Africa-Press – Tanzania. NON-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Kongwa District have been urged to come up with strategies and programme that will supplement the government efforts in addressing various challenges facing the health sector in the area.
The Kongwa District Commissioner, Mr Remedius Mwema said here recently during in which the World Vision handed over Improved Community Health Fund (CHF) worth 9m/- to insure health of 1, 800 residents in Kongwa.
“Health is key for any economy undertaking, if we are not in good health, our engagement in socio-economic activities will be shaky , therefore, we must give the health sector the needed support” he insisted.
DC Mwema plans to meet all registered NGOs in his district for familiarisation and get to know their engagement as well as scope of coverage, and how they implement various projects and productivity that has been attained so far.
He said NGOs should provide different services rather than have multiple NGOs with similar activities such as environmental awareness for the same people, while lacking other essential services including health.
DC Mwema also called on village and ward leaders in the district to be at the forefront in encouraging citizens to join the health insurance fund, as doing so will help improve health services in their areas.
The district commissioner also urged the leaders to set a health insurance agenda in every session they hold to be part of mobilizing the people to reach 40 per cent of all households in the Kongwa district.
Kongwa District Medical Officer, Dr Thomas Mchomvu thanked the organization for its sincere commitment to improving health for the people of the district.
Dr Thomas said initially the request received from the World Vision was to care for children but after discussions with the organization executives, they agreed to provide insurance to entire families of the beneficiaries.
“I thank you for your flexibility because if we only served the students, things would still be difficult the day the parent became ill, still the same student would get the burden of nursing, its good idea to issue the health service to the whole family.” He expressed.
However, Dr Mchomvu said the response of the people in joining the health insurance scheme is still low with only 7,264 households’ equivalent to 12 per cent of the 61,995 households in Kongwa district since the inception of the scheme.
On his part, Acting Coordinator of the program in Kongwa area, Zacharia Shigukulu said that the program will be implemented in two phases.
Shigukulu also noted that, the first phase is being implemented in ten villages in Makawa, Matongoro and Mkoka wards and expected to benefit 36,621 people from 8,027 households.
He also said that the objectives of the project are to support the government’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of children and their families.
