social services

On 19^th July 2022, the Social Services Sub-committee which is mandated to discuss oversee all matters related to social services in the district such as healthcare, education, access to water amongst others held its second meeting for the year 2022. The meeting was aimed at discussing issues relating to all social services for the first half of the year.

The chairperson for the sub-committee; Honourable Eunice Appiah welcomed all members and staff to the committee. She also expressed her gratitude to all members for carrying out monitoring exercise to some selected health facilities to ascertain their challenges and report to management. She then took the house through minutes of previous minutes which was accepted after a lengthy deliberation and discussion of the matters arising from the document.

The chairperson for the committee informed the committee that, it was important for members to carry out monitoring activities since the last one churned out positive results. In view of that, she proposed a monitoring exercise dated for 27^th September 2022 to some schools within the district which would be determined on the day of monitoring. Members agreed to the proposal and it was accepted by the house. The chairperson also proposed that after the meeting, the committee should also visit some orphanage homes within the district in order to determine some challenges they face and report to management for a solution since their activities forms part of the DPAT indicators.

The Head of the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development; Mrs Mabel Twumwaa Acheampong briefed the house on the just ended disbursement of items to persons living with disability. She mentioned that a total of 123 beneficiaries were given items including cash. She said that 99 out of 123 received cash only whiles the others received cash in addition to items such as containers, fufu machines, deep freezers amongst others. In total, an amount of GHC115800 was disbursed to these persons living with disability.

The National Health Insurance Authority for the district also briefed the house on registration status for the first half of the year. He mentioned that for the period, there has been 560 new registrations and 180 renewals. He also educated the house on the fees paid for new cards and renewals. He mentioned that, for a replacement or a new card, one has to pay Eight Ghana Cedis. Also, for renewal, persons below 18 years of age pay Six Ghana Cedis whiles persons above 18 years Twenty Three Ghana Cedis whiles persons who are SSNIT holders pay only Five Ghana Cedis. He added that assembly members should encourage their electorates to register with the NHIS in order to secure themselves against any unforeseen events.

The chairperson for the committee, in her closing remarks expressed her gratitude to all members for sitting through the meeting and expressing their views and opinions. She mentioned that she would carry all recommendations of the committee to the Executive Committee.