Advocacy and capacity building are key services of EHNRD. One of our many activities in these areas was a federal government funded project tagged “Advocacy/Capacity Building on Obstetrics Fistula and maternal Injury prevention in Ebonyi State”. The project involved advocacy meetings and capacity building workshops with various community, government and professional stakeholders including all the traditional rulers in 13 LGAs of the state, women leaders, traditional birth attendants, leaders of cooperative organizations, CSOs, religious leaders, International Federation of Female Lawyers (FIDA), the media, doctors and nurses, HODs, PHCC, PHCDA and LGA councillors.
The program caused authorities and policy makers in various communities to make policies and adopt activities that encouraged women to attend antenatal care, give birth in hospitals and gave reassurance of efforts to eliminate harmful traditional practices such as GBV as part of their contribution to the project. The project also helped to identify more women living with fistula especially in the hardest-to-reach communities and empowered them to access the free services offered by NOFIC including free treatment of fistula, free child delivery service, free family planning program and free cancer screening services.
