KAKATA, Margibi – The Ministry of Health has disclosed that the government is taking steps to increase access to information about health matters in the country. The ministry said the move will keep people safe from diseases.

Tamba Boima, Director of Community Health Services Division at the Ministry of Health, said at least 100 health workers are currently participating in a 12-day training program in Kakata.

“It is a master training of trainers,” he said. The trainers are expected to train community health assistants across the country following the training.

He said the goal of the master training is to prepare a road map to train more than 4,000 community health assistants by 2021.

“However, a short-range plan is to have 2,000 trained health assistants at the community level by December this year,” he added.

Boakai said statistics show that 29 percent of the country’s population do not have access to health services. He believes training health assistants will help to address the challenge.

The Liberia Community Health Assistant Program was launched on July 24 in Marshall.

The program is intended to provide an integrated package of essential primary health services tailored to greatest risks faced by rural communities.

Speaking during the launch of the program, Health Minister Dr. Bernice Dahn expressed her hope that the program would transition the country’s health system from a series of fragmented, under-performing community health volunteers program to a nationally unified high-quality one.

She said the program will deploy more than 4,000 Community Health Assistants to increase access to care for Liberians.

Correction: A previous version of this article spelled Tamba Boima’s name incorrectly and said the LCHAP was launched on 31 July 2016, rather than 24 July.

Featured photo by Samuka Konneh