Rotary project expands malaria and nutrition support across three states
Rotary’s intervention through the Little Steps Big Help project continues to make remarkable progress in tackling malaria and malnutrition among pregnant women and children under five across Oyo, Lagos, and Ogun States. The intervention began in November 2023 with a strong focus on strengthening the capacity of frontline health workers and successfully trained 455 healthcare workers at the Primary Health Care (PHC) level on malaria prevention, early diagnosis, and nutrition management.
However, due to the high number of pregnant women patronizing Community Birth Attendant (CBA) homes, the project expanded its scope to include them. Consequently, an additional 126 CBAs were trained to strengthen community-level capacity in preventing malaria and malnutrition while promoting safe antenatal care and timely referral of high-risk pregnancies.
“Strengthening frontline health workers ensures lifesaving care reaches the most vulnerable communities.”
The project currently supports 165 Primary Health Care centres across 27 Local Government Areas in the three states. These facilities are being strengthened with essential malaria and malnutrition drugs, commodities, and equipment to improving their ability to deliver lifesaving services to pregnant women and young children.
Malaria and malnutrition interventions show measurable recovery outcomes
In addition targeted nutrition intervention is managing 300 severely malnourished children across the three states (with a target of 100 in each state), with early results showing 60% recovery while treatment continues for others.
“Early detection and consistent treatment are transforming outcomes for children at risk.”
Monthly outreaches to CBA homes by Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) promote the uptake of Intermittent Preventive Treatment for malaria in pregnancy (IPTp), with over 7,000 pregnant women receiving at least three doses of IPT before delivery.
Community outreach drives access to malaria prevention and treatment
Community and facility based outreaches continue to expand access to malaria prevention, nutrition education, and early treatment of pregnant women and children.
Over 100,000 women and under five children have been reached, 16,000 insecticide treated nets distributed, more than 30,000 women and children tested during the outreaches, and over 3,000 positive cases of malaria treated across the three states.
“Expanding access at the community level ensures no mother or child is left behind.”
