Assembly member, stakeholders to check malaria in children
The Assembly Member for the Abutia-Teti Electoral Area in the Ho West Constituency of the Volta Region, Mrs Peace Mawunya Bekui-Anani, has entered into a partnership with stakeholders within the electoral area as part of a strategy to effectively curtail deaths from malaria that occur among children in the area.
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As a first step, over 300 children, together with their parents, have undergone a capacity-building training on malaria, as well as medical screening for malaria, with the provision of treatment for those found positive after the screening exercise, all at no cost to the beneficiaries.
The exercise, which took place on Boxing Day, served as a recreational avenue for the children and their parents as they were treated to varieties of music and food.
In an educational talk prior to the medical screening, a lecturer of the Ho Nurses Training School, Mrs Beatrice A. Bekui-Gomado, disclosed that malaria still remained the number one killer of children under five years.
She appealed to parents to ensure the use of the insecticide treated nets (ITNs).
“Please, even if you don’t want to sleep in the nets, kindly ensure that the children get to sleep under them,” she pleaded.
Stressing the need for parents to make the nearest health centre their first port of call, she advised against parents self-medicating their children when they fell ill.
She urged them to promptly send their children to the nearest health posts at the slightest suspicion of an illness for professional advice and guidance.
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“Children are vulnerable and need to be protected from the claws of dangerous malaria,” she maintained.
The assembly member holds a non-negotiable stance on “the needless deaths caused by malaria,” saying, “we want to make this electoral area and the surrounding ones malaria-free through our practices.”
She told the Daily Graphic in a post-event interview that “I believe the message about the dangers posed by malaria has gone down well with my people. I have had personal interactions with them and the feedback shows they have understood what they were taught.”
She express the hope that the knowledge they had gained would be translated into an attitudinal change, and that as part of her strategy, she intended complementing the mass education with interpersonal interactions through visits to homes where there were kids to constantly remind parents of the roles they had to play in curtailing malaria deaths among children under five years in the area.
Funding for the project, she said, had come from the Development Queen of the area, Mama Dezor I, known in private life as Dzifa Aku Attivor, Minister of Transport; the Member of Parliament for Ho West Constituency, Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah; Prof. Erasmus Monu; Mr Ben Asamoah of BESTAS Printing Press and Mr Victor Asempapa, all of whom she identified as key stakeholders in the fight against malaria.
Writer’s email: victor.kwawukume@graphic.com.gh