Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) has officially outdoor members of the Community Health Coalition (CHC) to the leadership and citizens of the Ga West Municipality.
The members of the CHC who were drawn from ten communities in the Municipality have undertaken a 5-day intensive training on reproductive health care, Gender and advocacy and equipped with the right to empower community members on their health rights.
At a short ceremony in one of the ten communities, the Kwashikuma Community, the Programs Manager from WiLDAF team, Lois Addo enumerated that WiLDAF through its projects will work hand in hand with the CHCs to foster sound collaborations among stakeholders in the health sector to achieve their goals and objectives.
Lois Addo also indicated that the CHC Project which is under the theme, ?Community Health In Community Hands,? is a two years STAR Ghana funded project undertaken in the Greater Accra and Akwapim North Districs.
It is targeted at women, teenage girls, people living with disability, community leaders and district health service providers with much emphasis on pregnant women, pregnant teenagers and community members.
The CHCs are entrusted with the responsibilities of ensuring the provision of information on health facilities and services, in particular maternal and neo-natal health, and on CHPS to rural communities.
The trainees will also be involved in supporting communities and district health personnel with information on the gendered nature of health needs in order for them to provide comprehensive care.
It is expected that the project will help increase knowledge on health rights and advocacy capacity of 50 community people to demand quality health care from health leaders.
The CHCs will enhance collaboration between community health coalitions and community leaders and also solve problems relating to ignorance of health rights.
On her part, Patricia Essel also from WiLDAF indicated that there will also be at the end of the project an agreed civil engagement framework for improved and quality health among community leaders, people, coalitions and health service providers.
Over 3000 community members will have increased knowledge on health rights, gender and available health facilities in the Districts.
All the project expectations will be achieved through baseline surveys, development of IEC materials, training and establishment of community health coalitions, advocacy meetings with health service providers and community campaigns among others.
Speaking to some of the CHC members, they expressed appreciation to WiLDAF and SEND Ghana for taking the initiative to educate them on their reproductive health rights which hitherto they were not privy to.
According to them they have acquired enough knowledge to enable them assist health care providers to ensure that the project objectives are met.
