By Aaron Bundu Lahai
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation has been highly commended recently by the Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh. He commended the Ministry of Health and Sanitation for demonstrating unwavering commitment to support His Excellency President Bio’s program on Human Capital Development. He noted that Human Capital Development is about saving lives. He named health, education and food security as the three main components of Human Capital Development. The Vice President made the remarks during the turning of the sod for the construction of midwifery training college in Kenema on the 31st January, 2020.
Dr. Juldeh Jalloh called on authorities in the Health Ministry to look into the health sector seriously with a focus on strengthening the health system. He explained the strengthening of the health system to mean building health care facilities in order to have the human resources that will deliver in the health sector. The Vice President expressed Government’s expectation for the training institution to build the capacity required to support safe delivery and reduce maternal and infant mortality rates.
The Honourable Vice President described the year 2020 as a year of accelerated delivery in Human Capital Development. He explained accelerated delivery to mean overcoming bureaucracies and deliver outcomes. He informed the public about the allocation of an increased budget of 11% to the Health Ministry and 22% to the Education Ministry to boost the Human Capital Development in Sierra Leone. “We will not allow undue bureaucracies to stand on the way of delivery,” he re-echoed.
Vice President Jalloh encouraged the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to put in place an effective management of the facilities, so as to avoid breakdown of equipment like the transmitter of the radio station after two years of completing the construction of the college.
The cost of the project for the construction of the college is eleven million United States Dollars. The project includes the construction of hostels, staff quarters, lecture rooms, training of ten medical doctors and two hundred and eighty midwives, radio station and two buses. The program was climaxed with the turning of the sod by the Honourable Vice President who delivered the keynote speech.
