The Jimmy Carter Foundation (Carter Centre) has donated laboratory equipment and furniture worth millions of dollars to the Gombe State College of Health Science and Technology, Kaltungo.
Speaking during the handover of the equipment in Kaltungo, Country Representative of the Carter centre, Dr Emmanuel Miri, said the programme under the Nigerian Public Health Training Initiative (NPHTI), commenced in 2014 after a memorandum of understanding was signed between the federal government and the centre.
Dr Miri said the NPHTI is a five-year project with a goal to strengthen the capacity of health educational institutions to produce higher quality of middle and lower level health workers, to meet the maternal and child health needs in Nigeria.
“The project focuses on training institutions that develop critical frontline health workers that are very essential in healthcare delivery services in Nigeria,” he said
The country representative said the college was selected alongside five other institutions in Akwa Ibom, Imo, Ogun, Plateau and Sokoto states, which benefitted from $11.6 billion assistance to Nigeria.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Ishaya Kennedy, applauded the Carter center for their assistance to the college and pledged to use the items judiciously.
Dr Kennedy expressed optimism that with such kind of support, the number of women that die during pregnancy and childbirth would be reduced drastically.
