Basse — One month capacity building training for community nurses and midwives, funded by the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in The Gambia, under International Cooperation and Development Fund (Taiwan ICDF), and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of The Gambia, has concluded in Upper River Region ((URR).

The training is aimed to build the capacity of the participants on health issues especially to improve their knowledge on maternal health.

Speaking at the closing ceremony held at the Education Conference hall in URR, the project coordinator, Burama Badjie spoke at length on the importance of the course, noting that improving maternal health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The programme, he expressed hope, would help The Gambia, especially URR, to improve the quality of its maternal health services by priority teacher training and building capacity amongst midwives, as well as upgrading the quality of services at second-level health facilities in the Upper River Region.

Badjie stated that the overall objective of the programme is to assist the government of the Gambia to improve the quality of its maternal health services and reducing maternal mortality rate in URR. The project objectives, the coordinator highlighted to build the capacity of nurses/midwives as well as the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) in URR and also to provide medical equipment to all the health facilities in the region.

According to him, in trying to meet the objectives the project would send 20 senior nurses/midwives to Taipei for a two months' seed instructor course, after which they would serve as seed instructors in the community nurses and midwives' training programme.

He stressed that since TBAs are active partners in the drive to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, the project would also train all untrained TBAs in URR so as to better equip them with skills to effectively manage labour and to detect early complication for timely referral.