Health volunteers map road ahead

WINDHOEK – The Ministry of Health and Social Services is hosting a three-day national conference on volunteers.

The gathering is aimed at working on the findings of the national rapid assessment on community volunteers and community-based healthcare programmes that was carried out this year. The conference is part of the activities of the International Day of Volunteers.The conference which is under the theme: “Valuing Namibian Volunteers’ Contribution to Development” will create an opportunity for the participants to share and discuss the findings and recommendations of the report, define and clarify community voluntarism in the Namibian context by looking at existing policies and guidelines.Officially opening the workshop, Health and Social Services Minister Richard Kamwi said the recommendations will directly take the report findings and recommendations forward and feedback to the ministry’s community-based health care policy as well as into a set of guidelines on voluntarism and community-based health care countrywide.”I am confident that this conference will provide the much-needed impetus to further the ideals of voluntarism and to strengthen health and social services provision at community level for and by the communities in strong partnership between civil society, the private sector and government,” Kamwi said.The minister explained that many Health Ministries in Africa, including Namibia experience a severe shortage in human resources especially in the provision of health and social services.He expressed concern that the health services are generally perceived to be inaccessible by many people due to a number of reasons such as a lack of infrastructure, transport and human resources on the supply side as well as long distances, economic hardship and poverty on the side of the communities.The conference will also explore and promote best practices in volunteering, reach consensus on standardisation of core elements of voluntarism in Namibia and contribute to the compilation of guidelines on voluntarism/community-based health care.NampaThe conference is part of the activities of the International Day of Volunteers.The conference which is under the theme: “Valuing Namibian Volunteers’ Contribution to Development” will create an opportunity for the participants to share and discuss the findings and recommendations of the report, define and clarify community voluntarism in the Namibian context by looking at existing policies and guidelines.Officially opening the workshop, Health and Social Services Minister Richard Kamwi said the recommendations will directly take the report findings and recommendations forward and feedback to the ministry’s community-based health care policy as well as into a set of guidelines on voluntarism and community-based health care countrywide.”I am confident that this conference will provide the much-needed impetus to further the ideals of voluntarism and to strengthen health and social services provision at community level for and by the communities in strong partnership between civil society, the private sector and government,” Kamwi said.The minister explained that many Health Ministries in Africa, including Namibia experience a severe shortage in human resources especially in the provision of health and social services.He expressed concern that the health services are generally perceived to be inaccessible by many people due to a number of reasons such as a lack of infrastructure, transport and human resources on the supply side as well as long distances, economic hardship and poverty on the side of the communities.The conference will also explore and promote best practices in volunteering, reach consensus on standardisation of core elements of voluntarism in Namibia and contribute to the compilation of guidelines on voluntarism/community-based health care.Nampa