Story By: Ishmael Barfi

To press down their displeasure and frustration for the government’s failure to pay their allowance for the past 10 months, the Rotational Nurses and Midwives Association (RNMA) on Tuesday, April 16 protested on the principal streets of Accra.

Joining the protest was the Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association which also demanded immediate posting from the government.

The protest also saw cohorts from 2020, and 2022 demanding placements from the government.

According to the Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association,  their members bear the most of the current economic hardship, compelling the majority to make a single meal per day.

furthermore, “we have become extra and unwelcomed burdens to our families at stages in our lives when we could support them upon their years of struggles and sacrifices to see us through school”, they lamented.

Speaking to the press, the Rotational Nurses and Midwives Association (RNMA) voiced their frustrations and urged the government to pay their outstanding allowances.

Rotational Nurses and Midwives are nurses who have completed their 3-year diploma courses in public nurses and midwifery training institutions across the country.

some members of the group voiced out saying, “We have worked for eight months without a salary. The country is hard; we have rented houses. Even those in their parents’ houses are feeling the pressure. Our landlords are on our neck; they need their money”

Expressing worry and frustration on their faces, some lamented saying “We are here because we have worked for 10 months. Ideally, we started in June, but because of all the registration and other stuff, everyone started at a different time, but the last person worked for about eight months.

“We are hungry and because the work is about skills, we are making a lot of sacrifices to go to work so at least, the authorities should listen to our cry, a protestor said.

Speaking on their visit to the Health Ministry, the protestors said while the Ministry addressed the issue, they did not trust that any of the assurances given were sincere.

“They welcomed us and spoke to us but everything that they said was not taken in good faith. You can’t reassure us of what you can do in the shortest possible time because, over the years, we have heard this and it doesn’t go anywhere”.

“The lives of rotational nurses and midwives’ matter and it’s high time they are treated well to reduce the rate of travelling abroad for greener pastures”, they added.