By Jenneh Braima
The Mayor of the Freetown, Frankly Bode Gibson has called on community health officers (CHOs) in the capital city to "build a good working relationship with their councillors in their wards or communities".
He was speaking after a recent misunderstanding between a councillor and a community health worker over who should be a signatory for the disbursement of Le 500 million donated by the Sierra Leone Brewery Company for the construction of a community health centre in Ward 351.
Mayor Gibson encouraged all the health workers to "do your work with humanity as the rainy season is a special one that comes with dangerous diseases and now Ebola and cholera are showing like symptoms". But he described Ebola as "a deadly and real disease that can kill very quickly" urging all to take care of their environment "by keeping it clean".
He said the meeting was not about pointing fingers at people because the intention was to "build a working relationship for the benefit of Sierra Leone, and to see our people live a better life", adding that the function of councillors was to help their people live a good life, by providing oversight and monitoring of community health workers.
Councillor Mohamed Turay who is the chairman of the health and sanitation at the FCC said they had been looking forward to the meeting to bridge the gap between them as councillors and health workers because "health issues in the municipality are very important."
Councillor Thaimu Bangura of the disputing Ward 35 said the problem in his ward was over the fact that the Community Health Officers (CHO) "allowed the former district medical officer...to be a signatory and project manager which is wrong because there should be one community member."
(C) Politico 08/07/14
