Health Academy mentor training ends

The Word Health Organisation Banjul office last Thursday organised a daylong Health Academy Training for teachers at the Methodist Academy in Kanifing.

The training, which brought together teachers from various schools, was organised in collaboration with the Ministries of Health and Social Welfare and Basic and Secondary Education.

In his speech on behalf of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Bora Jallow, said the aim of the training was to promote health literacy.

Its ultimate aim is to improve health of young people, particularly those going to school, through information and communication technology. "This is in line with our current education policy, which seeks to provide quality, accessible, and relevant education to all as a means of alleviating poverty in The Gambia," Mr Jallow said.

He noted that poverty alleviation and indeed quality education cannot be achieved in isolation of good health. "This is why our current education policy puts premium on the promotion of health and the overall wellbeing of the children," Jallow noted.

Mr Jallow asserted that so for the trio - the World Health Organisation, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, have been working together on the project since the pilot phase.

Delivering a speech on behalf of the WHO country representative, Momodou Gassama, Communications Officer at the WHO, thanked the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education for accepting to participate in the WHO Health Academy Project.

"We are also cognizant of and indeed grateful for the commitment attached to this project by the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education since the inception of the pilot phase in 2009," he said.

Mr Gassama used the occasion to also extend gratitude to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare for its active role in the execution of the pilot phase.

Having these two important ministries working together in this exercise is a clear demonstration of active and genuine partnership in support of the advancement of education and health in the country, he says.

For his part, Omar Badjie, on behalf of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, said the forum was an opportunity to foster health-education partnership, which will go a long way in improving the health of children for better learning.

He also thanked the organisers, WHO, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, and the participants for having them in this very important exercise.