Coalition of NGOs in health programme for 6th regional forum on MDGs 4 & 5 and Ebola
Young and Lonely Foundation (YLF) a member of the Ghana coalition of NGOS in health organized a 6th Regional forum at the Cape Coast Hotel Conference Room on 9th October, 2014. The purpose of the forum is to promote strong Regional Civil Society and Public Partnership towards the achievement of MDGs 4 and 5 by the year 2015. Mr. Bright Amissah Nyarko the chairman for Ghana coalition of NGOs (Central Regional Charter) gave everyone a warmly welcome especially the dignitaries who were invited. He proceeded to talk about the successes chalked by the Coalition. These are in the area capacity building, improvement in maternal health care, stigma reduction on HIV/AIDS, liaising with the Ghana Health Service, department of social welfare, governmental organizations and other Civil Society Organizations to find solutions to health related problems in the communities, articles, research and advocacy on health.
He also highlighted monitoring of activities, awareness creation, supervision, distribution of health care materials, etc this are some of duties they put in place to help the Ghana health service to improve the service in the country. He made it clear that although the Ghana health service is doing their best but more need to be done to save the life of people in the country. He said, there has been an increase in cholera infection in the country. Only in central region 64 people were infected my cholera and out of that 20 of them lost their life thus starting from July to September. There have always been reduction in HIV/AIDs in infection, in 2012 the percentage rate in the country was 4.7% but as at 2013 the percentage rate was 1.4%. Ebola is the next disease that was brought to the fore. According to the chairman much attention is given to that but we should not forget that other disease are also harmful so equal attention should be given to other diseases.
After the presentation, Dr. Samuel Kwashie the Central regional Director of health briefly out doored some of the strategies they have employed to tackle the health problems and also thanked the coalition for supporting the health service to carry out health programmes in the communities.
Address by Central Regional Minister Hon. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, according to him the government is going to do its best to help improve the maternal health situation but as citizens, everybody have a vital role to play as the government and together we can make our health service a better one of course and our mothers and children will stop dying. So each and everyone is a stakeholder to the success of the health care in the country. He congratulated the Coalition of NGOs in health for the good work done (kudos) and he encourages them to do their best to help improve the health situation to make Ghana a better home to be. He said the cholera situation is always increasing and much attention should be paid to reduce the infection. He said if the environmental department and the citizen do their work well such disease will not occur He promised he always back the coalition for all their operations in the Ghana.
Contribution and suggestion made by the participant so as to achieve MDGs 4&5 in 2015.
There should be much involvement by the government by setting some good policy and motivating the health workers.
Individuals should also play their role by practicing personal hygiene and environmental hygiene.
Husbands should visit the health centers or accompany their wives to the hospital when they are pregnant. When he husbands follows their wives, they will pay attention to their wives and they will have a fair idea on what is going on in the womb of the women.There should be more education in the communities to help educate the mothers on how to take care of themselves whenever they are pregnant . There is the need to educate the public on the need to keep their environment clean to help protect them from cholera infection. There should be an education or advocacy for the husbands in the various communities so that they can realize their role to play when their wives are pregnant.
The chairperson gave his closing remarks by summarizing all the presentation which was needed by the various departments. He said if all individuals play their role as good citizen there will always be a better Ghana. He added that in terms of health everyone has a role to play as a stakeholder to improve the health services. He stressed that, based on the presentation the various department presented he is not convinced Ghana can achieved the MDGs 4 and 5 in 2015 because the output is not encouraging and therefore more intervention strategies must be employed as soon as possible to salvage the situation. He stress on the fact that Ghana is’ too old ‘for people to die out of cholera therefore the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other department charged with the responsibility of protecting and improving sanitation must do something about the current health problems in the environment.
He also congratulated the regional authorities for being on top of the problems on the grounds and charged them to extend measures to the District levels.
