A newly constructed and well-furnished 60-bed capacity one-storey Kpong Maternity Home at Ayipala, in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region, has been handed over to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to promote quality healthcare in the area and beyond.
The health facility, equipped with ultra-modern facilities, offers general outpatient care, laboratory services, antenatal, delivery, and postnatal care, family planning, child welfare clinic, ultrasound scan, pharmacy, voluntary counselling and testing, wellness clinic, mental health and adolescent health services.
The Manya Krobo Divisional Queenmother, Manye Maku I, recognised the need to expand the Kpong Health Centre at Ayipala as early as 2003, due to the rapid growth of Kpong, a cosmopolitan area in the Lower Manya Krobo municipality.
In 2023, Manye Maku took a bold step and with the help of her steering committee members, including Abdul Razak Mohammmed Zabado, Happy Ademah, Daniel Wormenor, Florence Ladonu, Fuseini Mohammed, and Richard Agbalenyo, as well as organisations and individuals, initiated the construction of the maternity block for the health centre.
Handing over
During the handover of the facility to the GHS at Kpong, Manye Maku recounted how she singlehandedly started the project in 2003 when there was pressure on the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound at Ayipala, leading to the need for a larger health facility to accommodate the high daily attendance at the then CHPS Compound.
She was particularly grateful to institutions and individuals such as the Ensign Global University, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both at Kpong; the Kpong Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Agnes Carboo, a philanthropist; James Terlabi, a VRA worker; Nene Dr Sipim Narh Terkpertey, a chief of the Manya Division, and the Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi who donated 50 bags of cement during construction.
The President of Ensign Global University, Prof. Stephen Alder, said that the Kpong healthcare facility reflected the vision of his institution and praised Manye Maku I for her selfless life dedicated to the Kpong community and society at large, which has helped promote quality healthcare for humanity.
‘’We want people’s lives to be better and that is why Ensign Global University led the way by contributing towards the project, along with many others.
Prof. Stephen Manortey, the Krobo District President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, said, as a church, the donation towards the project was their king gesture to the Kpong community, stressing, ‘’We are following what Jesus Christ has done, particularly for healing.
The Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr James Avorka, on behalf of the Director-General and the Eastern Regional Health Directorate, commended Manye Maku and her team for the magnificent facility, which will enhance quality healthcare delivery.
