A cross section of women at the programme
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP) has organised a free health screening and National Health Insurance (NHIS) card registration for market folks of Kasoa New Market in the Awutu Senya East Municipality of the Central Region.
The exercise, organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), was intended to promote good health among some 500 women in the market that were made up of traders, head porters (Kayayei) and hawkers.
The event formed part of activities by the ministry to commemorate the annual International Women’s Day celebration which was held on March 8 under the theme, “I am generation equality: realising women’s right”.
The Director in charge of Social Protection, Dr Rita Owusu Amankwah, who read a speech on behalf of the sector minister, Mrs Cynthia Morrison, indicated that the exercise was part of initiatives to strengthen coordination of the ministry’s social protection implementation efforts.
She noted that women suffered from varying forms of vulnerabilities and was therefore important for stakeholders to come together to support policies that sought to improve welfare of women.
The ministry, she said, had put in place interventions that had the potential to improve welfare, bridge gender gap as well as facilitate access to available social services such as education and health to empower them to participate effectively in the national development agenda.
These she mentioned to include school feeding programme, drafting of the affirmative action bill, among others.
“We as a ministry cannot do this alone but require the commitment and support of all Ghanaians to enable us realize a Ghana where poverty and inequality is reduced to the barest minimum and all are empowered to contribute their quota to national development,” she said.
She urged parents to take advantage of the free Senior High School (SHS) initiative by enrolling their children for a better future and also urged them to make use of designated toll free lines to lodge complaints on gender issues.
The occasion which was graced by some traditional rulers and members of the municipal assembly was used to provide education on the COVID-19 virus.
By Issah Mohammed