Once a week, in the compound of the Mai Unguwa (ward head), a group of women who formed what is now called the Marhaba da Alkhairi Women Development Initiative, hold meetings to discuss a wide range of topics that affect the women of Gwammaja in the eastern part of Dala Local Government Area of Kano State.
The topics usually revolve around maternal and child health, financial empowerment, family planning, as well as Islamic education of the women populace the group serves.
“It started as an Islamiyah for us married women. In the beginning, we just wanted to learn the Quran and remember the hadith and widen our knowledge of Islam. That was why we formed a group,” the founder of the group, identified simply as Hajiya Gambo, told Daily Trust Saturday.
The objective of the group soon started to change when they realised that the women needed more than religious education to live a healthy and stable life.
“Among us, some died while giving birth, or their children would die because some husbands would say they did not have money to take them to the hospital. That was why we had to do something to help our members so that we would not be dying anyhow,’’ she added.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 20 per cent of maternal deaths around the globe happen in Nigeria, making the country one of the riskiest places for women to be pregnant and give birth.
Thus, the group had to strategise and redesign their goals to identify the reasons for the high maternal mortality rate amongst the women in their community.
The first problem the women identified was that a good number of their members depended on their husbands for survival.
“A woman cannot even eat till her husband gives her money to buy food. And how much is that money? You would see someone with eight children and the husband will give her N100 to eat. It is not enough. Where will they get money for drugs if there is no money to eat?” Hajiya Gambo asked.
Their husbands are mostly petty traders, drivers and farmers, with little income to spare outside what was considered the basic needs – food, shelter and clothing. So women had to wait till their husbands had enough money. Sometimes they wait for five to six months into their pregnancies before registering for ante-natal care.
Hajiya Gambo continued, “So we decided to start contributing money. Those of us that have money contribute every month, then give whatever we raise to one woman so that she can do business.”
Those benefiting from the monthly contributions are monitored by the group to ensure that the money is put into the right use.
The need for sensitisation
Hajiya Gambo and her group soon realised that it was not enough for women to have some form of income; they also need an attitudinal change in their views of modern medicine, and most importantly, family planning.
She realized that if women were to live a financially stable life, they had to give birth to only the number of children they could cater for. And so, once a month, the group gathers women in the community to teach them about child spacing, family planning and the importance of ante and post-natal checkups.
Although a lot of women took this development kindly, their men did not take it so well.
Winning husbands’ confidence
It wasn’t long after Hajiya Gambo and her group introduced family planning into their activities that she noticed that the number of their members started reducing.
“That was when I took my purse and went to the Mai Unguwa to ask for his help,” she said.
Alhaji Ahmad Usman is the Mai Unguwa, where the women do their sensitisation.
“When she came to me, I knew that something had to be done, but it had to be done with sense. So I started preaching to the husbands. After our prayers, I would ask them to stay behind and I would speak to them,” Alhaji Ahmad said.
Slowly, Alhaji Ahmad won the husbands over, seizing every opportunity he had to preach to them on the importance of proper family planning, child spacing, and how it could ensure healthier, smarter children and long lives of their spouses.
“Now, some of them even come to me on behalf of their wives. They will tell me to beg Hajiya Gambo to help their wives with family planning. They now know the importance,” he added.
Intervention from the Kano State Government
Hajiya Gambo and the rest of the women discovered another obstacle hindering their progress. The primary health care centre next to them does not operate optimally; it does not operate for 24 hours as it was designed.
Sometimes the health centre would have to refer them to hospitals in the state for difficult deliveries. And where deliveries come in the dead of the night, they would have no option than to try to take the deliveries themselves.
Running short of solutions, Hajiya Gambo cried to the Mai Unguwa again. He scaled up the matter to the Emirate Council and help came for the women from the state government, through the emirs.
One hundred and fourteen women from the 12 wards in Dala were picked and trained as midwives. Each of the women was given equipment and adequate training to help them take deliveries, with a car for each ward.
This way, Hajiya Gambo and the women took deliveries, no matter how late it was or easily transport women to hospitals should they encounter challenges.
Hope for the future
Speaking to Daily Trust Saturday on their progress so far, Mrs Hassanah Nasir, the secretary of the group said, “This group has been going on for 17 years. Now, if you even go to some hospitals like Dala Orthopaedic or Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, they know who we are. We have been able to partner with these hospitals to give us subsidised services. Now, we just tell women to go and meet them and tell them that Hajiya Gambo sent them.
“We also take a percentage from the profits the women make from the money we give them to start businesses. This money helps with covering emergencies. We still contribute money every month in case someone needs it.”
Hajiya Gambo also said they attracted a lot of non- governmental organisations to make donations.
“Our car spoilt for almost two years, but some people came to help us fix it. This is because they know we are doing the work. And how did they know we are doing the work? We keep records.
We keep records of all the births in a month, those that were stillborn and those that were born healthy. We also keep a record of women who die, those we give family planning, the kind of family planning and how long they are going to be on family planning. We have all the records to show that we know what we are doing,” Alhaji Usman added.
Appeal to Kano State Government
Mrs Nasir complained that of the 114 women trained to serve the communities, more than 70 have reneged and refused to do the work.
“Let the government help us to make sure that those people do their work. This is because we even go outside Gwammaja to render help to women. We also need certificates for the training we did so that people will know that we are qualified midwives. They have been promising to send our certificates, but nothing has been done.”
Corroborating her story, Alhaji Usman said, “They also need identity cards to show that they know what they are doing. We also want our primary health care properly equipped for 24-hour service, which will really help.”
Hajiya Gambo wants people to know the sacrifice they make to ensure that women lead healthy lives. “We don’t get even one naira from what we do. It is not like anybody is paying us; we are just doing this for God. People should know that we don’t get any money from what we do here,” she said.
