Bonny Sule Zongoro is an HIV Counselor in Gombe. During a Training of Trainers for Gombe State MamaYe Super Activists, Bonny expressed how he got a completely new insight into how to help the pregnant women in his community. This is what he said to us.
"I feel like I am the luckiest person to be a MamaYe Super Activist because in my community, Jessu, there are 3 villages, Doarah, Gabikishun and Shibo. These villages are under a district headed by 3 village heads. The 3 villages have no single health care facility and they are in a very remote area with no motorable roads.
Many times, many pregnant women are conveyed on donkeys or beds made of corn straws, and this even happens to those who are a little bit well to do, well to do in the context of a village setting where everyone is a small scale farmer.
A lot of the pregnant women laboured in vain because of poor roads and lack of public health facilities on a journey of 10 kilometres to reach a primary health care facility at Sabonlayi, the developed part of the district.
I lost 2 cousins with their babies because of this situation, and I never knew that I could sensitise my people and mobilise them to do anything.
I believe that I have been empowered by MamaYe to go back to my community and spread the message about how to avoid needless deaths of pregnant women.
I will now be talking to village heads on how to provide roads. I know that it is a big task, but it will be on record that I talked about it. Also, by talking to the youths in my community, we can use a communal effort to mobilise support for this cause. I have been empowered by MamaYe. I now know how to mobilise people for MNH advocacy, and I will be doing a lot of it in my community."
Has Bonny's story motivated you to take action and save the lives of pregnant women and newborns?