Final-year MSc Health Entrepreneurship students of the Africa Health Collaborative, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have organized a health outreach for residents of the Amansie West District.

The exercise, aimed to provide free health screening, health education, and awareness on Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

The initiative formed part of the students’ efforts to give back to society while advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 that is, ensuring good health and well-being for all by 2030.

Project Lead, Gertrude Tetteh-Boateng, said the exercise sought to educate residents on the importance of enrolling in and maintaining their NHIS status.

“Universal health care entails a lot, but the end of affording a universal health care should not be the state of poverty. That is why we decided to educate members of the Amansie District on the importance of being under Ghana’s NHIS policy,” she noted.

Through the outreach, over 600 residents benefited from NHIS-related services, with about 150 newly registered members, including children, and 450 others renewing their expired insurance cards.

The team also conducted eye screening for more than 200 community members.

The exercise not only deepened community understanding of health and insurance but also gave the students a practical opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge to real-life challenges.

The Africa Health Collaborative in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation seeks to advance healthcare in Africa through two other pillars: Health Employment and Health Entrepreneurship.

The Health Entrepreneurship pillar aims to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and culture that supports entrepreneurs to create meaningful innovations and employment opportunities in the health sector.

The Health Employment pillar also aims to expand and improve current capacities to train primary healthcare workers.