Guo, (U/W), – The US Embassy in Ghana has spent more than
2.3 million dollars in Special Self-Help grants to support development at the
grassroots level over last three decades.
Established in 1964, the
Ambassador’s Self-Help Programme draws on the philosophy that small assistance
to a community that is motivated to help its self can go a long way to better
their living condition.
Mr. Robert Jackson, the US
Ambassador to Ghana, disclosed this during the commissioning of a
Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound at Guo in the
Nandom District of the Upper West Region.
“We are pleased to have supported
this project with our contribution of S6,600 dollars for building materials,
but the real efforts were yours”, he said.
“We are honoured to have
partnered you and commend your dedication and hard work to complete this
project and promote development in your community”, he added.
Mr Jackson said the CHPS
compounds were critical to providing access to health care and reducing
preventable maternal and child deaths; pointing out that the expanded facility
built by the community with support of the US Embassy was a testimony to the
importance the community placed on their health and well-being.
The US Ambassador said Ghana had
a lot of promise to contribute to the global economy and security, but that
could not happen without a healthy population.
“Healthy children can go to
school and grow into healthy, educated adults who can contribute to Ghana’s
success”, he said.
Dr. Joseph Teye Nuertey, the
Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, noted that though maternal and
child health care had improved over the past years, the pace had been slow and
noted that extra effort was therefore required to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) related to reducing maternal and neonatal morbidities
and mortalities.
Dr. Nuertey said to achieve the
SDGs, factors including bridging the infrastructure gap, provision of essential
basic equipment, transportation, education, strengthening staff capacity, and
increasing training of critical staff must be addressed.
He said efforts had been made by
Community Health Officers at the Guo CHPS to improve on maternal health
indicators as evidenced in their First Trimester Antenatal Registration of 75.8
percent in 2016 to 77.1 percent in the year 2017.
The commissioning of the facility
would further improve on maternal and infant health in the community and its
environs, he added.
Mr. Aasoglenang Thaddeus Arkum,
the Nandom District Chief Executive, (DCE) thanked the Ambassador and the
American government for supporting the District to empower women in the
agriculture, governance, education, health, water and sanitation.
He said the support helped the
district to be declared the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) district in the
region and the orthopaedic centre at the St. Theresa’s Hospital in Nandom was
inundated with hundreds of accident patients from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger
but with limited space.
He therefore appealed to the US
government to help in the establishment of a proposed orthopaedic hospital to
help address the challenge.
GNA
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