The One Million Community Health Worker (1mCHW) Campaign of Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA) has donated some medicines and logistics worth US$160,000.00 to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in support of community health.

The items include 50,000 pieces of malaria RDTs, 100,000 sachets of ORS, 500 packets of zinc tablets, 25,000 tablets of Albendazole and 4,800 bottles of Amoxicillin suspension.

They are to help strengthen the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) and contribute towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage.

Officials of MPA say the donated items were made possible with funding from GSK.

They are to be distributed to 36 CHPS zones in seven Community Health Workers (CHWs) demonstration districts in the Ashanti Region to facilitate the care of clients referred from households to CHPS compounds by CHWs.

CHPS is Ghana Health Service’s primary health care strategy where Community Health Officers (CHOs) are engaged to live in compounds provided by the community or the Assembly to deliver basic health care to the door-steps of the people, while also making prompt referrals when necessary.

The Country Director of MPA, Chief Nat Ebo Nsarko, presenting the items at a short ceremony in Kumasi on Tuesday, April 17, 2018, said resourcing the CHPS compounds to enable the people, especially, those living in rural communities to get access to quality health care services is the best way to extend healthcare if the country wants to achieve the Universal Health Coverage.

“If you look at someone who is very sick and living in a rural community, the best place to get access to quality health care delivery is the CHPS compound. So, if we don’t resource the CHPS compounds to deliver quality health care services to the people, at the end of the day those living in rural communities will face some challenges. We believe in Universal Health Coverage and so irrespective of the geographical location of a person, he or she has to get access to quality health care. We don’t have to let money be a barrier to accessing quality health care and that is why we are donating these items to the GHS in the country”, he noted.

The Ashanti Regional Director, Ghana Health Service, Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang, who received the items on behalf of the GHS, implored on the government to resource the CHPS compounds with medicines, tools and motorbikes to enable the health professionals working in those facilities deliver effectively.