GHANA – To help reduce inequities in Ghana’s healthcare delivery, Penplusbytes together with its partners, SEND Ghana and the Ghana News Agency, implemented the USAID funded People for Health (P4H) project and are set to host the maiden edition of the Reducing Inequities in Healthcare Awards (RIHCA 2021).
RIHCA 2021 which is themed “Rewarding media efforts in promoting equitable healthcare delivery in Ghana” will celebrate outstanding journalists whose media activities have contributed specifically promoting quality healthcare delivery in five major thematic areas.
These key area of interests in health include; Maternal Health and Family Planning, Malaria, WASH, Nutrition and HIV/AIDS. Ghana has one of the regions highest Mortality rates, pegged at 308 deaths per 100,000 live births by world bank data.
And even though the prevalence of HIV in the West African country reduced from 2.4 in 2016 to 2.1% in 2017, HIV incidence increased by 36% to 1.5% from 1.1% during that same period, which still calls for further efforts to be put in place to manage the situation.
Juliet Amoah, Executive Director, Penplusbytes says, “The media’s contribution has been very pivotal in bringing out issues that form the basis for our constant engagements with duty bearers and demand for social justice and accountability and they deserve to be encouraged and empowered to bring out public interest stories that informs policy direction on citizens’ wellbeing.
Successes and impact achieved in the five-year citizen-centered project, People for Health, have been largely influenced by the works of journalists reporting on our health sector in the seven project regions, she added.
The journalists’ reports have headlined untold stories of citizens’ challenges in seeking healthcare, provided direction to health professions and relevant ideas to policy makers.
The RIHCA awards ceremony which will be held on September 29, 2021 at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI) in Accra is going to be an institutionalized annual awards ceremony that will recognize the efforts and strides being made by individuals and groups in reducing the inequities in healthcare delivery and wellbeing of citizens.
This year’s award looks at six categories: Best reporting on Malaria, Most impactful story on HIV/AIDS, Best WASH Awareness Report, Best Nutrition Report, Special Maternal Health and Family Planning Report and Most impactful P4H Reporter.
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