Grassroots health campaigns by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) are leaving bold footprints across the South-South and South-West, reshaping how communities confront maternal and infant mortality.
In the war against maternal and infant mortality in the country, the National Orientation Agency (NOA), including its state directorates, has emerged as an unsung hero, quietly driving a groundswell of grassroots engagement across communities. Across the South–South and South–West, the directorates have taken national health goals and translated them into personal, local and urgent actions. The result is a growing connection between households and life-saving information, birth registration and cultural re-orientation.
In Cross River State, NOA has shown what it means to protect girls before they become mothers. In May 2024, the directorate partnered with UNICEF and the state government to intensify awareness about the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for adolescent girls. Despite being critical in preventing cervical cancer, the vaccine suffers low uptake due to myths and misinformation. NOA responded by training its mobilisers in health messaging, engaging schoolchildren directly, holding town hall meetings with parents and traditional leaders, and enlisting local media to demystify the vaccine.
At the heart of the campaign was trust-building. Through the formation of Social Behaviour Change Committees, the agency encouraged ongoing conversations rather than one-off interventions. Officers moved from classrooms to markets, churches to palaces, linking the vaccine’s benefits with shared values of community well-being.
In Akwa Ibom State, NOA’s strategy has focused on identity and disease prevention. Between August and November 2024, the agency partnered with the National Population Commission (NPC) and UNICEF for a birth registration drive. The campaign targeted children under five, especially in hard-to-reach communities, to ensure they received birth certificates and National Identification Numbers (NINs). These documents are essential for accessing immunisation, nutrition and early childhood services.
Community mobilisers took to the streets and homes, armed with immunisation cards and simplified registration forms. They helped parents understand that legal identity is the foundation of public health access. In January 2025, the Akwa Ibom NOA office again demonstrated its responsiveness by launching a state-wide campaign against Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV), a little-known respiratory illness affecting young children and the elderly. Door-to-door visits were conducted across the state’s 31 LGAs, with mobilisers educating families about symptoms, preventive hygiene and the need to use masks during outbreaks.
In the South–West, the focus has been on making health a household conversation. In Ekiti State, the NOA tackled maternal mortality from a cultural angle, confronting female genital mutilation (FGM), menstrual hygiene issues, and unsanitary delivery practices. State Director Mrs. Kemi Akomolede led a coalition that included the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), NAFDAC and local health authorities. The team conducted sensitisation sessions in schools, markets and mosques. The sessions did not just address health risks but also the human rights dimensions of FGM.
The campaign highlighted how entrenched traditions can endanger maternal outcomes. Storytelling and praise-singing in local dialects were used to deliver messages in relatable, emotionally resonant ways. Communities were encouraged to abandon FGM and embrace safe birthing practices, cleanliness, and antenatal care from trained professionals.
In Ondo State, NOA built on the foundation of the state’s “Abiye” Safe Motherhood programme. While the initiative began in 2009, the NOA’s recent contributions have centred on keeping its principles alive through consistent behavioural messaging. In 2023 and 2024, the agency mobilised community leaders, trained town announcers and religious figures, and even engaged retired traditional birth attendants to serve as advocates for skilled birth delivery. The goal was to breathe new life into a promising programme and help it reach every corner of the state.
Meanwhile, Oyo and Osun States have taken on a foundational issue, which is the absence of legal identity. In the last quarter of 2024, both states, through their NOA offices, launched mass sensitisation and registration campaigns, again in collaboration with NPC and UNICEF. The agency in Oyo led community engagements through religious centres, markets, health clinics, and even during naming ceremonies, reminding parents that an undocumented child is a child at risk.
In both states, the campaigns were community-driven. Stakeholder meetings and media briefings ensured that the message was widespread that documentation is the gateway to visibility and visibility can be the difference between life and death.
In a media forum jointly hosted by NOA and UNICEF in Osun and Lagos, journalists were urged to support maternal and child health narratives beyond reporting tragedies. With improving neo-natal survival rates in both states, the forum encouraged the media to celebrate public health interventions and shine a light on cultural norms that undermine maternal and infant health.
What unites these efforts across the South–South and South–West is the conviction that orientation saves lives. These campaigns do not trend on social media or grab national headlines, but they are changing minds and behaviours in markets, clinics, homes and prayer houses.
State NOA officers are not performing surgeries or delivering vaccines, but they are laying the groundwork that makes medical interventions possible. They are translating public health into local language, culture and trust. They are reshaping harmful norms and making health a daily, household priority.
The results are already visible: improved vaccine acceptance in Cross River, higher birth registration numbers in Akwa Ibom and Oyo, and greater awareness of respiratory illnesses and hygiene in communities that were previously off the radar.
If the country is to reduce maternal and infant mortality in a sustainable way, these kinds of grassroots interventions must continue and expand. The work of NOA proves that no national health policy can succeed without local understanding and buy-in. Across these regions, NOA’s community mobilisers, armed with leaflets, megaphones and cultural fluency are quietly building a more responsive, inclusive health system