AJRH

The African Journal of Reproductive Health (AJRH) is a multidisciplinary and international journal that publishes original research, comprehensive review articles, short reports and commentaries of reproductive health in Africa. The Journal strives to provide a forum for African authors as well as others working in Africa, to share findings on all aspects of reproductive health, also to disseminate relevant and useful information on reproductive health throughout the continent.

WHARC has a unit dedicated to the activities, management and co-ordination of  AJRH, headed by Miss Tracy Uwaifo (Unit Head), with Miss Esther Enaike and Miss Chizoba Amechi as members.

Abel Guobadia Clinic

The Able Guobadia Clinic formally called the Lfe Tree Clinic was commissioned on the 22^nd of May, 2008 by Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan the Executive Governor of Delta State.

It has a medical director in the person of Prof. F.E Okonofua, a renowed consultant of obstetrics and gynecology. Other members of staff include :

• Prof. M. Okobia (Consultant General Surgery)
• Dr. Pius Iribhogbe (Consultant)
• Dr. John Apkekpe (Medical Officer)
• Miss Chioma Ekwo and a host of others

The clinic has a fitting laboratory, theatre, recovery room and private wards.

The aim of the clinic include :

1. To improve the reproductive health of the community
2. To reduce the incidence of maternal mortality
3. To provide data for comprehansive research purposes

Services rendered at the Abel Guobadia clinic include

1. Well woman clinic
   • Acetic acid visualization test
   • PAP smear
   • Family planning
   • Ultrasound
2. Ante-natal care and delivery
3. Gynecological consultations
4. Surgical consultations
5. Laboratory services
6. Hormonal assay
7. seminal fluid analysis
8. Blood group
9. Genotyping
10. Retroviral screening
11. Individual indentification test (DNA test)

Boiethics

Bioethics addresses ethical issues in medicine and in the life sciences. Core aspects of bioethics are: clinical ethics, research ethics, the ethics of genetics and  reproductive health ethics. Our research and training interests at WHARC is reproductive health ethics.  Members of the unit are :

• Dr. Peter Omonzejele - Unit Head
• Mr Adedotun Afolabi

HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS Unit was established since the inception of WHARC. The unit was set up as a response to the spread of the HIV infection in the century. Our objective is to carryout evidence informed advocavy and research on the social behaviours related to HIV transmission.

With funding from from the MacArthur, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, WHARC has implemented successful STDs and HIV/AIDS prevention programs among youths in Edo state, Nigeria. One of these projects has focused exclusively on out-of-school adolescents, using an integrated developmental approach to provide continuing sexuality education and reproductive health services to out-of-school youths. In 2002, WHARC obtained funding from Global Health Council to increase the capacity of community nurses/midwives in Edo State to provide HIV/AIDS counselling and home-based care for PLWHAs. These efforts have increased the effectiveness of the health community responses to HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Edo State. In addition, WHARC enjoys a healthy working relationship with the State Action Committee on AIDS (SACA). We provide technical assistance to SACA and we were involved in their launch of Keep Hope Alive Organization - an unbrella organization for PLHAs in Edo State. Indeed, the Secretary of this organization is an associate of WHARC.

WHARC has previously coordinated the Edo State Chapter of the Civial Society for HIV/AIDS (CiSHAN). The unit is managed by a Program Officer - Miss Helen C. Obi, and two Assistant Program Officers - Miss Iyabo McOliver and Mrs Grace Okereke Johnson.

Our services at the HIV/AIDS unit include : Capacity building of NGOs, individuals, and corporate bodies for HIV prevention, as well as evidence informed advocacy.

Library / Communications

The Centre has a library/Documentation Unit, the library contains recent and up-to-date journals in Obstetrics and Gynecology, women’s reproductive health and the broad aspects of health and the social sciences. Examples of journals in the library include :

• British Journal of Gynecology,
• Health Transition Review,
• Social Science and Medicine,
• New England Journal of Medicine,
• lancet the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology etc.

It also includes books on female genital mutilation, violence against women and medical computing; articles broaching issues relating to women’s reproductive health, compact discs CD in various aspects of women’s health; and information relating to public health, ethical issues in reproductive health and the social determinants of health. The library also subscribes to diverse electronic databases including JSTOR, HINARI, BIOLINE, AJOL, etc. which enables readers to gain access to more than 4000 biomedical and social science journals around the world.

The most recent editions of journals and periodicals are keep conspicuously on special display shelves for users awareness’ and easy reference.

Registration for use of the library attracts a service charge of two hundred naira (NGN 200:00) only which enables the users to gain access to the library and to borrow books. Internet access, photocoping & typing are also readily and easily accessible within the complex as well.

The Unit is headed by Mrs. Mercy Agwu.

MacArthur Unit

This unit covers projects funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It was created based on WHARCs commitment on Global Security and Sustainability.

The personnel in the unit is a project officer who oversees the activities in the unit both internal and external.

The unit implemented a three year project on the Teen care between July 2000-June 2002 with funding support from the Macarthur and Rockefeller Foundation.
The broad objective of the project was to find ways to enhance the social well-being of out-of-school adolescents and improve their health seeking behaviors towards the treatment and prevention of STD/HIV.

Presently the unit is implementing a three year project titled “policies and programs to reduce maternal mortality in six states of Nigeria” with funding support from the Macarthur Foundation.
The general objective of the project is to improve policies and programs regarding maternal health in order to reduce maternal mortality. The project took off in April 2009 and is envisaged to end by February 2012.

Marketing & Business Center

The main objective of the marketing unit is to expand customer base for publications and available services in the centre and has the following personnel :

• Bosede James (Marketing Manager)
• Theresa Ify Ezeoma (Marketing Officer)
• Segun Cole Adebayo (Marketing Officer)
• Jumoke Ogunleye (Marketing Officer)

Responsibilities :

1. Sourcing for subscription online / offline to the African Journal of Reproductive Health and other services in the centre
2. Building of subscription database of the African Journal of Reproductive Health by receiving subscription order forms
3. Marketing of all WHARC publications and services to individuals, Bookshops, Institutions Private sectors, organizational Libraries both online and offline.
4. Responding to all correspondence pertaining to all WHARC publications and services
5. Liaising with contact persons
6. Onsite sale of WHARC publications at conferences, workshops and book fares
7. Sourcing for adverts in all center’s services

 All Subscription request should be addressed to :
Km 11, Lagos-Benin Express Way, Igue-Iheya
P.O. Box 10231, Ugbowo
Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria
Tel: 234 52 600151 Tel/Fax: 234 52 602334
E-mail: info@wharc-online.org, sales@wharc-online.org
 

RH Unit / Data Management

RH/Data Management unit is charged with the responsibilities of reproductive health programming as well as data management of the centre. The unit also functions as monitoring and evaluation unit of the centre.

Currently, there is a project under the management and strong supervision of this unit; a project to strengthening private sector provision of effective evidence-based methods of family planning and post-abortion care in Northern Nigeria with funding support from Packard Foundation. The project is designed to build the capacity of private practitioners in five northern states of Nigeria on Medication Post-Abortion Care and Post-Abortion Family Planning in Northern Nigeria. The project was implemented in Borno, Kaduna, Niger, Bauchi and Taraba states in northern Nigeria.

The project was designed to be implemented over two years from April 2008 to March 2010. The project which began in 2008 has been implemented in phases and the needs assessment had been conducted which guided the design of intervention activities, the service delivery phase of the project which includes the use of medications for the treatment of abortion complications has commenced in February 2009 and is currently ongoing in five project states.

Moreover, this unit also functions as a data management, monitoring and evaluation unit of the centre saddled with the responsibilities of providing programmatic leadership for the centre’s research project. The activities of this unit also include the following; Plans and implements statistical programmes of the centre under the supervision of a core associate, the ED or DD, Data Collection, Data entry, analysis and management of electronic data bases, Implementation and monitoring of daily processing, disaster recovery plans, backup and restoration of contingency procedures, Designs and implements a work plan for the Centre’s Research projects on Post Abortion Care, Unsafe Abortion and other relatives Projects (Path Finder project, Misoprostol study) in line with provisions in the proposal.

This unit has the staff strength of two personnel in person of Mr. Hammed Afolabi and Nwandu Chineye. The two personnel have core competencies in statistical Analysis, monitoring and evaluation, research project development and management, capacity building, project management, report and scientific writing and proposal writing. Innovative, highly motivated, and very dedicated.

Safe Motherhood

WHARC embarks on series of programmatic efforts on safe motherhood for improvement of maternal survival with resultant effect of reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in Nigeria. WHARC is implementing a project with funding support from the venture Strategic for Health and Development (VHSD) California, USA in three LGAs and four LGAs of Ondo state respectively for prevention and treatment of Post Partum Hemorrhage in women in rural areas of Edo and Ondo state through training and capacity building of local health care providers to properly dispense Misoprostol for the treatment and prevention of Post-partum Hemorrhage and to ensure its availability in line with guidelines provided by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and World Health Organization (WHO). The project is being implemented in Esan west, Esan central, and Igueben local government area of Edo State, and in Akure South, Owo, Ifedore and Akoko North-West Local Government areas of Ondo state respectively. Currently, the project is ongoing in the two states that are involved.

Also, as part of its efforts to promote safe motherhood in rural communities in Edo State, WHARC has been working with the School of Public Health at the University of California to determine the effectiveness of misoprostol administered by traditional birth attendants in reducing the incidence and mortality from primary post-partum hemorrhage. The project consists of an intervention site, where TBAs are taught to receive 800 microgram of misoprostol for the prevention and treatment of PPH, and a control site where TBAs manage PPH according to their usual traditional methods.

WHARC is also implementing a project titled policies and program in reducing maternal mortality in six states of Nigeria with funding support from the Macarthur foundation to strengthen advocacy activities aimed at promoting policies for maternal health and reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in the six states of Nigeria (Kano, Enugu, Borno, Lagos, Cross River and Plateau), by identifying the existing policies and programs relating to maternal health in the states, moreover to determine the impact of the policies on maternal health services delivery coverage and quality including cost, personnel, maternal health facilities and equipment in the states, determining the needs and perception of pregnant women and making necessary recommendations on the policies and programs aimed at reducing maternal mortality.

The project is designed to be implemented for a period of three years March 2009-Feb 2012 in three phases (research and data collection, report writing and advocacy visits) to improve the policies for maternal health with the general objective of reducing maternal morbidity and mortality.

WHARC identifies strategies for implementing the project and it includes; formation of project teams in each of the states, held project debriefing workshop, conducted in-depth interviews with stakeholders in each of the states, conducted focus group discussions and the project is still on, and at the moment, WHARC is implementing the report writing phase of the project.