Office of Civic Engagement and Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) has enrolled another 570 beneficiaries of the Mother, Infant and Child Development (MICHD) Programme into the State’s Health Insurance Scheme called ‘Ilera Eko’.
Gatekeepers News reports that MICHD, a nutritional support program, is aimed at providing weekly nutritional food packs and supplements to indigent pregnant women across the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas of the State.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, at the partners’ engagement forum held on Tuesday in Alausa Ikeja, explained that the enrollment of the babies in the insurance scheme is to ensure the mothers and their babies remain healthy.
She noted that the engagement forum also provides opportunities for partners from the public and private sectors to meet with 570 beneficiaries of the programme as she confirmed that “all is set for the rollout of this significant phase of the audacious programme and I charge all stakeholders to use the opportunity of this forum to make a bold attempt at charting a veritable course of decisive action that will make the phase a resounding success”
According to Adebowale: “The Office of Civic Engagement, under my privileged leadership, understands that to create a peaceful and safe environment where the government can function optimally, citizens right from conception to birth and through adolescence to adulthood must be given a fair chance to live, grow and become civically responsible individuals who are less likely to exert social pressure on the system.
“Research points to the fact that there is a relationship between maternal malnutrition and disposition to violence in adolescence hence vindicating the position of the MICHD program which as much as nutrition addresses health, poverty and human capital development concerns, it is also a vital factor in addressing security concerns. Nutrition especially while invitro is a critical factor in addressing predisposition to Violence.”
Gatekeepers News reports that the MICHD Programme was launched by Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu on the 22nd of September, 2021.
Adebowale noted that the programme is a component “of our Womb To School Initiative, a preparedness preventive rather than curative security measure geared towards making Lagos safer by the projected year 2050.”
She further commended the efforts of all the stakeholders and partners some of which include; The Special Adviser Office of Sustainable Development Goal & Investment, Ministry Health, Ministry Agriculture, LASHMA, LASRRA, Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Alaro City, Birthright, Kimberly Clark, Lasena Water, JAWA Pharmaceutical Company and Rite Foods for their belief and contributions to the MICHD programme.
