Toyin Saraki Honoured As The WAVA Vaccine Champion

On Tuesday 13 December, HE Mrs. Toyin Ojora Saraki was awarded the title of Vaccine Champion by Women Advocates for Vaccine Access (WAVA) in Nigeria, Abuja. WAVA is a group of influential and elite political , business and youth leaders, senior civil servants, religious and traditional leaders and top media personalities; who promote immunization practices and sustainable governmental and donor financing.

Mrs. Toyin Saraki has been a long-time advocate for increasing the access to and funding for newborn and childhood vaccinations. Her organization, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) devised the client-held Personal Health Record (PHR) and Child Health Record Book (CHRB) aimed at monitoring the health of women and children throughout their respective pregnancy, delivery neonatal and under-5 year continuum of care. The PHR, primarily an immunization records, affirms vaccines as a crucial determinant of health for both mother and infant.

Mrs. Saraki noted: “While I am proud of the strong local, regional and global advocacy for reproductive maternal newborn child and adolescent health, rights and education led over the last two decades by the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, I am happier still by the impact of our frontline actions, which bring the benefits of our rights based models, affecting citizen engagement, creating demand for tangible visible behavioral change in the lives and outcomes of women and their entire families and communities, from birth to age. The striking impact, of our midwifery centred MamaCare skills and drills antenatal and postnatal classes for pregnant mothers, their newborns, has shown us that informing, educating and meeting the needs of women, in the right place and at the right time, saves lives, to survive, and to thrive, from birth to age”

“The Wellbeing Foundation Africa was founded on the recognition that accurate information, delivered to and from expectant mothers, and the healthcare workers, most especially the skilled midwives that deliver a crucial continuum of care and counsel, respectfully, can bridge the data divide, and ensure universal coverage of Civil Registrations and Vital Statistics; our Tripod Solution delivers data to medical facilities, health workers and patients simultaneously and seamlessly, effectively and accountability. ”

As WAVA Vaccine Champion, Mrs. Toyin Saraki committed to amplifying the work of WAVA through her national and international channels to increase impact.