NIGERIA MOVES TO IMPROVE MATERNAL, CHILD SURVIVAL RATE

PHOTO CREDIT: http://www.childrensonquality.com

Worried by the increasing number of maternal and newborn deaths in Nigeria and indeed Africa, the Federal government has stressed the need to scale-up the implementation of four percent chlorhexidine gel intervention, a drug used to prevent maternal and neonatal mortality across the sub-region 

Speaking at a regional learning workshop organized by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with PATH and USAID yesterday in Abuja 

Permanent Secretary at the Ministry, Abdullahi Mashi, said the high rate of neo-natal mortality coupled with the use of harmful traditional substances such as cow dung, engine oil, tooth paste for cord care led the country to embrace the intervention in order change the newborn deaths narrative in Nigeria.

The workshop which was attended by nine Franco-phone countries was aimed at improving chlorhexidine intervention across the ECOWAS sub-region.

He noted that though government through integrated approach and collaborative public-private partnerships has recorded success in the use of the drug, “the issue of poor data, low uptake of 4 per cent chlorhexidine, weak maternal newborn and child health (MNCH) are challenges confronting CHX implementation”.

MY WIFE AND HER FAMILY ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY

My wife and her family members are driving me crazy. Their involvement in my home is becoming embarrassing. I may have to give my wife the red card asap. Her family poke noses into all my affairs. How I spent my money, who I give my money to, who I visit, and so on. All they want is to continue to expend money on them and live my life for them. I got their daughter a job, her salary isn't enough for them, how can I be taking care of able bodied men who have refused to work with their certificates, looking for jobs with good pays before they'll work, their pensioner father is not also helping matters, very difficult to please. I have made it known to my wife that our marriage contract did not include pleasing her family members but she won't listen then I worked my transfer from Lagos to Abuja, yet they're on my neck. My wife's younger brother is presently in Abuja without any clear cut mission other than to come and monitor my affairs. He called me around 7pm yesterday to tell me he's in Utako and that I should come and pick him from pack, I told him I didn't invite him to Abuja so why should I pick him up? I asked him if he didn't have a mission before coming and why he should get to Abuja before notifying me that he's coming to my place. I shunned him and switched off my phone. I switched on the phone now only to read 3 abusive text messages from my wife and one from her father threatening that if anything happens to his son, I'll be held responsible. My people, can you see my life? My pastor have been trying to broker peace between us before I left for Abuja to no avail, what I intended to do is to settle down here and get her relocated so that if she's a bit far from her family, things will work out. I'll instruct a lawyer to file divorce papers tomorrow, I can no longer take it.

WHAT IS THE APOSTLES’ CREED?

The Apostles’ Creed, though not written by the apostles, is the oldest creed of the Christian church and is the basis for others that followed. Its most used form is:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell;
The third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The Holy catholic Church,
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting. Amen.

In its oldest form, the Apostles’ Creed goes back to at least 140 A.D.

Many of the early church leaders summed up their beliefs as they had an opportunity to stand for their faith—see, for example, 1 Timothy 6:12.

These statements developed into a more standard form to express one’s confession of faith at the time of baptism.

It is not Scripture, but it is a simple list of the great doctrines of the faith.

The word “catholic” means “relating to the church universal” and was the word used in the original version of the Creed.

It does not mean the Roman Catholic Church, but the church, the body of Christ, as a universal fellowship.

The phrase, “He descended into hell,” was not part of the creed in its earliest form.

- Billy Graham Evangelistic Association