Japan Embassy supports two health facilities

The Embassy of Japan in Ghana has provided $242,666 to provide healthcare facilities to two bodies in the country.

An amount of $120,726 will go in to assist the Paediatric Unit of the 37 Military Hospital to enable the facility to acquire neonatal ventilators and accessories to save newborns that are faced with critical conditions after delivery while $121,940 will be used for the construction of a clinic and staff quarters for the people of Aneta-Yordanu in the Volta Region.

Both grant assistance were provided under Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGHSP) scheme.

Neonatal Ventilators for 37 Military Hospital

As a result of the financial assistance, the hospital which currently does not have a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) will use an available space with unused beds at its general Intensive Care Unit for a PICU.

Installation of the neonatal ventilators and accessories is expected to be completed by middle of February 2014.

The assistance came exactly two months after the Daily Graphic newspaper published an article urging assistance for the Children’s Ward of the 37 Military Hospital. One of the urgent needs of the Paediatric Unit was neonatal ventilators used in reviving newborns faced with breathing and other difficulties.

Aside neonates, the two ventilators will also help save the lives of children under age five. The Paediatric Unit currently improvises with other equipment.

Following from the publication of the article with the headline, “Help Make Nkrumah Ward the Child’s Haven” published on October 28, 2013, the Centre for Pregnancy and Childbirth Education (CePACE), a non-governmental organization (NGO) solicited for financial support from the Japan Embassy in Ghana to help the hospital.

As a result, a signing ceremony was held at the premises of the Japan Embassy in Accra between the Embassy and CePACE. The Project Director of CePACE, Dr Genevieve Insaidoo and the Charge’ d’Affairs of the Japan Embassy, Mr Shigeru Hamano signed on behalf of the NGO and the Embassy respectively. It was witnessed by officials of the Embassy, CePACE and the 37 Military Hospital.

The GGHSP began in Ghana in 1989 with a total of 252 projects benefiting so far. The 37 Military Hospital Project is the sixty-second health project financed by the embassy.

Mr Hamano expressed the hope that the assistance would go a long way to save the lives of newborns who are foundation of any society and gave the assurance that Japan would continue to partner Ghana to reduce childhood mortality rates in the country.

Dr Insaidoo said CePACE was delighted to have secured the grant from the Japan Embassy and said the intervention by the Embassy “are some of the means to reduce the staggering neonatal deaths in our country.”

She thanked the Japanese government for its kind gesture and promised to ensure that the project comes to fruition.

Help for Aneta Yordanu

The signing of the grant of $121,940 for the Aneta-Yordanu Community was initialed on behalf of the embassy by Mr Hamano while the Executive Director of the The Needy Club of Ghana, an NGO, Apostle Killians Kwame Carr, signed on behalf of the NGO.

Currently, the Aneta-Yordanu community has no health facility which has resulted in the residents of the community travelling between seven and 19 kilometres to acess healthcare at the Anfoega Catholic Hospital.

This has put a lot of pressure on the hospital and thus the grant assistance from the Japanese government would go along way to ease pressure on the hospital as well as bring healthcare to the doorstep of the Aneta-Yordanu community.

The construction of the clinic and staff quarters will be completed in August 2014.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dayi, Mr George Loh and the District Chief Executive for North Dayi, Mr Stephen K. Timinca, expressed gratitude to the Japanese government for its gesture.

Mr Hamano on his part said it was important doe health care needs to be prioritised and urged the government to commit more resources into reducing child mortality rates.