Wetin Dey!

..Nigerian slang for “How are you doing!”

Over a month already! So I will start with work and what I have been doing at CHAI. Hopefully you guys remember the project I am working on – if you don’t, go and read my last blog!

Up to speed? The first step to implementing this project is to understand what the health facilities in Nigeria are currently doing in terms of Post-Partum Family Planning. This will allow us to assess what gaps need to be addressed to meet the objective of increasing women’s access to Post Partum IUDs (the coil).

How do we do that? We will visit over 800 health facilities in the 3 northern Nigerian states of Kano, Katsina and Kaduna where help is needed the most. We will interview health workers and collect family planning data such as equipment availability, training levels of staff, supply chain practices and much more.

Over 800 facilities I hear you say! Thankfully it’s not just me otherwise the pulse assignment might need to be 2 years. We have a large and fantastic team in place to support the exercise.

So far it’s been an amazing and eye-opening experience meeting all of the health workers and seeing the facilities first hand, as feeling closer to the patient is one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this.

In other exciting news I went to the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja for a few meetings. My job at home doesn’t involve anything to do with the government so I am thankful for the opportunity to experience something COMPLETELY different!  Although it didn’t not look like how I expected it to….

On the social note I have been having a fab time sampling all that Abuja has to offer….

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