23 April 2007 - On November 3, 1997, Ron Van Den Berg, promised during a flag-off ceremony at the Obio Health Centre, that Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) where he was then Managing Director, would continue to support National Immunization Days (NIDs). The company has not looked back since then, spending over $1 million to date in support of immunization activities and the polio eradication initiative.

While the Obio Health centre commissioned on March 13, 2007, is a symbol of Shell’s corporate support for health in Rivers State and Nigeria, the building housing its immunization clinic is evidence of the collaboration between stakeholders in the polio eradication programme. It was donated by Rotary Club of Trans Amadi, Port-Harcourt, for immunization and family planning services in 2005.

Blessing Amadi, Public Health Nurse with Shell and the company’s focal point in the state’s Inter-agency Coordinating Committee (ICC) for immunization activities, recalls how they have worked through the Ministry of Health to supply consumables like syringes, tally sheets and drugs, and provide logistics in the form of vehicles for upland communities and boats and helicopters for hard-to-reach riverine areas between 1997 and 1999. In 2000, this was reviewed and limited to boats and vehicles as the number of health facilities they were supporting increased. Payment of stipends to vaccinators which was suspended between 2002 and 2004 was restored in 2005 under the Health and Social Services Scheme. The company distributes immunization posters, banners and handbills, and assists publicity through town criers.

Dorothy Odujobi, Chief Nursing Officer, Obio Health Centre, was trained as a coordinator for NIDs in 2000, along with other Shell Operating Areas coordinators. She acknowledges the support the clinic receives from Shell for Supplemental Immunization Activities (SIAs), including outreach services throughout 2006. Apart from giving much needed fans to the building they donated and monitoring training and implementation during SIAs, Rotary provided cotton wool, distilled water, chalk and syringes for the clinic, and snacks for the personnel during the Integrated Measles Campaign in October 2006. The climax of Rotary support is often on the last day of implementation when the Club holds a reception for participants.

The Nigeria LNG Limited with support to 110 communities in its Gas Transmission Stations, and The Nigerian Agip Oil Company, have also consistently invested in immunization activities.

Samuel Maxwell, Rivers State Immunization Officer, is impressed by the quality of support the energy companies have offered to immunization activities. While the companies have been actively involved in SIAs, their support for routine immunization has been less regular. Such support tended to be within the framework of other health programmes of the companies, such as mass de-worming. The companies have however always responded positively to requests for immunization consumables by local government authorities in areas where they operate.

To address this in a structural way, the State ICC in which the companies are represented has now agreed to develop and forward yearly health plans to the companies. This will enable the companies to incorporate routine immunization activities in their annual budgets. The first of such plans is expected to cover the last half of 2006, while annual plans would subsequently follow the same process.

This would be good news when operational. Maxwell who describes the current level of support as significant despite current challenges, looks forward to a future of even greater support and collaboration with Rotary and these three companies which have been faithful in their commitment to immunization activities in Rivers State.