The Daffiama-Bussie-Issa DBI District Health Directorate has partnered with communities in the area to extend physical structures at the CHPS compounds. The structures are to complement the already existing health infrastructure at the community level.
The DBI District Director of Health, Emmanuel Sanwouk said the community-led projects will be used as ANC facilities and living quarters for midwives to help reduce the burden on the existing structure. Mr Sanwouk said so far, two communities have completed their projects and handed over them to the Health Directorate.
The Daffiama-Bussie-Issa DBI District was created in 2012 out of the Nadowli-District. According to the DBI District Director of Health, Emmanuel Sanwouk, the District being a young one, still faces a number of infrastructural challenges. He said to address these concerns, his office in 2017 begun engaging with the communities and District Assembly to find solutions to the existing problems.
Mr Sanwouk said as part of the solutions, in 2019, communities agreed to provide funds and labour towards to construction of the additional structures.
“In 2019 we started seeing some results. The communities bought into the idea that it was possible for them to make their own contributions to build structures to augment the already existing ones. Now, at almost all the CHPS compounds, the community members are putting up structures so that we can use them as ANCs and Maternity Units for the CHPS Compunds.
Fortunately, we have a good number of midwives that can be stationed at these CHPS Compounds to make it easier for pregnant women to access maternal health service,” he explained.
When the GBC News Team visited Duang, the whole structure had been completed and handed over. The structures included a delivery room, a washroom, and living quarters for the midwife. At the Jolinyiri CHPS Compound, the midwife’s living quarters had been completed while extra rooms were nearing completion. At the Fian Health Centre, the structure had been raised above the window level. He said the projects have been very beneficial.
“When you look at the structure of the CHPS Compounds, it comes with its own design and the number of people you can accommodate in it. With the addition of these structures, we are able to add a midwife to the facility who now stays there. Some of the structures that the communities are building have extra rooms. If we are going to sit down and wait for the government, I am not sure we will have been reaping this success at this time,” he said.
He added that pregnant women will no longer have to walk long distances to access antenatal health care services.
The DBI District Director of Health, Emmanuel Sanwouk said his office would continue to liaise with the District Assembly and the communities to advance health to all the residents in the District.
Story by Mark Smith.
