Azernet Berbre, SNNP – Ministry of Health said it has picked Western Azerenet Berbere Woreda/district of the Silte Zone administration in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State as a model in successfully implementing health transformation agendas at Woreda level.
The Ministry of Health has set four agendas that have to do with successful health care intervention, sustainable health care services, effective information flow, and overall health sector transformation at Woreda level to achieve health care transformation in rural areas.
Accordingly, Western Azerenet Berbere Woreda of the Silite Zone Administration in SNNP was chosen as a model in achieving the overall health transformation at Woreda level. Last week, members of the media and officials from the Ministry have paid a field visit to the Woreda to witness the health success stories.
Akinaw Kawuza, Head of SNNP Health Office told The Ethiopian Herald that the Woreda has achieved remarkable success stories in improving standardized primary health care by introducing model households, community health insurance, and effective communications system.
Moreover, in collaboration with local communities, it was managed to make sure that all mothers in the Woreda give birth at health stations. The prevalence of communicative diseases due to poor sanitation has also been significantly reduced. State Minister of Health, Sahrela Abdulahi noted that one of the major reasons for the successful health intervention in the area is the active participation of local communities and hence, this experience has to be expanded to other areas.
In addition, the health development army, religious institutions, and elders in the area have also played a key part. The government has allocated more than five million Birr for the Zonal and Woreda health offices to address the problem of basic medicine supply and service provision.
The hospitals in the Zone have also been providing effective pharmaceutical services.
Still, the shortage of budget, absence of hospital, poor drinking water supply and lack of skilled manpower poses a challenge to meeting the long term health plans in the Woreda.
The Ethiopian Herald April 11, 2019
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
