It is often said that heightening people's sensitivity as regards health issues through a timely and informed decision often makes the difference between life and death.

Thus in a bid to keep the populace adequately informed as well as put in place health schemes aimed at promoting the health of the nation, governments at all levels and public spirited individuals and groups are increasingly showing interest in the development of health care delivery systems.

This trend which has on its platform the goal of ensuring women have access to respectful health care and ability to make their own reproductive health choices had the White Ribbon Alliance organization choosing Kwara state for its pilot scheme.

Speaking during the inauguration of the Respectful Maternity Care working group in Kwara state held at the King Stone Grand Suites, Ilorin, yesterday, wife of the Kwara State governor, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed, expressed delight at the development, assuring that the state government will give the intervention project necessary support.

According to her, maternal health is pertinent; hence the respectful maternity care campaign is tailored toward sensitizing health workers on ways to attend to women in labour with the right attitude.

She said the campaign will also serve as an educative platform to counsel women to imbibe a grateful attitude toward health workers in their approach aimed at bringing out the best in them.

Addressing newsmen on the occasion, Mrs. Ahmed said, "we are seriously working on making health facilities conducive for our women. We want to encourage our women to use these facilities. Government has invested so much in renovating our hospitals and I think that if our women, our people, are not making use of them, then it will be a waste of investment.

"I think this is actually coming at the right time because we want to encourage our women. We want to stop the abuse. We want to stop the disrespect", she said.

Also speaking on the involvement of her NGO, the LEAH Charity Foundation, in the scheme, she said LEAH's contribution will be channeled mainly through its Omolewa Safe Motherhood Initiative.

According to her, "one of the things we have done with that programme and that has been successful and which I am hoping to introduce to the community is the participation of the community. We work in participation with the community.

"We use members of the community as canvassers, as people to talk to women and we have seen that this has really worked with our pilot scheme at Alapa. We hope that the communities will take a look into this and adopt it.

The governor's wife also commended the Universal Maternity Rights bill which the White Ribbon Alliance Group has forwarded to the presidency, describing it as "good news for all".

Earlier in his speech, the national coordinator of white Ribbon Alliance, Mr. Tonte Ibraye, said the organization essentially works toward preventing maternal and new born death.

He described the organization as a global community comprising a coalition of organizations with membership in over 150 countries including Nigeria which has its membership in about 29 states.

Further, he said the organization will continue to work to discourage disrespect and abuse meted on women during the delivery process, saying, some women are discouraged from patronizing health facilities in the face of various negative attitudes experienced in the hands of health workers.

According to him, Nigeria is the first country to adopt the Universal Maternity Rights charter and Kwara has been chosen for the pilot scheme to address issues around the reduction of disrespectful care and to serve as a model for other states, adding, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed has accepted to be the ambassador of White Ribbon Alliance in Kwara State.

Also speaking, the Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Kayode Abdul Issa, who was represented by the permanent secretary of the ministry, assured of the ministry's support toward the Respectful Maternity Care project in the State.

He said the ministry will continue to complement the efforts of the state government in delivering effective health care to people and make the programme a huge success in the state aimed at taking Kwara to the greater heights. The 10-man committee is headed by the Kwara State Chairman of Primary Health Development Agency, Alhaja Ayinke Saka. The committee members who were chosen based on their contributions to the health system are to be supported by delegates from the local government, health facilities and CSOs.