The Liberia Immunization Platform on Thursday, December 12, 2019 joined other nations to commemorate Universal Health Coverage Day.
The day was under the global theme: “Keep the Promise,” with a call for the provision of quality healthcare services for Women and girls in Liberia.
Universal Health Coverage Day is an annual rallying point for the growing movement for health for all. It marks the anniversary of the United Nations’ historic and unanimous endorsement of universal health coverage in 2012.
This year’s observance of Universal Health Coverage Day in Liberia was organized by the Liberia Immunization Platform, which is a network of over 40 civil society organizations working for equitable access to vaccines for every citizen in the Country.
Serving as keynote speaker at elaborate ceremony in Paynesville City, the Acting Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Dr. Mosoka Fallah, disclosed that people’s lives and deaths are determined by conditions, especially poverty.
According to Dr. Fallah, women are the most effected people, who suffer from conditions of poor health care system.
The Acting NPHIL boss said recent research has shown that about 48 percent of citizens pay for health care services in Liberia, adding, that such percentage needs to be reduced drastically for the safety of the ordinary people.
Dr. Mosoka Fallah furthered that maternal mortality is a major condition that leads to inter-general poverty.
He stressed the need to strengthen the health system of Liberia through the provision of adequate medical drugs, and timely payment of health practitioners who are often assigned to the interior parts of the country
In remarks, the current Board Chair for the Liberia Immunization Platform, Madam Joyce KilikpoJarwolo, re-iterated the need for women empowerment in optimum health care, and more investment in the health sector of Liberia.
Madam Joyce Jarwolo said if Liberia’s health system must improve, women in the country need to be respected and given the needed training in the provision of healthcare services as a means of empowerment for them.
According to Madam Jarwolo, women bear greater responsibilities towards the provision of health care at their respective homes, including the environment within which they live.
She said as part of the Universal Health Coverage Day commemoration, the Liberia Immunization Platform is engaging into focus group discussions within series of communities, to enlighten the minds of citizens about Universal Health Coverage and their role to ensure that promises made by stakeholders are kept for the benefit of the Country and its people.
The LIP Board Chair further cautioned the Government of Liberia to invest in Women, adding that women are the first line of care before even health service providers.
The Universal Health Coverage Day brought together several private and secondary schools, community dwellers, including members of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, and other Liberians from around Monrovia.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.