By Godfred Aaneamenga Polkuu
Tarikom (U/E), Nov. 1, GNA – The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO), has renewed and enrolled 1,347 refugee children onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to enable them access healthcare services.
Dr Joseph Bangu, the Executive Director of the NABOCADO, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the initiative, said the organisation conducted needs assessment at the centre and realised that the lack of food was one of the problems of the refugees.
He said after the organization secured funds from the Dicastery for the Services of Charity, Rome, and other benevolent individuals to provide food and non-food items to the centre, officials from his outfit later realised the health component was missing.
“When we got the funding, we didn’t want to just assume that we came the first time and food was their issue. So we came back and realised the health component was lacking. Most of the children were not enrolled onto the NHIS and even adults who were registered had invalid cards,” Dr Bangu said.
He said management of the organization took the initiative to register those without cards and renewed those with invalid NHIS cards, “This is to at least enable them access the barest minimum of health service.”
The Executive Director said the NABOCADO as part of its health package, also presented boxes of toothpaste and sanitary pads to the refugees to address their personal hygiene needs.
He acknowledged and thanked all donors for the support and called for more support to the centre as the Church alone could not cater for all their needs.
Mr Sebastian Tule, the Health Programmes Focal Person for the NABOCADO, disclosed that those with NHIS cards expired in the middle of 2025 and said, “Our current target is the children. If we are able to cover the children, we can now look at the adults.”
He said even though the organisation prioritized the needs of all residents, owing to limited resources and the vulnerability of the children, they were the most prioritized as compared to the adults.
“It does not mean that the adults do not need the service, but because of scarce resources, we are concentrating on the children for now,” he explained.
The Focal Person further disclosed that apart for the NHIS card renewal and registration, the NABOCADO realised that there was low immunization coverage among the refugee children and indicated that some were also malnourished.
He called for support for the refugees, noting that, “There is no competition in helping the vulnerable and NABOCADO is not in competition with any other organisation in helping the vulnerable. So we are calling on all stakeholders to come to the aid of these refugees in anyway possible.”
Some parents whose children’s cards were renewed and those newly registered onto the scheme, thanked the leadership of the Catholic Church and the NABOCADO for the initiative, and called for more support in diverse ways to make their stay in the centre comfortable.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali/Lydia Kukua Asamoah