By Abdullahi Yusuf
The Community Reorientation Women Network(CROWN) has embarked on Polio Eradication and Women empowerment programmes in six Northern States.
The Group has already conducted outreaches in 39 wards across three states, out of the six identified States, with the network of Ambassadors facilitating lifesaving vaccinations for over 20, 000 children.
The children are linked to over 50,000 pregnant women for Antenatal services, and each of them empowered to start up income generating activities.
Addressing a press conference in Kano on Thursday,CROWN Chairman, Board of Trustees, Zouera Yousouffou, explained that the foundation is galvanising support for community women to drive a door-to-door campaign against the polio disease.
Yousouffou, who is also the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Dangote Foundation, said the objective of mobilising female volunteers came out of persistent resistance to the polio vaccine, which threatens the lives of children in Kano.
Yousouffou said CROWN had galvanized over 5,000 Ambassadors, placing them in these women collectives, to provide key messages to caregiver, identify children and women needing services, and solve identified barriers to seeking health services on a-case-by-case basis.
She said CROWN is volunteer-based women collective that is committed to advancing human development indices in the most remote areas,drawing funding from Dangote and Gates foundations.
“Our entry point has been health but we are consolidating and plan to expand to education and nutrition.
“These women will be supported with economic empowerment schemes that build on the crafts they are interested in ensuring that this is a wrap around support that empowers the woman and benefits her family.
“We have implemented pilots in a few wards across some states including Kano, Sokoto and of course Bauchi where we started. And we have started to see the promise that this holds in improving immunization uptake, preventing malnutrition and linking over 190 thousand families to essential health services.
“With this proof of concept established, we recently incorporated CROWN as a grassroots entity, and yesterday, inaugurated the Board of Trustees here in Kano to help steer this initiative and keep us true to cause.
“We are honored that these individuals have volunteered their time and resources to join me as Founding Board members:
Violiane Mitchell (a former director with the Gates Foundation with decades of experience supporting immunization and health in Nigeria) explained that, ” We have walked through communities with these women and seen the many creative ways they are influencing caregivers, and empowering each other on voluntary basis
“We are excited about the industry that is already taking off within these women collectives – from Micro savings, to Vocational training, and Group enterprises; We are deeply inspired by how the ambassadors continue to support themselves and drive community development.
” We are also deeply appreciative of our traditional leaders, who continue to champion this effort and ensure that solutions are community-driven and address their unique needs.
“Our vision for CROWN is that it creates a grassroots movement of Ambassadors who are volunteering their time to empower communities and improve health and development outcomes.”
“I am honoured to be part of this initiative; the succees of any intervention for health is anchored in community ownership and local solutions – this is evident in the principles of Volunteerism that the CROWN intervention is founded on
“My years in the immunization space, particularly Polio, has seen us benefit from the work and tenacity of women groups and their ability to make in roads to difficult communities and households, supports With the ramp down on polio.
“CROWN is organizing Female Polio resources into a network of Ambassadors to drive community broader health, nutrition and education outcomes.
“What CROWN is also doing is giving women a voice, elevating them to hight levels of community stewardship and influence, and providing opportunities to access services, peer support, and economic empowerment
“I am deeply inspired by the creativity, passion and ownership I have witnessed in every champion on this intervention – The Ambassadors, the community leaders, the Health workers and the many individuals who have volunteered their time and resources to nurture the idea into an initiative.
Uche Igbokwe, The ED/CEO at SCIDaR, said his organization has been a pioneer of the initiatives, working with the Aliko Dangote Foundation to conceptualize and bring this strategy to life.
Igbokwe said CROWN is volunteer-based women collective that are committed to advancing human development indices in the most remote areas,adding, “Our entry point has been health but we are consolidating and plan to expand to education and nutrition.”
He assured that women would be supported with economic empowerment schemes that build on the crafts they are interested in ensuring that this is a wrap around support that empowers the woman and benefits her family
“Progress so far: We have implemented pilots in a few wards across some states including Kano, Sokoto and of course Bauchi where we started. And we have started to see the promise that this holds in improving immunization uptake, preventing malnutrition and linking over 190 thousand families to essential health services.
“With this proof of concept established, we recently incorporated CROWN as a grassroots entity, and yesterday, inaugurated the Board of Trustees here in Kano to help steer this initiative and keep us true to cause. We are honored that these individuals have volunteered their time and resources to join me as Founding Board members,” he added.