Women and children in rural areas are not the only ones disproportionately affected by poor quality of maternal and child health care delivery. Those in communities few kilometers away from the city are faced with health threats also due to the absence of health facilities.
 
This was the case with Kakura community located in Kujama ward of Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. NOTAGAIN Campaign media team visited this community and found very disturbing revelation with respect to accessing health care.
 
Because this community has no primary health care centre, pregnant women who decide to go for antenatal care do so by trekking to the roadside to get a ride via tipper trucks that load sand from a nearby bush.
 
Trucks are the only vehicles that pass through Kakura – no commercial motorcycle operates within the route. This is the kind of life pregnant women in Kakura community are subjected to while trying to meet up their ante-natal appointments.
 
It takes about 30 minutes to get to the nearest hospital located in Mararabar Rido, a journey which should take less time if the roads were good. It gets worse when the rainy season comes as the villagers are sometimes unable to leave their community due to flooding.
 
On the alternative, pregnant women who cannot go through the stress of boarding a truck resort to giving birth at home. A resident of the community, Alisabatu attested to the fact that they have lost women in the village due to childbirth complications.
 
“We have lost ten women in this village due to childbirth. We don’t have hospital within the village, we don’t have road, vehicles to convey us to hospital. We are just here on the mercy of God and those tipper drivers who sometimes assist us in time of emergency,” she said.
 
Zakari testified to an incident where a pregnant woman fell off the truck while climbing and fractured her leg. ”We thank God nothing happened to the child in her womb. So the truth is we rae not happy climbing tipper with pregnancy”, she said.
 
Women in the community appealed to the government and other agencies to come to their aid so as to save the lives of women in the community.