Bolgatanga, Oct. 8, GNA – The Navrongo- Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO) has begun a three-day workshop to equip its workers with advocacy skills to facilitate the implementation of programmes in Health and Education.
The workshop, being held in Bolgatanga, is funded by the Hungarian Government and organised by the Good Governance, Justice and Peace Directorate, bringing together the Organisation’s 16 advocacy teams.
Reverend Father Lawrence Azure, the Vicar General of the Diocese, at the opening, said there was the need to ensure key actors in the area of Education and Health were well prepared for improved service delivery.
“As a major component of this project, NABOCADO, through the Good Governance, Justice and Peace Directorate, seeks to implement advocacy interventions aimed at ensuring that our government fulfills its God-given mandate to our people in the specific area of Health and Education” he said.
“Knowing very well the lackadaisical attitude and the ineptitude that at times characterise our work, it is, therefore, very critical that unless some key actors in Education and Health are put on their toes, they will renege on their responsibilities and when this happens, it is the poor masses who will suffer from deprivation of health and knowledge”.
Mr Joseph Bangu, the Director of Good Governance, Justice and Peace Directorate, said the training was to prepare the participants for the groundwork at the community level, and offer support to 11 health facilities and 20 schools in the Upper East and North East Regions.
He said the workshop, which was directly under the advocacy component of the Hungary Help Project, aimed at strengthening the capacities of the communities to track how resources were used, particularly the Capitation Grant and related policies of education and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Mr Bismarck Akasoe, the Assistant Health Director, bemoaned the rejection of postings by health workers to rural communities and the delay in the re-imbursement of the NHIS.
“The Catholic facilities are located in rural communities and whenever health professionals are posted to these areas, they find their way out to the cities, depriving the people in the rural area the needed health care,” he said.
Mr Akasoe said the acquisition and implementation of the advocacy skills would help facilitate and ensure health workers stayed in those communities to offer the needed services.
Reverend Sister Bernardine Pemii, the Regional Manager of the Catholic Education Unit, called for the timely disbursement of the Capitation Grant to help maintain the school furniture and make available basic learning materials to improve teaching and learning.
That, she said, would increase enrolment and retention, which the Diocese sought to achieve.
GNA