Presby Church commits to health services expansion

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Rt Rev. Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye, has expressed the commitment of the church to continue to expand its health services for the benefit of many people.

Currently, he said,  the PCG ran about 60 health facilities across the country which served more than 650,000 people on a regular basis, with most of them in rural and peri-urban areas.

However, he said plans were now in place to expand more of such facilities to other parts of the country, including urban areas.

He mentioned the Presbyterian Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre which will be constructed at Kpone-Katamanso in the Greater Accra Region, as an example.

“The desire of the church is to see its health service grow in numbers to reach all its presbyteries and administrative/political regions of the country to serve needy communities in the rural areas and urban slums,” he said.

Consultation forum

Rt Rev. Dr Opare Kwakye was speaking at the annual consultation forum of the PCG’s Department of Development and Social Services (DSS) at Abokobi in the Ga East Municipality.

The DSS, which is the department that supervises the PCG’s health and relief services, holds the consultation forum annually to take stock of its activities, while heads of the PCG’s health facilities and relief organisations give account of their stewardship and performance of their entities  to help inform the PCG’s programmes and policies.

Some of the notable PCG health facilities in the country are the Agogo Presbyterian Regional Hospital, Donkorkrom Presbyterian Hospital and the Presbyterian Regional Mental Health Centre at Bolgatanga.

Social mission

Rt Rev. Dr Opare Kwakye said the church had a mission to not only win souls for Christ, and show people the light, but must also meet the needs of people in terms of health and other social services.

The mission of the PCG, he explained, was anchored on four witnesses- spiritual, moral, environmental and social, as espoused by Christ in Acts 1:8.

“Our social witness is evident in the number of social actions and services we undertake as a church. These interventions include serving as the prophetic voice of the voiceless, provision of social intervention programmes, and the provision of social services.

“To this end, social services that are provided by PCG include the provision of schools - over 2,000 basic schools, 34 senior high schools, five colleges of education, two accredited private universities, several community-based rehabilitation programmes, seven agriculture programmes, relief services programme, four vocational schools, five lay training centres, water projects and 60 health facilities and programmes,” he said.

The Presbyterian Monderator said the PCG would continue to collaborate with state agencies and other stakeholders to deliver on its social service mission to the public.

Crucial role 

The National Director of the DSS, Rebecca Teiko Sabah, said the PCG played a crucial role in the provision of social services, adding that its programmes positively impacted  close to 1.5 million people annually.

“Currently, we are investing a lot of resources in technical and vocational education and training, with particular focus on ensuring that our youth not only have the technical skills, but the entrepreneurial skills also to support themselves,” she said.

Writer’s email: emma.hawkson@graphic.com.gh