The MamaYe Ghana team has just rounded up a two-week Advocacy Skills enhancement workshop in the regional capitals of the Volta and Ashanti Regions. The training programme brought together community based organisations in four project districts of the Volta Region (Ketu North, Nkwanta South, South Dayi and Ho) and another four in the Ashanti Region (Sekyere South Sekyere Central, Asante Akim North and Offinso North).
The MamaYe Ghana team has just rounded up a two-week Advocacy Skills enhancement workshop in the regional capitals of the Volta and Ashanti Regions.The training programme brought together Community Based Orgainsations (CBOs) in four project districts of the Volta Region (Ketu North, Nkwanta South, South Dayi and Ho) and another four in the Ashanti Region (Sekyere South Sekyere Central, Asante Akim North and Offinso North).Opinion leaders within these districts were not left out of the training as the participants were taken through rigorous advocacy skills sessions in mobilizing people to promote maternal survival and newborn health in the MamaYe project districts.The MamaYe Campaign implementing partners (Women and Development Project, Volta Educational Renaissance Foundation, Global Action for Women Empowerment, Hope for Future Generation, Ashanti Development, Agwen Sellers Association, Abak Foundation and Centre for Development of People) were taken through various interactive sessions facilitated by members of the campaign and consultants.The training focused on community education to enable the community groups instill a sense of rights in their people and to foster demand for these rights at the community level.It is hoped that this will deepen the technical knowledge of participants on Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health issues and to equip participants with the key facts, skills, tools and materials to conduct educational sessions on Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health rights issues in a variety of settings.The facilitators placed emphasis on the importance of community participation in the use of the community score card mechanism to track health facilities’ preparedness in maternal delivery with a focus on emergency obstetric and newborn care (EmONC).A Queen mother from the Asogli State in the Volta Region, Mama Atrator II, also a Participant, expressed her gratitude to the MamaYe campaign and said she is confident the training will result in producing competent community level trainers with the skills and knowledge to design and promote maternal health activities in the project communities.Deodat Adenuts, another participant said the training has provided the participants with the skills and knowledge to track and score health systems and facilities according to defined well-structured questionnaire/assessment tools.Philip Duah from Abak Foundation in the Asante Akim North District of the Ashanti Region said he is confident community members will benefit from the skills and knowledge acquired from the workshop so that they can all contribute to saving mothers and babies.The partners will now commence their community engagements in the districts to help improve MNH within their localities.