In Nigeria, C4C believes that by giving motivated, passionate local leaders the right tools, they can change health outcomes for their communities. That’s because local leaders understand their community’s needs and conditions—even if they have no background in health.
This was true for Abdulrazaq Alkali, a graduate in finance and accounting who ended up being an unlikely ally for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health in his community of Kano. In 2003, Alkali began working for Youth Society for the Prevention of Infectious Diseases & Social Vices (YOSPIS), which asked him to collect data for donors supporting a health and family-planning project.
Through his local outreach, Alkali recognized the community’s need for family-planning services, and he was motivated to do something about it. Today, Alkali is executive director of YOSPIS, and since receiving training as a Champion for Change, he has learned new ways to help address his community’s challenges.
“The training to become a Champion for Change truly benefited us,” he said. “Our capacity has been built as a strong advocate for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health.”
Now YOSPIS is looking at ways to influence policies in Kano and analyzing how the government is delivering family-planning services. This underscores one of the strongest values of the C4C program: It inspires people to make change in their communities and beyond to advance progress on health issues across Nigeria.