Advertisement

Laity in Ghana’s Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese Receive Monitoring, Management Skills

Some members of the Laity in Wulugu community of Ghana’s Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese. Credit: Courtesy Photo

Members of the Laity in Wulugu community of Ghana’s Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese have received skills in the management and monitoring of hospitals and schools in a training spearheaded by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocesan Development Organization (NABOCADO) .

According to a Monday, October 18 report, the workshop that was organized by NABOCADO’s Good Governance, Justice and Peace project in collaboration with the Hungary Helps Program sought to foster quality service delivery and the people’s participation in the management of eleven health facilities and twenty schools in the Ghanaian Diocese. 

“The project with funding from the Hungary Helps Program was aimed at empowering the committees with the knowledge and skills to act as citizens monitoring groups and a linkage between the facilities and their respective communities for effective collaboration and improved service delivery,” the Director of the Good Governance, Justice and Peace project, Joseph Bangu, has been quoted as saying on the sidelines of the training that took place at the St. Patrick Health Centre, Wulugu, October 16.

The main function of community representatives, Mr. Bangu adds, “will be to periodically come and track the reimbursement of NHIS (National Health Insurance Scheme) claims, number of beds, safe deliveries, state of the structure among other essential services so that at the end of it we collectively sit down and see how the facility is performing.”

Participants in the one-day workshop were major stakeholders in the community, including the chief, women leader, youth leader, assembly member and a member of staff serving in the health/education institution. The community representatives have been divided into committees.

Advertisement

Each Committee, Mr. Bangu says, “is charged with the responsibility of monitoring, tracking and demanding quality service from the managers of the facilities, and to report to the communities on the happenings at the facilities,”.  

In his message, the Primary Healthcare Coordinator of the Diocesan Health Services says the Church’s aim is to complement government efforts in serving the people, especially those in the peripheries.  

“If you look at the location of the health facilities, you would realize that we are not here to compete with Ghana Health Service but we are complementing the government at providing essential services to hard-to-reach communities,” Peter Akudugu Ayamba said.

On his part, the Health Promotion Officer at the Ghana Health Service in charge of the West Mamprusi Municipality, Mr. Bismarck Adu-Agyapong, said the initiative of NABOCADO and the Hungary Helps Program will help in building cordial relationships between community members and service providers. 

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.