Wanki Clement, Mayor, Santa Council
What are you planning to do to increase registration and contribution in the Santa MHO after this one day workshop?
This one day seminar has been an eye opener. I have a lot of people who need help. Most of them are already registered with the social centre. It is just a matter of me going through that list and seeing how many of them the council can cope with. It is just to start with a small number this year and subsequently we increase the number. I have already said the entire council staff and the councillors will be brought into the scheme so that we can be an example for the rest of the community. But we still have to continue with sensitization especially in the churches and in the radio houses, we are very lucky that we have our community radio. We will sing it like a song. We shall write letters to village development associations that function within our municipalities and to meetings of traditional councils, meetings of Fons, all the service heads, we shall continue to propound the idea so as to convince many people to get involved.

Your contribution to the growth of the Santa MHO has been enormous. Are you doing it as you or it is the responsibility of your council and how can other councils learn from this?
Everything I do is under the auspices of the Santa Rural council. That is why on the day of the election into the Board of the MHO, I was honoured that it was the staff of the council that was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors so that he should be closed to us. It is only that my deputies have been assigned to other things today. The person actually following this program and the health program is my third deputy Mayor who unfortunately could not come. So, it is the Santa council which is involved. We discuss the MHO in council sessions; we discuss it in council committee meetings especially the committee on health which has taken a stand on this. Of course we understand the role of the council which is to promote what ever should go to help the people to alleviate poverty and alleviate suffering and as I said, to me the MHO is the poor people’s health insurance and the majority of my people fall within that class and the means I am using to promote their interest is the means of the council and so I am doing it as Santa council and not as Mayor Clement Wanki.

What would you tell some of your colleagues Mayors who are said to be very lukewarm towards the MHOs?
I know why this took place. We Mayors were sensitized on MHOs before the election of 2007. Those Mayors that came in after 2007 did not have that original sensitization. I think that is one of the reasons. We have our meetings of the Union of Councils and Cities of Cameroon. We have chapters at the level of the divisions and regions. When we get there next time, I will try to bring up this idea and at least convince my colleagues to pay more attention to it. The documentation is already there and if you want to know everything about MHOs and you can read, you do not need anybody to lecture you. So I will merely refer them to the documentation which is already available in their councils and maybe things will change by B.D.S.

“My people have not understood the term solidarity,”

Niba Celestine Manka, Manager, Ntare MHO

What is the Main problem you facing as Manger of the Ntare MHO and how is this problem retarding the growth of this MHO ?
The main problem I am facing is that my people have not understood the term solidarity and secondly our service provider is a private sector. It is difficult to manage this situation because there are two health insurance schemes there with the other promoted by the service provider. This scheme has suppressed the Ntare MHO because the mission wants their own scheme to be ahead and they have refused me from giving guarantee letters just because the MHO owes the hospital. Following the protocol agreement, it was stated that there should be no debts carried forward. Normally we are supposed to have settled the debts but we are in a deficit and there is no means for me to cover this deficit for now. Members are no more contributing since they are not benefiting.

Meanwhile I have tried to make the community to understand what solidarity means and some are beginning to come in. but some are complaining of the prices of the drugs because once they know that you are a member of the MHO, they inflate the price of drugs but I can’t solve this problem because I do not have a price list to be able to determine the price of drugs. I will only try to encourage members that health is wealth and they should not keep their money hoping that when they are sick they would be able to go and pay. What would an old woman who is unable to have the same money do? Can’t you help her through this solidarity? This is the only way I have got to encourage them.

Is today’s workshop going to help you resolve these problems or something more is still needed ?
I have learnt a lot from this workshop I have learned that the MHO is a government policy and that government will follow-up and we shall have a solution to the problem of prices of drugs. I have also learned from the Mayor of Santa that the council has to take care of the health of its people but our own Mayor is not even active in this domain. We, the different MHOs in Bafut are going to team up and meet our Mayor and dialogue with him so he can have that courage to encourage other people to contribute towards sensitization because the lay people are looking up to the elite. If he can take part in the sensitization, many people will join the MHO. I have also realized that it is the mayor of Santa who has made the Santa MHO to grow and not only the manager since he also goes out to sensitise the people and the fact that he has made it possible for workers of the council to be members of the MHO impressed me a lot I think if our own mayor could also do this and contact the chiefs to join in the sensitization, I am sure Ntare MHO will grow by B.D.S.

“I am going back with a very new experience,”

Mundi Protus, Manager, Bambui MHO
“ I am going back with a very new experience especially what the Mayor has told us. He has made us understand that it is the responsibility of the council to take care of its people and I believe that if our mayor knew this, we would have been flying. We are going to beat Kumbo if our Mayor accepts to do what is the responsibility of the council as stated in the presentation of the Mayor of Santa. That is, to make sure that the citizens of his constituency are healthy.”

“People have not understood,”

Aso Ambo, BOARD Chairman Ngwo MHO
“We have done massive education but we have realized that people have not understood because most of the people are illiterate. When you say one thing they understand the other but we shall continue to educate and explain in simple terms so they can understand. That is why in Ngwo we have decided to make a step forward by visiting people from house to house to talk to them individually. Our manager would meet individual families with the register and discuss with them to register and pay contributions immediately because when you are talking in public, those who are there have their various opinions. In Ngwo, our Fon has asked the elite to register and pay contributions for their families and also for the poor and needy”.