FROM August 21st, 2019
Wednesday 21st August, Toyin Saraki, global advocate and Founder-President of leading women and children’s health organisation, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, has welcomed the milestone of Nigeria being free of Wild Polio Virus for three years.
In a statement released by her office Mrs. Saraki stated:
“Today Nigeria marks a great milestone by reaching the three-year mark without any cases of the Wild Polio Virus (WPV). The last case of WPV was detected on 21st August in 2016, in Borno State. Since then, no new cases of WPV have been detected in any part of Nigeria. This is a major step towards certifying our country as WPV-free.”
“However, we must celebrate cautiously, and without complacency. To sustain this success, we must continue Polio mass immunization campaigns with the same great drive and commitment as before. This is vital in order to ensure that all children are protected against Polio, including the Circulating Vaccine Polio Virus (CVPDV) which can occur in areas with weak routine immunization coverage, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa Foundation Founder recognised the significant contributions made towards the achievement of this milestone by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other important partners including the Aliko Dangote Foundation.
Mrs. Saraki reiterated that her organisation’s Maternal Monday social media advocacy campaign and MamaCare Frontline program are committed to supporting the immunisation work of the World Health Organisation Nigeria, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, the Federal Ministry of Health, and the National Centre for Disease Control. Giving mothers access to information on the safety and importance of vaccines is a necessity in order to empower them to make immunisation choices in the best interests of their children.
Mrs. Saraki is a pioneering member of the Women Advocates to Vaccine Access (WAVA) initiative of the Johns Hopkins University (JHPIEGO).
FROM August 9th, 2019
Dear Partners, Supports, Colleagues and Friends,
As World Breastfeeding Week 2019 draws to a close, it is my pleasure to provide you with an update our work here at Wellbeing Foundation Africa. As ever, our midwives remain at the centre of our programs and advocacy activities. Last week we were proud to launch our new ‘Neonatal Intensive Care Lactation Support Pilot Program’, and I had the opportunity to meet with the leadership team at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Thank you to all of my colleagues and partners who continue to make our impact possible. As ever, please do not hesitate to get in touch with any of your thoughts, feedback or ideas. We are always learning from one another.
With many thanks,
Toyin Saraki
Founder-President, Wellbeing Foundation Africa
As World Breastfeeding Week 2019 drew to a close yesterday, Toyin Ojora Saraki conducted an official visit to the maternity ward of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In her meetings with senior staff, including Zoe Penn, Medical Director, Victoria Cochrane, Director of Midwifery, Gubby Ayida, Medical Director of Women’s Services, and Kerry Huntington, Fundraising Director of ’CW +’ which acts as the official charity of the NHS Foundation Trust, Mrs Saraki explored how the 12,000 women a year who give birth at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital are cared for. Mrs Saraki was keen to learn more about the hospital’s midwifery-led system wand and obstetric model of care, which includes specialist support for more complex pregnancies and health conditions with a foetal medicine unit.
Mrs Saraki, whose Wellbeing Foundation Africa is partners with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health’s Emergency Management of Obstetric And Newborn Care Simulation Skills Program in Nigeria, had been invited to visit the hospital in light of her “extensive experience, passion and global standing” in the field of midwifery, and as Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), and Special Adviser to the Independent Advisory Group of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa.
Following the meetings and tour of the hospital, Mrs Saraki commented:
“I commend the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for its superb, midwife-led maternity care. I was struck today not only by the excellent standards that women can expect at the hospital, but also by the culture of respect that is ubiquitous amongst staff.”
“I am impressed to observe the workings of primary, secondary and tertiary specialist referrals providing an unbroken continuum of maternity care, as an essential core of universal health coverage services.”
“At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, our MamaCare midwives also lead the way with quality care, saving many lives and helping women and infants to thrive. I look forward to working with the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to share “research bench to bedside” best-practice models of maternity services, and bring the best possible standards of care to women all over the world – no matter where they give birth.”
Mrs Saraki’s visit coincided with World Breastfeeding week, during which the Wellbeing Foundation Africa launched its ‘Neonatal Intensive Care Lactation Support Pilot Program.’ The WBFA’s midwives support and promote the World Health Organisation’s Ten Steps To Breastfeeding in 655 health centres and hospitals across its Mamacare, Mamacare+N and Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding, birth preparedness, antenatal and postnatal education programmes.
The Foundation donated breastfeeding equipment to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of medical facilities in Lagos, Kwara and Kaduna States and Abuja. This will help the facilities to provide optimal neonatal intensive care feeding for premature and sick infants, this will ensure that fragile neonates may more easily benefit from the immunity provided from colostrum, which serves as the first immunity for newborns.
Since 2011, the WBFA’s midwives have supported and promoted the World Health Organisation’s Ten Steps To Breastfeeding in 655 health centres and hospitals across its Mamacare, Mamacare+N and Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding, birth preparedness, antenatal and postnatal education programmes. Our programmes promote infant and young child nutrition from multiple levels and channels, creating a baby-friendly environment, conducive to optimal mother and baby breastfeeding practices.
Through institutional and community advocacy, along with one-on-one and class based interpersonal communication, counsel and care, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa continues to overcomes barriers to early and exclusive breastfeeding. We strive to improve the diets and frequency of meals in young children in Nigeria.
he Wellbeing Foundation Africa continues to harness global research findings related to human milk and breastfeeding into innovative breastfeeding support programs.
Through new scientific discoveries surrounding the anatomy of the lactating breast and how the infant removes milk from the breast, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa is committed to developed set of solutions to support Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in providing milk and improving breastfeeding.
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa understands the challenges of providing milk in the NICU. Both from the from the mother’s side, where there can be a struggle to produce an adequate milk supply, and from the infant’s side, as babies may experience challenges ingesting the milk..
The NICU Lactation Support Pilot Program is directed towards obtaining human milk, promoting human milk feeding, and supporting all infants in achieving breastfeeding as early as possible.
Our goal is to provide research-based products, together with the educational materials, is to overcome the difficulties associated with human milk provision.
This World Breastfeeding Week, which has the theme “Empower Parents; Enable Breastfeeding”, we have donated state-of-the-art Medela products to a number of facilities. These facilities include Lagos Island Maternity, Omotayo Hospital and Lifeline Children’s Hospital in Lagos State, Bwari General Hospital and Maitama General Hospital in Abuja, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and General Hospital Ilorin in Kwara State, and Giwa Hospital in Kaduna State.
In her statement, the Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, H.E. Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki, commented:
“The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is pleased to be donating these Medela products to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of these selected hospitals across Lagos, Kwara, Kaduna States and Abuja. This is part of our foundation’s goal to improve newborn health across the country, reducing neonatal mortality.”
“I am pleased to support this NICU Pilot in Nigeria to promote early (within the first 48 hours of life) buccal administration of mother’s own milk, and specifically colostrum, to reduce rates of Necrotising Enterocolitis, late onset invasive infections, and mortality in preterm infants.”
“We are also keen on building on the successes of our MamaCare Antenatal and Postnatal Education programme and the Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding programme this World Breastfeeding Week, both of which have significantly contributed to the improvement of newborn nutrition, especially the promotion of early initiation to breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and proper complimentary feeding after six months.”
“We are encouraged by the progress achieved through our various programmes and we are determined to use this World Breastfeeding Week to carry out more milestone projects, of which this donation to healthcare facilities across the country is just one. It is our responsibility as stakeholders to provide strategic solutions to the challenges of stunting, wasting, under-weight and general malnutrition in infants and young children, and ensure their healthy growth and development. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa recognizes and promotes the importance of breast milk for premature and sick neonates as the first and optimal nutrition in fragile situations.”
FROM August 8th, 2019
As World Breastfeeding Week 2019 drew to a close yesterday, Toyin Ojora Saraki conducted an official visit to the maternity services of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. In her meetings with senior staff, including Zoe Penn, Medical Director, Victoria Cochrane, Interim Director of Midwifery, Gubby Ayida, Medical Director of Women’s Services, and Kerry Huntington, Fundraising Director of ‘CW +’ which acts as the official charity of the NHS Foundation Trust, Mrs Saraki discussed how the 12,000 women a year who give birth at the Trust are cared for in a midwifery-led system which also provides an obstetric model of care, including specialist support for more complex pregnancies and health conditions with a foetal medicine unit.
Mrs Saraki, whose Wellbeing Foundation Africa is partner to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health’s Emergency Management of Obstetric And Newborn Care Simulation Skills Program in Nigeria, had been invited to visit the hospital in light of her “extensive experience, passion and global standing” in the field of midwifery, as Global Goodwill Ambassador for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and Special Adviser to the Independent Advisory Group of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa.
Following the meetings and tour of the hospital, Mrs Saraki commented:
“I commend the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for its superb, midwife-led maternity care. I was struck today not only by the excellent standards that women can expect at the hospital, but also by the culture of respect that is ubiquitous amongst staff.”
“I am impressed to observe the workings of primary, secondary and tertiary specialist referrals providing an unbroken continuum of maternity care, as an essential core of universal health coverage services.”
“At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, our MamaCare midwives also lead the way with quality care, saving many lives and helping women and infants to thrive. I look forward to working with the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to share “research bench to bedside” best-practice models of maternity services, and bring the best possible standards of care to women all over the world – no matter where they give birth.”
Mrs Saraki’s visit coincided with World Breastfeeding week, during which the Wellbeing Foundation Africa launched its ‘Neonatal Intensive Care Lactation Support Pilot Program.’ The WBFA’s midwives support and promote the World Health Organisation’s Ten Steps To Breastfeeding in 655 health centres and hospitals across its Mamacare, Mamacare+N and Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding, birth preparedness, antenatal and postnatal education programmes.
This week the Foundation donated breastfeeding equipment to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of medical facilities in Lagos, Kwara and Kaduna States and Abuja, to help healthcare facilities provide optimal neonatal intensive care feeding for premature and sick infants, ensuring that fragile neonates may more easily benefit from the immunity provided from colostrum, which serves as the first immunity for newborns
FROM August 7th, 2019
Since 2011, The Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s Mamacare midwives have supported and promoted the World Health Organisation’s Ten Steps To Breastfeeding in 655 health centres and hospitals across its Mamacare, Mamacare+N and Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding, birth preparedness, antenatal and postnatal education programmes, to enable and empower infant and young child nutrition from multiple levels and channels, creating a Baby Friendly environment, conducive to optimal mother and baby breastfeeding practices.
Through institutional and community advocacy, along with one-on-one and class based interpersonal communication, counsel and care, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa overcomes barriers to early and exclusive breastfeeding, improving the diets and frequency of meals in young children in Nigeria.
As part of the week-long activities to mark this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa today donated breastfeeding equipment to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of selected medical facilities in Lagos, Kwara and Kaduna States and Abuja, FCT to bring this year’s event to a conclusion. These donations are aimed at mitigating the challenges health facilities face with regards to providing optimal neonatal intensive care feeding of premature and sick infants, ensuring that fragile neonates may more easily benefit from the immunity provided from colostrum, which serves as the first immunity for newborns.
The Wellbeing Foundation’s Mamacare Program Baby Friendly Initiative Programs are committed to enhancing mother and baby health through the life-giving benefits of breastmilk. During this time, the Foundation has focused on understanding mothers’ needs and infants’ behaviour. The health of both mothers and their infants during the precious breastfeeding period is at the centre of all activities.
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa continues to harness global research findings into human milk and breastfeeding, and incorporates the outcomes into innovative breastfeeding support programs.
Through new discoveries surrounding the components of human milk, the anatomy of the lactating breast and how the infant removes milk from the breast, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has committed to providing a developed set of solutions to support Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in providing human milk and improving breastfeeding.
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa understands the challenges of providing human milk in the NICU, from the mother’s side to reach an adequate milk supply and from the infant’s side to ingest the milk; plus issues of hygiene and logistics.
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Lactation Support Pilot Program is directed towards obtaining human milk, promoting human milk feeding, and supporting all infants in achieving breastfeeding as early as possible.
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s Neonatal Intensive Care Lactation Support Program aims to provide the most recent, evidence-based knowledge to support breastfeeding and human milk use in the NICU. The goal of the innovative, research-based products, together with the educational materials, is to overcome the difficulties associated with human milk provision in the NICU.
This World Breastfeeding Week, which has the theme “Empower Parents; Enable Breastfeeding”, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has provided state-of-the-art Medela products to these facilities. The facilities that will be benefitting from this donation include Lagos Island Maternity, Omotayo Hospital and Lifeline Children’s Hospital in Lagos State, Bwari General Hospital and Maitama General Hospital in Abuja, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and General Hospital Ilorin in Kwara State, and Giwa Hospital in Kaduna State.
In her statement, the Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, H.E. Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki, commented:
“The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is pleased to be donating these Medela products to the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of these selected hospitals across Lagos, Kwara, Kaduna States and Abuja. This is part of our foundation’s goal to improve newborn health across the country, reducing neonatal mortality.”
“I am pleased to support this NICU Pilot in Nigeria to promote early (within the first 48 hours of life) buccal administration of mother’s own milk, and specifically colostrum, to reduce rates of Necrotising Enterocolitis, late onset invasive infections, and mortality in preterm infants.”
“We are also keen on building on the successes of our MamaCare Antenatal and Postnatal Education programme and the Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding programme this World Breastfeeding Week, both of which have significantly contributed to the improvement of newborn nutrition, especially the promotion of early initiation to breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and proper complimentary feeding after six months.”
“We are encouraged by the progress achieved through our various programmes and we are determined to use this World Breastfeeding Week to carry out more milestone projects, of which this donation to healthcare facilities across the country is just one. It is our responsibility as stakeholders to provide strategic solutions to the challenges of stunting, wasting, under-weight and general malnutrition in infants and young children, and ensure their healthy growth and development. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa recognizes and promotes the importance of breast milk for premature and sick neonates as the first and optimal nutrition in fragile situations.”
Malnutrition accounts for more than 50% of under-five mortality in states across Nigeria. Infant Mortality rate is at 103 per 1000 live births (NDHS 2013), while under-5 mortality rates are at 169 per 1000 live births (NDHS 2013). The rate of timely breastfeeding initiation is 28.9% (MICS 2017), with only 19.7% of children being exclusively breastfed (MICS 2017), and only 10% of children aged 6 – 23 months were fed appropriately. Within the State, 11.7% of children are wasted from acute under nutrition, 47% of children under-5 years are stunted, while 34% are under weight (MICs 2017).
FROM August 1st, 2019
To mark this year’s World Breastfeeding Week, which will take place from 1st to 7th August, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa is set to host a week-long series of activities targeted at new mothers with the aim of fostering proper nutrition by promoting breastfeeding. Events will be held across MamaCare Antenatal and Postnatal Education classes in hospitals across Lagos, Kwara, Osun States and Abuja to empower mothers to breastfeed properly, helping their babies start strong for a better future.
This year’s World Breastfeeding Week, which has the theme “Empower Parents; Enable Breastfeeding”, will give the Wellbeing Foundation Africa the opportunity to create awareness on optimal breastfeeding practices, including early initiation to breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, and proper complimentary feeding after the first six months.
The Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, H.E. Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki, commented: “This year’s World Breastfeeding Week is an opportunity for the organization to highlight the successes of our Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Child Feeding programme, and our flagship MamaCare Antenatal and Postnatal Education programme, both of which have effectively delivered in their mandate to promote maternal and child health, particularly the strengthening of breastfeeding practices for improved health of newborns.
As Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, the private sector health facilities implementing partner of the Alive and Thrive Infant and Young Children Feeding and Nutrition Initiative in Lagos and Kaduna States, and the developer of the innovative MamaCare Antenatal and Postnatal Education Programme, I am delighted with the level of success achieved by both programmes within the last couple of years, particularly in improving infant and child nutrition.
I am encouraged by the progress achieved and we are determined to use this World Breastfeeding Week as a milestone to re-commit to the objective of preventing illness, stunting and malnutrition, ensuring the healthy growth and development of infants and young children through improved breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa recognizes and promotes the importance of breast milk for premature and sick neonates as the first and optimal nutrition in fragile situations.”
Malnutrition accounts for more than 50% of under-five mortality in the state. Infant Mortality rate is at 103 per 1000 live births (NDHS 2013), while under-5 mortality rates are at 169 per 1000 live births (NDHS 2013). The rate of timely breastfeeding initiation is 28.9% (MICS 2017), with only 19.7% of children being exclusively breastfed (MICS 2017), and only 10% of children aged 6 – 23 months were fed appropriately. Within the State, 11.7% of children are wasted from acute under nutrition, 47% of children under-5 years are stunted, while 34% are under weight (MICs 2017).
FROM July 26th, 2019
Toyin Saraki, Special Adviser to the Independent Advisory Group to the WHO Regional Office for Africa, has welcomed World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus back to Nigeria.
Dr Tedros, who will address the (TEF) annual Entrepreneurship Forum in Abuja, visits Nigeria with the country on the verge of being declared free from the blight of polio. Toyin Saraki has long campaigned for the eradication of polio and urged for the issue to be understood within the context of health security in Nigeria.
In her welcome remarks to Dr Tedros, Mrs Saraki commented:
“I was encouraged by the progress we made together at the World Health Assembly in May, in particular our joint focus on water, sanitation and hygiene which led to ground-breaking resolutions and commitments. Our meetings and our discussion at the symposium ‘Why water, sanitation and hygiene must be a priority for quality healthcare’ organised by the Governments of Zambia, Tanzania, Sweden, Japan, Germany and Eswatini; the World Health Organization and WaterAid, gave me great confidence that the WHO is leading progress on WASH around the world, in particular with the strong regional leadership provide by Dr. Moeti, the WHO antibiotic resistance (AMR) team and the WHO Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health (PHE) department”.
“Your assertion that healthcare workers should not be regarded as a cost, but rather as “an investment that pays a triple return for health, gender equality and economic growth,” is one that Governments must understand and adopt if we are to successfully address the shortfall of 18 million health workers needed to achieve and sustain universal health coverage by 2030.”
“At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, of which I am the Founder-President, we have undertaken a ground-breaking partnership with Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine across the whole of Kwara State. Our focus on Emergency Obstetrics and Newborn Care (EmONC) training in healthcare facilities to improve health outcomes for mothers and their newborns has resulted in a 15% reduction in the maternal case fatality rate and a 38% reduction in the still birth rate in health care facilities where the project is implemented. This programme, along with our Mamacare and Mamacare+N programme, in partnership with UNFPA, is part of our commitment to increasing the numbers of skilled healthcare workers in line with WHO recommendations”.
“As we discussed extensively during your previous visits to Nigeria, the landmark adoption by the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of the one percent Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) was a historic move towards achieving universal health coverage. However, we are still far from realising that goal, which will require significant political commitment. That commitment will only be successful with adequate investment in primary healthcare.”
“I warmly welcomed the adoption of Resolution EB144/CONF./2 Rev.1: Water, sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities at the 144th World Health Organization Board Meetings because it recognises that Primary Health Care is a cornerstone of a sustainable health system for effective universal health coverage, and justifies my Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s efforts to improve hygiene in health facilities, reducing the incidence of maternal sepsis, the 2nd highest causative factor of morbidity nationally. As a strong Primary Health Care system is essential for safe WASH conditions in Nigeria, so too it must form the backbone of efforts to improve health outcomes for women, children and adolescents throughout the country – and provide the resilience across the raft of WHO normative functions.”
Toyin Saraki is also the Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, the Global Goodwill Ambassador to the International Confederation of Midwives, and a member of the Concordia Leadership Council.
The e-health check tool is available for free at https://covid19.wbfafrica.org/ and users can access real-time updates on how to stay connected, safe, and healthy during the pandemic on Instagram and Twitter @Wellbeing_PPMD, and @WellbeingPPMD on Facebook.
