FORESTRY WORKERS URGED TO JOIN HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES…
By Friday Simbaya, Mufindi
Forestry workers in the country have been advised to join health insurance schemes so that when they experience disasters in their workplace they can easily find medical services.
The statement was issued yesterday by the Private Forestry Programme (PFP) Team Leader Michael Hawkes during the issuance of certificates to training of trainers (TOT) in the area of Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), held at The Forestry and Wood Industries Training Centre (FWITC) Mafinga in Mufindi District, Iringa region.
He said that the occupational health, or workplace health and safety (WHS), is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work.
Hawkes said that industrial workers and the forest industry have been working in difficult and risky environments, so it is good to be aware of having a health insurance for treatment.
He said that health insurance is very important because no one plans to get sick, but problems come without knocking on the door, so if they need to have health insurance can be treated easily without moving around and seeking medical attention.
He said that human health is everything in everyday human life, so it is good for each one to care for his health for his own benefit and for his nation.
"Health is everything you've been given this three-week training workplace health and safety to help you go there to protect yourself at workplace and the various disasters that will occur in your daily activities so it's also good to remember to have health insurance," Hawkes emphasized.
Hawkes urged the participants of training to be a good ambassador wherever they go nd to take advantage of the training they received and use it properly and utilize resources that were used to train them.
For his part, The Forestry and Wood Industries Training Centre (FWITC), Training Manager Nuru Mathew Salasala said they decided to provide training to provide education for industrial workers to protect them from potential inevitable effects.
Salasala said many workers operating in industrial industries have been working in practice without having to learn to protect themselves from something that is dangerous to their health.
"This is a safety training site where you will use it as well as we have taught you and those who have not come so that this education can help them so that we can protect our health and avoid losing this nation's function," he said.
He pointed out that the Forestry and Wood Industries Training Centre (FWITC) offers short courses in sawmilling, forest management, harvesting, first aid, occupational health and safety, IT, entrepreneurship, business administration and communication.
The FWITC was established by the Private Forestry Programme (PFP) in 2016 to answer to the need for comprehensive and appropriate practical forestry and wood technology short courses close to the heart of the industry in the Southern Highlands.
FWITC is located in Mafinga town, Mufindi district, about 75 km from Iringa. The centre is strategically well located and easily accessible to all forestry and wood industry companies operating in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.
"The Private Forestry Programme is implemented jointly by the Government of Finland and the Government of Tanzania," Salasala elaborated.
Frank William One of the participants in the training said that the training they had received at the college would be very helpful in their work as most of them were working on machines that were dangerous.
Lubawa said that if they were to use this training course then they would help reduce predictable dangers in support of a health insurance issue as it would help them when they were experiencing disasters.