Dambai (O/R), Nov. 24, GNA – Mr Siapha Kamara, Chief of Party, People for Health (P4H), has said the outfit would continue to partner communities in the Volta and Oti regions towards their development in areas of quality healthcare, water, and sanitation.
He said the communities had a lot of potentials and what the P4H had demonstrated showed that with a bit of supervision, encouragement, and good collaboration with the Ghana Health Service and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) a lot could happen in the communities.
Mr Kamara speaking at the P4H Regional Closeout ceremony at Dambai, said it was to celebrate and showcase, by sharing the good practices they had done so that other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) could learn from how P4H worked successfully with the stakeholders.
He said the P4H was an initiative to empower citizens to take responsibility for their healthcare in their communities adding that the P4H project had supported over 100 communities with technical and financial support from USAID.
Mr Kamara said over the past five years, they worked in 25 communities and five districts in both Oti and Volta regions where health services, water, and sanitation were difficult for the communities to access.
“That is what People for Health was set up by the USAID to do. To reach difficult hard-to-reach communities. So, what we have done for the past five years has been to contribute to those deprived communities to exercise their rights that guarantee all Ghanaians have quality healthcare.”
Mr Kamara noted that the P4H project had been able to work alongside Ghana Health Service to provide access to quality healthcare to people in 25 communities in Volta and Oti.
Mr Kamara commended the media for the pivotal roles they played in the P4H success stories while expressing hope that there would be sustainability on all that the P4H with stakeholders had achieved in the regions.
He said through the P4H project communities were able to access the 0.5 percent of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) quota for malaria activities and urged communities to continue to make sure they were allocated.
Mr Amin Abdul Mutallib, Krachi East Municipal Director of Health Services, said the P4H project had also contributed to improved access to healthcare delivery in deprived communities and improved health status of marginalised constituents, as well as increased awareness in health-related issues and quality among people.
He called on other NGOs to support service delivery in island communities where services were not provided regularly, build CHPS compounds in the communities, provide monthly outreach services as well as logistics such as motorbikes to provide services in the Municipality.
The P4H is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project, which commenced in 2016 and is expected to end this year, 2021.
It is being implemented by a consortium led by SEND-Ghana, Penplusbytes, and the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
It seeks to strengthen the organisational and institutional capacities of government and civil society organisations for mutual accountability in the management and performance of health systems.
The project, implemented in 20 selected districts across the Northern, North East, Savannah, Eastern, Volta, Oti, and Greater Accra regions, also seeks to mobilise and empower community members to demand better and equitable health care service in their respective areas.
Mr John Mensin Mframah, Oti Regional Deputy Coordinating Director, commended the P4H and other stakeholders for sustaining the health sector over the past five years in the Volta and Oti regions.
He said healthcare in the Oti region was not an easy task and noted that a big vacuum was been created with the end of the project.
Certificates and citations were presented to outstanding Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs), District Health Management Teams (DHMTs), Focal NGOs (FNGOs) radio stations, Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS), Community Health Management Committees (CHMCs), Water and Sanitation Management Teams (WSMTs), District Citizens Monitoring Committees (DCMCs) and Community Health Officers (CHOs).
GNA