Every night at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, mothers, grandmothers, fathers and aunties sit upright on hard plastic chairs for hours.
Not because they want to but because the alternative is the floor.
That is the reality described yesterday by Professor Catherine Segbefia, Head of the Department of Child Health at KBTH, as she launched the department’s new “100 X 100 Child Health Campaign.” (See back page for story).
The goal is simple and ambitious: mobilise 100,000 people to donate GH¢100 or more each, to raise GH¢10 million by the end of this year.
The money will go directly into equipment, babies’ units, furniture, outreach and accountable management for the care of Ghana’s sickest children.
It is a campaign born of both pride and pain. Pride in what Korle Bu has achieved since 1964. Pain in what it still lacks.
The Department of Child Health at KBTH is the apex referral centre for children in Ghana and beyond.
For 62 years it has trained specialists, handled complex cases, and kept children alive who had no hope elsewhere. But expertise has outgrown infrastructure.
As Prof. Segbefia put it: “Our wards were built in an era when mothers were not expected to sit by their babies; when fathers were not welcomed at the bedside.
We do not have beds for children.
We do not even have comfortable chairs for the caregivers who have to sit for days and weeks by their side.
The 100 X 100 campaign is their way of speaking on behalf of those children.
This is not a vague appeal.
The department has broken down how every cedi will be used, and that matters for public trust.
Thirty per cent will buy essential medical equipment for the diabetes and kidney care ward.
Children with chronic kidney disease and diabetes need dialysis machines, monitors and specialised beds.
Banks, telecoms, insurance companies, mining firms, churches, mosques, old students’ associations, market women, diaspora groups.
GH¢100 is about the cost of one dinner for two in Accra.
If 100,000 of us give it, we build a new standard for child health.
This is not charity. It is investment.
A child who survives because a kidney ward has the right equipment becomes a teacher, engineer, or nurse in 20 years.
A mother who is given a decent chair to sit by her baby is a mother who can cope and care better.
The campaign is commendable, but it must not become an excuse for the state to withdraw.
The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance must prioritise capital investment for KBTH’s child health infrastructure in the 2027 budget.
Fundraising can buy equipment, but only the government can rebuild wards.
Many of the children in these wards come from families who cannot pay.
The National Health Insurance Authority must expand coverage for paediatric chronic conditions such as kidney disease and diabetes, and pay providers promptly.
Not every child needs to be referred to Accra. Regional hospitals must be equipped so KBTH becomes a last resort, not the first and only option.
The department should publish a dashboard — funds raised, equipment procured, wards renovated. Let donors see their GH¢100 at work.
“100 X 100” is a powerful idea because it democratises giving.
It is not asking for 10 people to give GH¢1 million.
It is asking 100,000 people to give GH¢100.
That means you.
That means me. That means the taxi driver, the student, the market woman.
Medicine saves lives. But environment restores dignity.
A child on a drip should not be next to a broken chair.
A mother keeping vigil should not have to sleep on the floor.
A nurse should not be improvising because a monitor is missing.
The staff of the Child Health Department have done extraordinary work with ordinary resources for decades.
Now they are asking us to meet them halfway.
The 100 X 100 Child Health Campaign is more than fundraising; it is a statement that Ghanaian children deserve care in spaces built for healing, not endurance.
By December 31, let us be able to say that 100,000 people chose to make Korle Bu’s children’s wards places of comfort, not places of suffering.
Because when we take care of our children, we are taking care of Ghana’s future.
