‘’It takes a community to train a child’’ is an old African adage that encapsulates the true value of our community setting. True change happens when the community is involved. We’ve integrated this value into our community interventions, covered over 120,000km on roads in 2023, visiting communities in 14 Southern Nigerian States. Our approach is simple: community ownership – nothing about us without us. This is especially crucial as we work with vulnerable communities; their needs take priority, and we promote a people-centered approach across all our interventions.
We’ve curated some success stories in our 2024 Calendar, showcasing a digital version below. These stories result from a community-driven approach, and we owe it to the communities we serve.
Highlights from the 2024 Calendar:
- In 2021-2022, RAN facilitated life-changing surgeries and support for 100+ individuals with leprosy and BU-induced ulcers, especially children, aiding their path to societal reintegration.
- Through research grants from NIHR and the University of Birmingham, RAN has established and maintained 15 self-care groups in southern Nigeria to reduce recurring neuropathic ulcers and enhance the well-being of individuals affected by leprosy and BU.
- In hard-to-reach riverine communities of Southern Nigeria, RAN implemented a Stop TB Partnership initiative, revealing the potential for robust community-wide interventions and enablers to enhance case-finding, particularly for childhood TB cases.
- The Audiopedia project improved health knowledge among 400 illiterate women, and its second phase integrated the program into 2,152 health facilities and distributed 450 solar-powered enabled MP3s.
- Over the years, RAN has aided more than 2,000 individuals impacted by leprosy, including those with disabilities and their families, through Community-Based Inclusive Development Initiatives, facilitating their integration into mainstream disability organizations, and assisting with housing, education, vocational skills training, and livelihood support.
- Through RAN’s active case finding across several communities and hard-to-reach areas in our supported States, in 2022, we recorded 132 diagnosed cases of BU, mostly children, in our effort towards improving early case detection of NTDs in Nigeria.
We are dedicated to assisting the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy, and Buruli ulcer Control Programme (NTBLCP) in its noble mission of reducing the burden of Tuberculosis, Leprosy, and Buruli ulcer in Nigeria to levels where they no longer pose a threat to public health. We demonstrate our commitment through various projects, including capacity building, project management, community-based inclusive development, operational research, and rehabilitation.
In 2021-2022, we trained 1,275 public health staff across ten states in DOTS expansion, funded by The Global Fund. This training contributed to the program’s success and our collective goal of improving public health.
We’ve integrated mental health services into the management of leprosy and Buruli ulcer. Remarkably, mental health services are now available within the TB program in selected areas of Nigeria. By integrating MHSD (Mental Health & Substance use disorder) services into the TB program, patients identified with depression (CMD) and substance use disorder (SD) can benefit from appropriate counselling and brief interventions, enhancing the routine services already provided. This integration has the potential to elevate the quality of care and improve treatment outcomes for these patients. To date, 12,156 individuals (77% of our expected coverage by the end of December 2023) have undergone integrated TB/MH/SD screening. In this innovative approach to service integration, at least 30 Lay Counsellors have delivered essential counselling services to 836 individuals with CMD or SD in the last four months, providing intervention to those who may have otherwise gone without.
Again, these successes are as a result of the committed vulnerable communities we serve and we ask for your support to do more.
Welcome to 2024!