•THE First Lady has been instrumental in fighting for a simplified and harmonised approach for pregnant women, mothers, children and adolescents.
By MARTIN NYIRENDA
-ZAMBIA’S First Lady Dr Christine Kaseba is steadily riding on the pedestal of complementing Government’s formidable strides to improve access to health care delivery.
Dr Kaseba is achieving her vision for the country through concerted advocacy of maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, cervical cancer, sexual reproductive health and rights as well as gender-based violence.
This is so because Zambia has one of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world. Today atleast 591 maternal deaths occur per 100,000 live births, while the infant neo-natal and under-five mortality rates are at 70.3 and 119 per 1000 live births respectively.
The major causes of child mortality are HIV/AIDS, malaria, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and malnutrition, while the major causes of maternal mortality are obstetric haemorrhage, HIV/AIDS, cancer and complicated abortions.
Against this backdrop, Government and cardinal societal players are upbeat to change the gloomy health state of affairs through various interventions.
Good enough too, her efforts are coming to fruition at the heels of a grim reality showing that there were still some of the contemporary issues strangling the mainstream societal fibre of our country, hence the need to tackle it with a sense of urgency cannot be over-stressed.
Dr Kaseba continues to weigh in her formidable voice in influencing policies that are pertinent to an improved national health care system and quality delivery of health services, especially the less-privileged members of society.
This article will deliberately look at the input of Dr Kaseba in addressing some of the issues affecting women, girls and children between the months of June 2013 to December, the same year.
During the same period, Dr Kaseba participated in policy dialogue at local, regional and international levels to contribute to the much needed intervention to bring about desired change in issues affecting women, children and young people.
At the 17th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) held in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr Kaseba was invited as a special guest where she spoke extensively on the need to integrate sexual reproductive health and rights into HIV/AIDS programming in order to further reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The First Lady called for identification of gaps in the implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes for adolescent health and the need to include First Ladies in national advocacy activities.
Preventing
PMTCT
Dr Kaseba urges partnerships to support and drive the agenda of strategic plan forward. To her, a lot of progress has taken place towards the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS in Zambia.
With financial support from the OAFLA Secretariat and other stakeholders, OAFLA Zambia Chapter has embarked on the campaign dubbed as ‘Save the Born Child: Accelerating Option B+ Interventions in Zambia’.
This campaign is anchored on the OAFLA continental PMTCT campaign – a campaign coming in the wake of the 2013 United Nations Global Plan Report: ‘Towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive’ which demonstrated that in Zambia though new paediatric infections had reduced by 51 per cent, five out of 10 women and their children did not receive anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in 2012 during breast feeding resulting in half of the infections among babies in Zambia occurring through breast feeding.
Worse still, a total of 90,000 children aged 0-4 in Zambia were eligible for ART but only 38 per cent were receiving treatment with the majority not having access to treatment.
The First Lady has been instrumental in fighting for the need for more synergy between HIV/AIDS programme pillars and the need for a simplified and harmonized approach for pregnant women, children and adolescents.
For instance, a host of stakeholders’ meetings have been successfully held and they include the momentous gathering which attracted about 200 participants from more than 70 organisations in the country dealing with in HIV/AIDS issues.
Out of such advocacy, an effective roadmap towards the implementation of Option B+ in Zambia has already been agreed after encompassing all levels of care from community to policy level.
Being an obstetrician gynaecologist, Dr Kaseba has tirelessly advocated improved reproductive health and sexual rights, especially among women at national, regional and international levels.
The First Lady led a national team to the 2010 Family Planning Summit in London and has also actively participated in the development and drafting of the Zambia National Family Planning Scale Up eight year Plan to accelerate the achievement of the global 2020 FP goals and commitments made by the country.
On November 6, 2013, Dr Kaseba launched the ambitious scale up plan which is anticipated to contribute to the reduction of maternal mortality, human and economic development.
She has continued with her campaign on raising massive public awareness on cancers, especially cervical and breast cancer. Zambia has witnessed unprecedented demand for cancer care services attracting the interest of many stakeholders including traditional and religious leaders.
Last year, the First Lady was appointed as the 2013 World Cancer Leaders Summit Ambassador by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). In her tour of duty, Dr Kaseba has highlighted the urgent need to address disparities in cancer control within and across national, international and regional boundaries.
She bemoans the many challenges women in Africa face in dealing with the cancer burden. She emphasised, in a her keynote address at the summit held in Cape Town, South Africa in November last year, the need for prevention and early detection, as well as appropriate and sustainable solutions towards cancer control.
The summit was appropriately themed ‘Closing the Cancer Divide by 2025’.
In July 2013, Dr Kaseba with Professor Sheila Tlou, the director of UNAIDS regional support team for Eastern and Southern Africa in collaboration with the GBC Health organised a meeting with Government representation from all SADC countries to identify opportunities for rolling out cervical cancer control.
It was at this particular meeting that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Initiative on Cervical Cancer was formed and the First Lady was tasked to co-chair the initiative.
And in her capacity as co-chair, in October 2013, the First Lady participated at the annual GBC Health Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, to raise awareness and mobilise support amongst the business community.
Most importantly, she has also seized the opportunity at national and regional levels to discuss the role of the private sector in reproductive health.
With 47 per cent of births in Zambia being attended by a skilled health worker and 53 of deliveries recorded at home in communities with limited access to health care, the giant strides of Dr Kaseba in her agenda to complement Government’s efforts to address issues of reproductive health, among others, will no doubt, add value to the assignment of improving the health status of the country in general.(Look out for part 2 of this article)
