Project on public health of women and girls launched in Suhum

A project under the theme: "Enhancing community capacity to protect lives of women and girls in the face of public health crisis", was launched in the Suhum Municipality last Thursday.

The project which will travel over the course of one year, seeks to complement an earlier activity that was begun in 2018 and scheduled to end in 2022, called Community for Reproductive Health (C4RH), which is aimed at protecting the lives of pregnant women in Ghana and indeed Africa.

The current project is being implemented concurrently in four African countries, namely Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia and is being funded by Astellas Global Health Foundation (AGHF). Under the project, 180 maternal and child health (MCH) promoters and 150 peer educators have been trained to provide education on sexual reproductive health and rights at the community level through home visits.

Additionally, 132 health care workers have also been trained on client friendly services and quality care to enhance service delivery at the facility level.

The AGHF assisted project will further improve the capacity of MCH promoters, peer educators, pharmacy practitioners and over-the-counter medicine sellers as well as health care workers in infection prevention and control, to advance community education and control further spread of COVID-19.

Implementors

Implementing agencies for the project are the Suhum Municipal Health Directorate and the Japanese Organisation for International Cooperation in Family Planning (JOICFP).

Supplies

The AGHF will ensure regular supplies of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to MCH promoters and peer educators to facilitate health promotion activities in their communities as well as protect against COVID-19.

Furthermore, healthcare workers will be supported with PPEs to enhance service delivery in 27 health facilities.

Health Directorate

The Suhum Municipal Director of Health Services, Mr Frederick Kwame Ofosu expressed his appreciation to JOICFP and AGHF got their commitment to improving the quality of health of residents in Suhum.

JOICFP

The Country Manager of JOICFP, Mr Emmanuel Obeng said, over the past 30 years, his outfit had been complementing the efforts of the government and development partners to improve the quality of health for women and children in the country using the community approach.