Religious groups and religious leaders have been charged to disseminate information on government programmes and policies that are beneficial to the people, especially to their members and worshipers at all levels.
The Acting Executive Secretary of the Rivers State Contributory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP), Dr. Vetty Agala gave the charge when the leadership of Interfaith Initiative for Sustainable Development (IISHD) visited her in her office in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
She said religious groups usually have large followership influenced by their leaders, the leaders, therefore need to always be aware and abreast of what the government is doing, so that they could properly pass the proper information to their congregation and worshippers.
Agala maintained that RIVCHPP remains functional and has already enrolled over 39,000 vulnerable persons into the BHCPF plan to enable them to access quality healthcare services fully paid for from a common fund provided by the federal and state governments.
She clarified that the persons classified as vulnerable are children less than five years old, the aged above 65 years old, widows in rural areas, persons living with disabilities, persons with chronic ailments and the poorest of the poor.
The Executive Secretary of RIVCHPP, who said the Rivers State government had increased the initial of 68,874 targeted persons to 100,000 persons, pleaded with religious groups and philanthropists to enroll more persons to benefit from the programme across the state.
She further disclosed that the agency, which has the full support of Sir Siminialayi Fubara under the guidance and leadership of the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Chidinma Oreh, has the mandate to ensure that everyone who lives and works in Rivers State can access health care insurance, financial protection and accessibility to quality healthcare.
“In a bid to achieve these goals, we want to ensure that the beneficiaries do not pay out of their pockets at the point of receiving health services, and without facing financial hardship due to their need to access healthcare,” she stressed.
She also announced the willingness of the agency to partner with the regional groups, which she described as having the informal sector of the community targeted by the agency and charged them to use the opportunity of the visit to catalyse what the RIVCHPP has been doing so as to get everyone in the state on board the health insurance scheme.
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Earlier, the leader of the group, Reverend Nathaniel Luke, who said the group has always been passionate about the programmes and policies that would bring about increased health coverage and improved healthcare for Rivers people resident, congratulated Dr. Agala on her well-deserved appointment.
He stressed that the RIVCHPP has enormous task work in its hands to better the healthcare needs of the people and pledged the group’s desire to partner with the agency in the dissemination of information on the activities and programmes of the state’s health insurance scheme to the grassroots level.
Luke, who added that as a religious state, the group has a large constituency, promised to take the message that Rivers State Government remains bent on taking part of the healthcare expenditure of the people to provide quality healthcare services by subsidizing payments to the people, some of who are not already aware of the health insurance scheme.
PHOTO CAPTION FOR RIVERS STORY
Representatives of Interfaith Initiative for Sustainable Health and Development (IISHD), the Acting Executive Secretary, Dr. Vetty Agala and the Director Administration of RIVCHPP in a group photograph during the visit of Interfaith to RVCHPP
