Save the Children International (SCI) has donated medical oxygen and devices worth N20 million to the Rasheed Shekoni Specialist Hospital in Jigawa State, northwest Nigeria.

The donation was made through the organisation’s Integrated and Sustained Childhood Pneumonia and Infectious Disease Reduction in Nigeria (INSPIRING) funded by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

SCI said the donation was made to ensure hospitals are fully equipped to save lives.

‘This was part of efforts to ensure hospitals and appropriate health facilities are equipped with functional oxygen delivery products’, the organisation said in a Facebook post.

The world has witnessed a rapid increase in the cost of medical oxygen since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deputy Director of Programme Operations, Nwamaka Ifionu, who represented the organisation’s Country Director, said the donation will enhance the hospital’s capacity to provide life-saving oxygen therapy especially to children under five.

The donation was witnessed by top government functionaries, representatives from the Federal Ministry of Health, development partners, traditional leaders, the hospital community and media representatives.

Save the Children Nigeria, in 2019, launched the INSPIRING project in Lagos and Jigawa to address the burden of pneumonia.

Pneumonia reportedly killed 880,000 under-five children globally in 2016 alone. Half of these were recorded in only five countries, one of which is Nigeria which also recorded about 19/1,000 deaths of under-five children in 2016.

Source: Save the Children

Photo source: Save the Children