Akim Oda (E/R), Aug 18, GNA - Mr Frank Kwame Busumtwi, Birim Central Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), has stated that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the municipality had registered a total of 9,043 people, from January this year to date. He said the figure (9,043) brings to a total membership of 108,665, representing 60.6 per cent out of the target of 70 per cent of the municipal population set for year 2008.

Mr Busumtwi, who said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Akim Oda on Monday, expressed the hope that more people would join the scheme to make it sustainable. Touching on the school feeding programme, Mr Busumtwi said it had been piloted in five community schools since its inception. He told the GNA: "Reports so far received indicate that the programme has increased enrolment in the pilot schools". The beneficiary basic schools are, Essam Local Authority Primary, Akenkansu Methodist and Catholic Primary, Anyinam Kotoku Local Authority Primary and Bieni Local Authority Primary. On the Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), Mr Busumtwi said seven models had been implemented offering employment to 598 youths in the municipality.

The models are Health Extension Workers, Community Protection Unit, Teaching Protection Unit, Sanitation Guards, ZoomLion, Farmers and Plantation Development Programme. He said the municipal secretariat of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), had embarked on an intensive outreach programme to educate community members on the need to be responsible to the needs and welfare of children. The outreach programme became necessary as a result of increasing number of child neglect and non-maintenance cases reported to the CHRAJ secretariat last year.

He appealed to parents in the district, especially fathers to be more responsible and to cater for their children.