$5.2m Project to enhance health services for children, mothers launched
Two Christian charities and four international NGOs have launched a $5.2 million project to enhance access to maternal and newborn services for children, mothers and pregnant women across the middle and northern parts of the country.
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Dubbed “Holistic opportunities for positive engagement in maternal and child health (HOPE-MCH),” the project aims to address and reduce the high rates of maternal and child diseases and mortalities in the country.
The project will provide disability-friendly infrastructure upgrades for 30 primary health facilities, support 35 health facilities with essential medical supplies, and enhance WASH facilities at 20 health centres.
About 100 health service providers would also be trained on disability-friendly basic emergency obstetric and newborn care (BEmONC), with the deployment of 20 motor tricycle ambulances to improve access to care.
About 232,590 individuals are expected to benefit from the intervention by improving care at 110 health facilities as part of efforts to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Three and Six.
It will be implemented across 10 districts in the northern parts of the country such as the Nanumba North, Yendi, Gushegu, Central Gonja, West Gonja, Mamprugu Moaduri, East Mamprusi, West Mamprusi, Nabdam and Talensi
Some other districts in the Northern, Savanna, North-East, Upper East, Eastern and Ashanti regions would also benefit.
The project is being funded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Charities (LDS), and would be implemented by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the Hunger Project (THP), MAP International, Vitamin Angels, Medicines for All International in collaboration with Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the National Ambulance Service (NAS).
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Present at the launch were the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NAS, Professor Ahmed Nuhu Zakariah; the Director of Family Health Division of the GHS, Dr Marion Okoh-Owusu; Regional Ministers of North-East and Savannah, representatives of sector ministries, regional directors of the Ghana Education Service and heads of decentralised departments, among others.
Collaboration
At the launch of the project in Accra last Wednesday, the Country Representative of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Ghana, Daniel Mumuni, said they were committed to serving the marginalised, underprivileged and underserved in rural and urban communities in the country.
He said CRS had established a relationship with the government and other stakeholders to implement health interventions to improve emergency medical response systems and primary healthcare delivery in 12 districts in the northern part of the country.
Mr Mumuni said the project would build on the successes of those initiatives to scale up innovative approaches to improve health care.
He, therefore, called on all stakeholders to work collaboratively to achieve the project’s objectives and contribute to CRS's Vision 2030 agenda of "catalysing transformational change at scale for the world's most vulnerable people."
Data-driven initiatives
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, advocated data-driven decision-making in the ongoing transformation of the country’s educational and health systems.
He stressed the need to use data to implement future projects and close the learning gaps across different regions in the country.
Dr Adutwum stressed the need to improve nutrition to enhance learning outcomes of children.
Commitment
The Director for Temporal Affairs in the African West Area, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Flint Ekyrm Mensah, reaffirmed the church’s commitment to partner organisations to enhance maternal and child health through good policies, improved health services, empowerment of communities and strengthening of families.
“Together, we are committed to providing 13 million children and three million families with the essential nutrition they need in the first 2,000 days of life,” he added.
The Deputy Director of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr Harry Bleppony, said the ministry would continue to support and collaborate with stakeholders to help achieve the programme’s objectives.