W Initiative plans for Health Month, targets 2m women - NaijaAgroNet

NaijaAgroNet:

The W Initiative, a flagship women empowerment programme from Access Bank Plc, has unveiled plans for its 2019 W Health Month aimed at improving community awareness on health issues that affect women and their families by bridging knowledge gap, providing access to health checks and encouraging healthy lifestyle habits, NaijaAgroNet.

Running all through the month of October, NaijaAgroNet gathered the W Health Month will focus on key areas such as infertility, endometriosis, vesicovaginal fistula (VVF), cancer, maternal and neo-natal mortality.

The Coordinator ‘W’ initiative, Access Bank Plc, Ayona Trimnell, said: “Globally, the month of October is dedicated to raising awareness for Breast Cancer, a major health issue affecting mainly women. However, as an institution with focus on women, we are expanding the scope to shine the spotlight on 5 salient health issues affecting women and their families. The 2017 African Research and Population Centers, estimated 40,000 maternal deaths in Nigeria, making the country the second largest contributor to maternal mortality worldwide. There is need for us to change the story one woman at a time and we at Access Bank have been moving the needle in our own way through our flagship product, the Maternal Health Service Support (MHSS).

Activities planned during the period include free health screening, health talk by specialists, fitness classes, fund raising to support these causes etc. The Health Month will wrap up with an advocacy walk tagged ‘Walk for Women’s Health’ on Saturday 26 October 2019,” he said.

Established in 2014, the W Initiative is home to everything Access Bank has to offer women. This includes both financial and lifestyle needs. Under the Initiative, participating women and their families have access to a wide range of privileges including access to credit facilities to meet business and healthcare needs, the ‘W’ community which provides insights on family matters, health, career, lifestyle and finance. This is in addition to special offerings for the home such as discounts and freebies on health, beauty and fitness.

Health screenings will hold every Tuesday at October designed partner locations across the country.

Isaac Oyimah/Editor

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Pix: L-R: Njideka Esomeju, Regional Sales Director, Lagos 1, Access bank Plc; Aituaje Iruobe (aka Waje ) Music Artist; Ayona Trimnell, Coordinator,  ‘W’ Initiative, Access Bank Plc; and Ada Udechukwu, Head, Women Banking, Access Bank plc at a meet-and-greet event to launch the Women's Health Month this October 2019 in Lagos recently.

Mobile technology helps to transfer cash to conflict-affected rural families

NaijaAgroNet:

Many vulnerable rural families in Iraq can now benefit from a safer, more secure means of receiving income thanks to mobile money transfer technology adopted for the first time by Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) as part of a cash-for-work programme aimed at rehabilitating agricultural infrastructure and land, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The programme, which is funded by the Belgian Government, will support 12,000 conflict-affected people in 30 villages in Kirkuk, Anbar, Salah al-Din and Ninewa governorates. It will benefit local farmers, by enabling them to restart or expand farming activities with rehabilitated infrastructure, and provides agricultural livelihoods opportunities for displaced people returning home.

Participants, who are from households with no other income source, include women who are often the sole breadwinners for their families, and people with a disability. The workers and their families are people who either remained in their villages during conflict or returned home after being displaced by the fighting.

"The use of mobile technology will streamline the safe delivery of cash transfers to participants, who are some of the most vulnerable people in the country," said Fadel El-Zubi, FAO Representative in Iraq. "Providing income opportunities is critical in rural areas affected by conflict, where competition for employment is high, jobs are scarce and people are struggling to support their families."

To facilitate the payments, FAO has partnered with Zain a mobile and data services operator with a commercial footprint in eight Middle Eastern and African countries. Participant names and identity numbers are pre-registered with the company, and they receive a free SIM card. Once each person completes a certain number of days of work, they receive a text message containing a personalised security code. They can then collect their wages from any certified money mobile transfer agent, provided their code and identity number match those registered.

"As well as providing much-needed income for participants, the programme will improve agricultural production in the surrounding communities, through activities including rehabilitating canals for irrigation to grow crops and preparing farmland for planting," said El-Zubi. "This, in turn, will encourage community members still displaced by conflict to return home and begin farming again. FAO's aim is to support people to get back on their feet as quickly as possible, and reduce their reliance on food assistance."

Around 12 million Iraqis reside in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Years of conflict has destroyed or damaged harvests, equipment, infrastructure, livestock, seeds, crops and stored food; and left 3.2 million Iraqis food insecure. As of 15 July 2017, more than 3.3 million people remained displaced within Iraq, while about 2 million had returned home.

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Google, MasterCard, others support WFP initiative for families affected by war

 NaijaAgroNet

Google, MasterCard are among multi-industry effort that represents a powerful, tangible way to make a difference toward peace, refugees, displaced people and their families, NaijaAgroNet reports.  

On 21 September, the International Day of Peace, global brands are joining forces across industries and geographies in an unprecedented effort to highlight the vital role of food assistance in creating a more peaceful world. Many companies are donating television and digital media channels to drive support for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the frontline agency fighting hunger. 

First championed by McDonald, other supporting companies include Burger King, Cargill, DreamWorks Animation, Facebook, McCain, McDonald's, OMD, Twitter, TBWA and United Airlines.

World Food Programme Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin, NaijaAgroNet gathered, said, "Today is about people coming together across regions and cultures to take action for a hunger-free and peaceful world. Food assistance plays a powerful role in times of conflict by saving lives and alleviating suffering. Food brings and keeps families together. Food security gives families hope during desperate times while eliminating the need for families to resort to extreme and harmful measures as the only option for survival."

Cousin further said, "Humanity has one future together. This effort provides a great example of people and companies joining forces to make sure we achieve the goal of a zero hunger future".

All funds raised from this effort, NaijaAgroNet, will go to WFP's emergency response fund that is used to support WFP's most critical operations, including crises in and around Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen. With more people displaced now than any time since World War II, the needs are greater than the resources.

"The private sector has a significant role to play in ending hunger and promoting peace," said  WFP Director of Private Sector Partnerships, Jay Aldous. "And this global effort is a powerful example of brands coming together with one voice to make a tangible impact in the lives of vulnerable people."

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

 
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Pix: Ertharin Cousin,