By Aisha Gambo

The Project Director of Faith and Culture Champions (FCC), a civil society organisation (CSO), Mr Hayatu Ashafa, has called for stronger collaboration with media organisations to amplify messages promoting maternal healthcare across Kaduna State.

Ashafa, who is also Co-Executive Director of the Interfaith Mediation, made the call on Wednesday during a media engagement session with journalists in the state, noting that media support was vital to improving health communication outcomes.

He said the project promoted antenatal care attendance, hospital deliveries and child spacing, aimed at improving maternal and child health outcomes across targeted communities in Kaduna State.

According to him, in spite of improved awareness of antenatal care and hospital delivery, utilisation of healthcare services remains low in some communities due to persistent harmful social norms and beliefs.

Also speaking, implementing consultant Ameh Daniel said the maternal and child healthcare project had improved awareness of antenatal, postnatal care and child spacing across six local government areas in Kaduna State.

Ameh said the FCC project was being implemented in Jama’a, Kagarko, Chikun, Giwa, Kubau and Zaria LGAs, covering southern, central and northern zones of Kaduna State.

According to him, the three-year project started in 2024 with stakeholder engagement and has expanded from seven to 23 faith and cultural champions to strengthen community outreach and behavioural change communication.

He added that the champions used their influence to encourage adolescent girls, young women and families to seek antenatal, postnatal and child spacing services across participating communities.

Ameh noted that the project also engages husbands, mothers-in-law, religious leaders and traditional rulers to promote positive health-seeking behaviours among women and families in Kaduna communities.

Participants at the session commended the initiative and urged journalists to participate more in field activities to generate stronger story ideas that better reflect community realities.

One participant, Musa Aliyu, called for stronger media agenda-setting on maternal healthcare to ensure consistent coverage of antenatal care and related public health issues.

Another participant, Fatima, said she had gained better understanding of maternal health reporting and pledged to amplify grassroots women’s voices and promote antenatal care awareness in her reporting.

The FCC project is being implemented by the Centre for Communication and Social Impact in partnership with 23 implementing organisations across Kaduna State.