United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday donated nine AG Motorbikes and assorted items valued at about 50,000 dollars to the Upper East Regional Health Directorate to support health delivery in the region.
Some of the items included desk-top and lap-top computers, colour printer, cartridges and scanning machines.
Dr. Victor Ngongalah, Chief Officer in charge of Health and Nutrition of UNICEF, said that the items, particularly the motorbikes, would help the health personnel to reach out to mothers and children at the remotest areas to deliver health services.
This, he noted, would accelerate the pace of the region to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs 4&5) which were very dear to UNICEF.
Receiving the items on behalf of the Regional Director of Health Services, Dr.KokuAwoonor-Williams, Mr.LucioDery, Deputy Director of Health in charge of Administration and Health Support Services, said one of the major challenges confronting health delivery in the region was the problem of transportation.
He said most of the staff used their own motorbikes to travel to remote areas to administer health services and indicated that the provision of the motorbikes would empower the health personnel to travel to oversee areas to deliver health services to the people.
Mr.Dery said UNICEF was one of the major partners when it came to health delivery in the region, stressing “it is a major partner in terms of funding, donation of health logistics and technical support”.
He said the Director General of Health Service and the Regional Health Directorate would procure more motorbikes for community health officers and volunteers at Community Health Based Planning centers to enable them to travel to communities where there were no CHPS compounds to offer services.
Mr.Dery indicated that after the usage of the motorbikes by the staff for a period of time, they would be auctioned to them as incentives to motivate them to work better.
He appealed to NGOs, CorporateOrganisations and well-meaning Ghanaians to partner the Director General of Health Service and the Regional Directorate to purchase appropriate motorbikes for health personnel to help improve health delivery.
He assured UNICEF that the Directorate would ensure the motorbikes and the other items were put to good use and properly maintained.
Source: GNA
