Nurses, midwives to enjoy better welfare – Union President

President of the Union of Professional Nurses and Midwives, Ghana (UPNMG), Maxwell Oduro Yeboah, has declared 2020 as a transformational year.

According to him, families of member nurses and midwives will this year be enrolled on their insurance scheme.

In his New Year message, Mr. Yeboah said the UPNMG Fund Financial Services and the UPNMG Hire Purchase Malls will be fully operational this year.

The UPNMG Fund Financial Services seeks to give loans to its members at very low interest rates, while the UPNMG Hire Purchase Malls also offers the sale of electronics, household items and building materials on hire purchase to its members.

Read his full statement below:

A New Year, new decade, new dawn for Nurses and Midwives in Ghana and across the globe. The year 2020 is the year of the Nurse and we at UPNMG intend to make it a year of transformation for Nurses and Midwives across the country.

This year, the UPNMG fund will begin full operations with two projected subsidiaries namely: the UPNMG Fund Financial Services which will give loans to members at very low interest rates and the UPNMG Hire Purchase Malls to sell electronics, household items and building materials to members on hire purchase. Our insurance scheme which will cover members as well as their nuclear families, will also be in full operation. This year will also witness the ginormous launch of UPNMG to outdoor it to the world.

Just as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana said on our day of independence, “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of Africa,” in the same vein, we at UPNMG believe that the liberation of our current members will be meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of all Nurses and Midwives in the country. Let us embark on outreaches to preach the policies and plans of UPNMG to the masses out there who have still not heard of us. Let us not make UPNMG a union for the privileged few with access to internet and social media.

I have a dream that one day, the Minister of Health will be a Nurse or a Midwife. I have a dream, that very soon, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, will be a Nurse or a Midwife. I have a dream that one day Nurses and Midwives will be the driving force in the health sector and no decision will be made on health without their input. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is my faith as we enter 2020. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. We will also be able to transform the jangling discords of our profession into a beautiful symphony of fraternalism. With this same faith we will be able to work together, pray together, struggle together, stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free and powerful one day (Martin Luther King Jr, 1963). I wish all Nurses and Midwives in the country and across the world a Happy New Year.