By: Joyce Kantam Kolamong
Residents of Naja in the Chereponi district of the North East region were excited when they witnessed the delivery of the first medical logistics to the Community from the Zipline distribution centre at Walewale.
The District Chief Executive of the area and the residents gathered at the community’s CHPS compound to witness the drone delivery. Five packages of vaccines for children under five years were delivered. Prior to this intervention, nurses have had to pick basic medical essentials from Gbintiri. This affected timely healthcare intervention particularly in emergency situations.
Community Lead for Zipline Walewale Distribution Centre, Abdul-Jalil Abdulai, said the Company sees the intervention as a giant step towards contributing to the Universal Health Coverage of hard-to-reach Communities.
Rural Communities are bedeviled with poverty and high disease burden and lack adequate resources to deliver quality healthcare to the population. Drug shortages and an inadequate number of healthcare providers are very common in rural health facilities.
Naja is a farming Community with a population of about two thousand. The deplorable nature of the road from Naja to Chereponi poses a challenge to residents in accessing healthcare. Women, children, and the aged suffer the most when they are ill and need prompt medical attention. Basic medical logistics are virtually unavailable at the Community’s CHPS compound.
Health workers at the facility have to pick up essential medicines from the Zipline drop-off point at Gbintiri, which is about an hour drive or ride from Naja. The situation sometimes affects timely healthcare intervention leading to complications or death, particularly in the rainy season. During referrals, residents have to trek for about six kilometers from Naja to Wenchiki or 31 kilometers to Chereponi to receive healthcare.
With the introduction of Zipline drone delivery intervention in the district, Naja becomes the first Community in the district to begin receiving basic medical supplies from Zipline, to help boost quality healthcare delivery to the people. This brings to 380, the health facilities that are being served by the Zipline distribution centre.
Staff of the facility can now request and receive medical logistics such as anti-snake venoms, anti-rabies and other medications for anemia and malaria directly from the centre.
The District Chief Executive of Chereponi, Zuweiratu Mada Nashiru, could not hide her joy witnessing the giant step by Zipline to offer quality service to the people.
The Community Lead for Zipline Distribution centre at Walewale, Abdul-Jalil Abdulai, said there are processes and procedures to follow before Zipline can extend its services to any community. He said Zipline is committed to reaching out to hard-to-reach communities to promote inclusive and universal health coverage.
The Assemblyman of Naja, John Yiyum, said prior to the construction of the CHPS compound in June last year, residents were suffering greatly in seeking healthcare.
So far, the Zipline centre at Walewale has delivered about one million doses of vaccines and directly served 405 facilities since it was officially inaugurated in 2019.