Wa, June 6, GNA - District assemblies in the Upper West Region have come out with a package to support both Ghanaian and Cuban doctors working in their areas with monthly allowances aside of their salaries. This, they believed would motivate the doctors to work hard and to stay at post for longer periods.

Mr Ambrose Dery, Upper West Regional Minister announced this at a forum organized by the National Council of Women and Development of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC) in honour of Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of MOWAC.

He said it had become necessary to institute such incentive packages for doctors in the region, because of their perennial refusal to accept postings to some parts of the region and sometimes their short stay in the region.

"Is it not pathetic that most of our health centres and hospitals in the region are without medical doctors?" he asked. Mr Dery said to ensure the development of women in the region, he had directed all district assemblies to involve district Gender Officers in their planning programmes and to create room for them during the nominations of Assembly members for their assemblies. He appealed to women organizations not to quarrel among themselves, but to forge ahead for their development by eschewing sectionalism, backbiting and trading of insults among themselves. The Regional Minister commended the women for their hard work and urged them to strengthen their organizations in order to attract financial support.

Hajia Alima Mahama was not happy that some women, who wanted to pay for the National Health Insurance for their children could not do so, because it had to be done by both parents to enable their children to benefit. She called on t he National Health Insurance Council to be flexible to allow single parents and their children to enjoy the facility. On the Development of women, the Minister said there were a lot of interventions, but they had to be well organized before they could benefit from loans and other micro-credit facilities. She said the Ministry was ready to train them in any enterprise, provided they were well organized and showed high sense of responsibility in their groups in society. Dr Daniel Yayemain, Senior Medical Officer in charge of public health said by the end of the year, all hospitals in the region would start distributing HIV/AIDS Retroviral drugs to patients. He said staff were well trained in the distribution and administration of the drugs and they were only waiting for a testing machine to start work.

Mr Cletus S. Paaga, Regional Director of Education said the government had so far paid a total of C3.2 billion for distribution to schools in respect of the capitation grant. Women were drawn from all the districts of the region to bring out problems facing them in their various places. June 6, 2006