By Edidiong Obot

The Executive Director of Carelife Character Foundation and Coordinator of the Ibom Open Maternity (IOM) Project, Dr Aniekeme George, has announced plans to expand the 2026 IOM integrated medical missions across 20 Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State, a significant increase from the seven LGAs reached during the 2025 intervention.

Dr George disclosed this while informing members of the media team ahead of the commencement of the 2026 outreach programme, scheduled to take place from August 1 to 14, as part of activities marking the annual World Breastfeeding Week.

Dr George noted that the initiative remains committed to reducing preventable maternal and child health challenges through early healthcare interventions, awareness creation and access to professional medical support.
He explained that beneficiaries would continue to receive integrated maternal, newborn, and child health services at no cost, including antenatal and postnatal care, medical consultations, ultrasound scans, laboratory investigations, nutrition screening and support, family planning services, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria screening, safe delivery advocacy, referral support, health insurance enrollment, birth registration, empowerment support including mama and new-born kits, and other preventive and community-based healthcare interventions.
The IOM progenitor and Executive Director further encouraged residents, particularly pregnant women, nursing mothers, and caregivers within the selected LGAs (to be announced), to take full advantage of the project, emphasizing that active community participation remains critical to improving maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes across the state.
He maintained that the IOM Project, implemented through a coalition-driven approach in collaboration with multiple partners and relevant state MDAs, is strategically designed to ensure that quality maternal, newborn, and child healthcare services reach vulnerable populations at the grassroots level.
The 2026 World Breastfeeding Week theme, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthening What Works,” underscores the commitment of the coalition to advancing sustainable maternal and child health interventions in alignment with the ARISE Agenda across Akwa Ibom State.

According to him, the scale-up reflects the growing need to expand access to quality maternal and child healthcare services in underserved communities, strengthen existing healthcare systems, deepen grassroots access to quality care, and ensure that more vulnerable women and children benefit from free, life-saving medical interventions under the project’s guiding philosophy: “One Mother, One Child… at a Time.”

“The IOM2026 Project is designed as a major scale-up of the successes recorded during the IOM2025 implementation. While the previous edition covered seven Local Government Areas and reached over 17,000 mothers and children, this year’s intervention is projected to expand to 20 LGAs, covering two LGAs within each federal constituency across Akwa Ibom State. The expansion reflects our commitment to bringing integrated healthcare services closer to more vulnerable mothers, children, and caregivers, particularly in underserved communities where the need remains greatest,” he stated.