Registered households in Sunyani Municipality are to benefit from a free distribution of 84,538 pieces of Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLIN) as part of the national campaign to curb the incidence of malaria.

The LLIN hang-up exercise, slated to last for 10 days, would be commenced with a mini-launch at Yawhimakrom in the Municipality on Wednesday May 23, through to Friday June 1.

Mr. Samuel Kwasi Addo, Assistant Chief Technical Officer, Disease Control, at the Sunyani Municipal Health Directorate disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday after a two-day training workshop for 640 volunteers for the hang-up exercise in sunyani.

The workshop, sponsored by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and its partners including United Nations Children Educational Fund (UNICEF), was to equip the volunteers with the knowledge and skills to ensure the effective and successful implementation of the exercise.

He said the volunteers were made up of registration assistants of the households, explaining that 10 volunteers were selected by each Assembly Member from 34 electoral areas in the Sunyani Municipality.

Mr. Addo, who is also the acting Municipal Director of Health Services, said the bed net was free but the volunteers would be motivated by the communities with a contribution of 50 pesewas per household.

The decision for this contribution per household was arrived at through the collaboration of the chiefs, elders, Assembly Members, opinion leaders and the health authorities, he explained.

Mr Addo said the bed net campaign was one of the strategies by the Ghana Health Service to reduce the incidence of malaria in the country, saying, Brong-Ahafo was the ninth region in the national implementation process of the campaign.

He said the directorate had already trained 30 “pre-position site officers” for the handling of the nets, and 25 supervisors also trained to supervise the volunteers during the hang-up exercise.**