health Organization (WHO) on the impact of our program in improving health seeking behaviours in the communities where these Village Health Workers serve, while we work on collecting additional data to monitor impact. GCC also works towards ensuring the attainment of womens’ human rights and reproductive rights through information sharing on reproductive health issues and other educational- based enrichment programs for vulnerable girls and adolescent mothers. To achieve its goals, the organization targets the Legislature, Institutions, Communities, Traditional & Religious leaders, Parents, Adolescent girls and other stakeholders to influence formulation of policies and community interventions that impact positively on education and health of young people in particular. Over the years, the organization has worked with local communities, particularly in northern Nigeria towards ensuring that young people are given the opportunities they need to develop into informed adults who are able to make informed decisions about their lives. GCC also conducts strategic research and has undertaken research with support from IPAS on factors that influence reproductive health of adolescents. It is using desk review and evidence generated from other studies to show that Participating in the Girl Child Education reduced the probability of being married by 64 per cent.( 2007 DRHS. Kaplan-Meier estimates of the proportion of women unmarried)