10th May, 2017
UNICEF has said that none of the 250 Hard-to-Reach (HTR) communities under its intervention was affected by the recent meningitis outbreak in Zamfara.
The UNICEF Coordinator in the state, Mr Ifeanyi Ojei, said this in a report he presented at the Fourth Quarter and Year One Review meeting on HTR on Wednesday in Gusau.
Ojei said the fund had last year increased the number of HTR communities from an initial 150 communities to 250 this year.
He explained that UNICEF had embarked on rigorous enlightenment campaign on health issues throughout the 250 communities including the maintenance of hygienic environment, well ventilated rooms, consumption of balanced diet derived from locally available foodstuffs and accessing healthcare services to achieve the success.
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He said while UNICEF was planning to exit the programme by the middle of 2018, there were still underserved communities that required such support in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the HTR programme is designed by UNICEF in collaboration with the State Government in 2016 to provide healthcare services and protection to the hard to reach communities across the state.
The intervention covered 66 electoral wards in eight out of the 14 local government areas of the state.
The benefitting areas included Gusau, Tsafe, Kaura-Namoda, Shinkafi, Maradun, Talata-Mafara, Bakura and Bungudu.