WiLDAF- Ghana Trains another set of Health Legal Literacy Volunteers
The Civil Society fund under the Social Development Civil Society Funds, formerly known as the small Grants Program, complements and facilitates the social development agenda of the World Bank through civic engagement.
This Fund is coordinated by the World Bank Ghana office in Partnership with the Centre for Development Partnerships. The overarching aim of this fund is to ensure that Maternal and Neonatal Mortality is reduced through Dialogue and Action within the Framework of Social Accountability. The theme explores actions that can address maternal and neonatal mortality challenges to help improve maternal and neonatal health whilst accelerating the process towards achieving MDGs 4 and 5. WiLDAF Ghana received a portion of this fund a project under theme "Rural Women's Empowerment through a Community-Based Project to Improve Maternal and Neo-natal Health in six Communities in Ga West District" which is aimed at reducing Maternal and Neonatal Mortality are reduced in the Ga West Municipality.
This Project among others built the capacity of 20 persons including legal literacy volunteers, traditional birth attendants, and health personnel, traditional authorities, social workers and teachers. The training focused on what facilitates good maternal and infant health.
The mandate of these trained persons from the eight chosen communities within the Municipality "Okushibiade, Kojo Ashong, Onyansana, Yaoman, Dome Sampaman, Kpobiman and Akramaman" is to serve as a human resource for the communities by undertaking educational activities that focus on actions that can reduce maternal and neo-natal deaths as well as being the conduits through which pregnant women and teenage girls can seek assistance and counselling. These trained persons would also be the link between the community people and the district assembly, district directorate of health and the Medical superintendent of the Municipal Hospital to facilitate engagement and dialogue on the plans, budgets and activities of these state agencies towards improving overall maternal and neo-natal health in the District.
The Residential training took place at the Amasaman community from the 5th to the 6th of September 2011. The content of the training include the following:
Women Sexual and Reproductive Rights
Pre-conception Care
Conception Care
Post Natal Care
Family Planning as essential to the health of girls and Women
Women's and Children Rights
The workshop specifically aimed to:
Educate Participants on the Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Women
Educate participants on Womens and Childrens Rights
Develop the potentials and capacity of the LLV's to Create awareness on maternal and neo-natal Health
WiLDAF Ghana adopted a number of methodologies including:
Conducting the training in both English and the local Ga LanguageUsing the Adult Participatory Method of training and learning generally; and Employing specific participatory methods such as group works, role plays, and group discussions to aid the facilitation process which ensured that participants imbibed the contents of the lessons, and consolidated their knowledge on women's rights related matters. It also ensured that participants shared their experiences as much as possible.
At the end of the workshop some participants shared their joy about the training and its content; here are some of the voices to confirm the success of the activity:
1. "As a chief I receive numerous cases. One of such cases that came before me recently involved a cripple, a young woman who has four children with a man in one of the communities. The man was not maintaining for the children One day his children heard that he was in their neighbourhood, and so went to him to ask for some money for their fending and upkeep. He sent them away angrily and beat up their cripple mother for asking his children to approach him. I am sad this training did not come to me early but now that i have learnt about Women's Reproductive rights I am certain that the crippled woman also has a right to ask the man to maintain his children, since she is the mother. I definitely know what to do after this training"-Nii Akraman II
"As a Traditional Birth Attendant in one of the communities in my municipality, I receive a number of clients yearly. This year, so far I have received about 11 cases of Pregnancy, with training and skills gained from some agencies; I have delivered 8 safely without any problem, and only transferred two cases to the hospital without delay. As I speak now only one client is at my place yet deliver.
With this training, I have gained more knowledge which I will incorporate into my work. I am really fortunate to have been selected to be a part of this training and project." - Sarah Aryee