Civil Society Organisations Trained on Community Health Management In Douala

By James Achanyi Fontem, camlinknews

District Civil Society Organisations (CSO) from the Littoral and West Regions took part in a two-day long capacity building training in Douala from the 19th to 20th November 2019 in Afrique Hotel Douala-Brazaville. The CSO are coordinating malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS prevention activities in their respective health districts in the regions. The training workshop was officially opened by the interim-regional delegate for public health in the Littoral, Dr. EKOUM MINTAMACK. Organised by IRESCO Cameroon, the training covered issues related to the context, justification and objectives of the training on-going project, the Community Directed Interventions (ISDC), the different roles of the actors at various levels and partners, obstacles encountered during execution and implementation of planned activities within communities, inappropriate justification of the World Bank Fund by CSO and consequencies review of tools for the collection of data within the communities, the filling of data matrix, difficulties encountered by the civil society organizations at the level of health district administration and health areas, the process for reviewing and validation of reports from Community Health Workers (CHW) which now have to be done on the spot itting errors corrected on the spot in the different health areas with the contribution of the health area chiefs and the CHW. The new strategy also aims at reviewing the methodology and action plans for better execution of activities during home visits by CHW. The participants were invited to operate in synergy with the different health district authorities for attaining global objectives and positive results. Each health district now has a focal point who could report incidents to the district authorities and the coordinators of civil society organizations, Emphasis was put on the different documents to be collected by the coordinators in the different health areas during validation of reports from Community Health Workers. A narrative report on essential drugs management by the community health workers has been included on the list of documents to be collected each month. This document should be able to present the essential drugs and tools received within the month, the quantity used and what is left, the quantity of drugs considered to have expired before renewal each month by the Community Health Area Chief. It was explained that this will assist in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of demand and supply at different levels of health areas, the district level and regional supply chain as a whole in the regions. Civil Society Organisations were told to emphasize at the level of the health areas that the month of CHW ends on the 25th and the new month starts at on the 26th. CHW should respect the different calendar dates for depositing of their reports because late reports will not be validated and consequently the CHW will not be paid. Payment of CHW now regular on monthly basis. IRESCO central bureau has taken the decision to pay CHW every month and it is imperative that the reports must be validated on time within the date-line fixed by the project. It was announced that the reports for the month of December 2019 have to be deposited by the 20th so that the validation for payment can be effective by the 25th December because it is the last month of the year. T he central bureau has to prepare its annual report on time and deposite the plan of action for 2020 at the level of the Ministry of Public Health for forwarding to the World Bank on time for consideration. The report of the workshop is shared with the different Chiefs of District and Health Area Chiefs for better implementation circulation and exploitation during coordination meetings at various levels at the district and health areas. Those that have not completed their village community carthographies are advised do that now as we move to the three year of the project which end on the 31st December 2020. The evaluation of the project depends more on good timely execution.