NGO Provides Free Health Screening To 675 People In East Mamprusi District

MY LIFE FAIR ORGANISATION, a non-governmental organisation based in Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana has provided free health screening to 675 people in Gambaga and Nalerigu communities in the East Mamprusi District. 

The two-day programme which started at the ‘Gambaga Witches Camp’ located in the middle of the Gambaga Township, saw 250 inmates of the Camp as well as some residents of neighbouring communities screened, treated and or referred to well endowed health centres for further treatment or examination.

The rest of the 425 people who also benefited from the health screening were residents of Kolinva village in Nalerigu. All those who came, mostly the aged between 60 and 80 years were provided with free treatment and medicines to take home.

The free health screening programme was supported by the Tamale Teaching Hospital with manpower whereas the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints provided funding for it. 

The organisation operates in the Northern, Upper West and Upper East Regions as well as the northern part of Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The organisation which has existed for the past six years, seeks to provide social support to the poor and vulnerable particularly women and children.  

According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of My Life Fair Organisation Jonathan Gumah Koligu, the health screening was an annual programme instituted to help the underprivileged who could not access healthcare services due to financial problems.

Through the programme, he said, 650 women were screened for breast cancer in 2014 and about 100 of them whose cases were serious, were given free treatment. Unfortunately, out of the 100 women, four of them died due to the high cost of treatment which the organisation could not afford in the course of treatment.

For the past six years, the organisation, Mr. Koligu pointed out, had supported 80 widows to undertake skills training in soap making, batik, tie and dye, beads making and among others. 35 of these women were now totally independent. “Children of these widows have also benefited from donations from the organisation to continue with their education”, he emphasised. 

An inmate of Gambaga Witches Camp being attended to health official

“We have also support persons with disabilities and since 2014 till date about 40 people have benefited from various kinds of skills training. While we consider human rights as a very critical issue for us due to its prevalent nature in the communities we work, the provision of educational resources especially exercise books have also been seriously considered”, Mr. Koligu explained.

A Family Physician Specialist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital Dr. Saeed Gibreel who was part of the team of medical professionals, said the team recorded mostly bodily pains, knee/joint pains, hypertension and sight problems.

Speaking to Savannahnews, he attributed the various medical conditions diagnosed to the advanced age of the people who came for the screening. “Other medical conditions we detected include pains in the feet, gastritis and depression. Very few people were tested positive for malaria”, he indicated.

Suspected cases of breast tumour, bladder tumour, abnormal vaginal bleeding due to fibroid and among others, Dr. Gibreel noted, were also diagnosed and referred to the Tamale Teaching Hospital for further and thorough examination. 

Meanwhile, the next stop of the free health screening programme would be Bongo in the Upper East Region. About 900 people are expected to be screened, treated or referred to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital or the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

More Pupils In Basic Schools Encouraged To Study Science Related Courses

Exec. Dir. SavSign

As part of efforts to ensure that more basic school pupils particularly girls show keen interest in the study of science, technology and mathematics, over one hundred girls attended this year’s Savana Signatures Tech Girls Annual Conference in Tamale.

A lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS) Patricia Formadi who opened the conference, told participants that they were more than capable to learn any science related course up to the highest academic level if only they were serious and determined.

She however urged young females in basic schools to refrain from premarital sex and other negative behaviours that had the tendency to truncate their studies and ruin their future. “Refrain from premarital sex, watching of movies, soap operas and concentrate more on your studies”, Ms. Formadi admonished.

The Tech Girls Conference is an initiative under Tech Girls Project currently being implemented by Savana Signatures (SavSign) and seeks to encourage girls to recognize and get use to the value and importance of STME. 

Each year the project brings over 100 girls from various schools to interact with ICT models or career women as part of efforts to inspire them to make better career choices through education. Targeting children at the upper primary and junior high school (JHS) levels, the project is also aimed at encouraging children to opt for STME related courses as well as empowering them to use information and communication technology (ICT) skills to improve upon their academic performances in school.

The main objective of the project which is in its second phase (August 2014 –July 2015) would further strengthen the participation of girls’ in ICT skills development; increase the girls’ confidence in the use of ICT tools; create awareness about the use of ICT tools to acquire knowledge, skills, learn and effectively communicate; and increase the girls’ interest in continuing STME education. 

The Executive Director of SavSign John Stephen Agbenyo observed that there was a wide gap between boys and girls in the study and use of ICT at various levels of education, hence a deliberate implementation of Tech Girls to bridge the existing gap. 

A Cross sector of participants at the conference

In an interview with journalists, Mr. Agbenyo said the organisation hope to scale up the project to benefit many more girls in the Volta Region and if possible the entire country. 

A JHS Two student of Tiyumba School and conference participant Abdallah Naazira told Savannahnews, that through the project she and her colleagues had learned a lot of things including blogging, coding, programming and how to write articles for publication.

She appealed to all girls in the primary and JHS to show keen interest in the study of science and mathematics related subjects, stressing that “we’ll need IT in our everyday lives in order to live a meaningful life”.

An estimated 120 school girls from both primary and JHS (100 girls in primary and 20 girls in JHS) were enrolled in the project in 2014. The beneficiary pupils were from primary schools in the Tamale Metropolis, Sagnarigu District and Savelugu-Nanton Municipality.

These pupils were trained in computer programming using Hypertext mark-up language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) and Hypertext Pre-processor (PHP). They were also introduced to Code Lobster platform.

Savana Signatures is an ICT for development organisation that work in the Northern and Volta Regions of Ghana. They empower women, girls and the youth with the knowledge and skills of ICT as well as educate them on sexual reproductive health and rights.

GKS, BasicNeeds Sensitises Master Artisans on Mental Illness, Epileptic Conditions

Mental illness, according to health experts, is not contagious in any form, yet it is increasingly becoming a reason why persons who have ever suffered any kind of mental illness and epilepsy or taken any psychiatric medication are denied job offers.

In some jurisdictions including Ghana, when someone applies for a job, a driver's license, an insurance policy or admission into a higher institution of learning, she/he will often be required to answer a question relating to their mental health.

Very often when the person answer such questions candidly and admit having received psychiatric or psychological treatment in the past, the result often will be loss of important opportunities such as rejection for employment, denial of license, admission to college or other educational programmes and denial of insurance coverage. 

Even where an employee is found out by his employer to have a mental health problem and he is not sacked, the employee sometimes face serious discrimination and stigmatisation when news about their condition is made public at the work place.   

Thanks to Gub-Katimali Society (GKS) and BasicNeeds-Ghana, some selected master artisans in Northern and Upper West Regions of Ghana are currently undergoing sensitisation on various forms of mental health illness including epilepsy and how to manage them. This was to enable them effectively manage stabilised mentally ill and epileptic persons who will be undertaking apprenticeship with them in different vocations. 

A former beneficary of BNG programme

Executive Director of GKS Sheik Yakubu Abdul-Kareem told Savannahnews, that GKS and its partners BasicNeeds-Ghana were planning to support stabilised persons with mental illness and epilepsy (PWMIE) to undergo any artisanal training of their choice and that which is available in their community or district.

The goal of the sensitisation training for the master artisans in Northern Ghana was therefore, to let them understand the various mental health conditions, their causes, mode of treatment and management. This, he said, would enable them to relate well with people who have a record of mental health problem and be able to train them well throughout their apprenticeship period.

Recently, about forty-five (45) master artisans from 7 municipalities and districts in the Northern Region were sensitised in Tamale. They came from Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, East Mamprusi, Karaga, Yendi Municipality, Zabzugu, Nanumba North and Sagnarigu Districts.

Sheik Abdul-Kareem stated that, after PWMIE receive the artisanal training of their choice, GKS and BasicNeeds-Ghana will also provide them with the necessary tools to start work on their own. PWMIE who lost their jobs and had been sitting at home, he indicated, were expected to benefit from the scheme which was part of the implementation of ‘Empowering People with Mental Illness in Ghana’ project which began in 2014 and expected to end in 2016, he explained.

Dassah Kayelle Timothy

The main objective of the project, according to Dassah Kayelle Timothy of BasicNeeds-Ghana, was to improve the mental health of men, women, boys and girls with mental illness and or epilepsy in the Northern and Upper West Regions of Ghana.

He said the project would directly empower 3,750 men and women with mental illness and or epilepsy  and their 2,700 carers in poor rural areas to collectively express their needs and self-advocate through self-help groups (SHGs) to have those needs met.

These needs, Mr. Dassah said, included access to community based mental health services, government grants, skills training, employment, and inclusive policies that guarantee non-discriminatory school environments and participation in civic activities.

So far, 125 SHGs of PWMIE and their carers had been empowered and actively expressed their needs and claimed their rights to inclusion and development. “Training has been provided for community (mental) health workers, volunteers and specialist psychiatrist with follow-up outreach services whereas supplementary medicines have been supplied to complement government supplies”, Mr. Dassah told Savannahnews.

The provision of training to 120 representatives of SHGs and CBOs on rights-based advocacy, public speaking and in election campaigning and orientating them on existing or available social protection schemes available for their benefit was however ongoing, he noted, adding that “GKS and BasicNeeds plan to facilitate interface meetings of District Associations of SHGs and CBOs with core staff of the District Planning and Coordinating Units intended to ensure equal participation of women, men and youth in decision-making processes”.

Moreover, he mentioned that the skill priorities and interests of at least 1000 stabilised poor people with mental illness and epilepsy and 700 carers had been confirmed to take up new skills or re-establish whereas 120 master artisans and trades people in both regions had been trained to work with or train stabilised poor women, men and youth with mental illness and epilepsy in their various skill areas.

Meanwhile, both Gub-Katimali Society and BasicNeeds-Ghana are mental health non-governmental organisations based in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital. They have over the years work to bring hope and restitution to the lives of thousands of mentally ill and epileptic persons and their families.

                                                          

Teach Your Children Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights –SavSign Advocates

Alhaji Mohammed Haroun Cambodia

Teach your children as they grow up to be conscious of their sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) so that no one in the opposite sex or among their peers can teach them what is wrong or take advantage of their ignorance to sexually abuse them.

Savana Signatures, a Tamale-based non-governmental organisation which is making the call, said the failure of many parents and guardians to educate their children about SRHR, had not only made such children ignorant but also made them vulnerable to various forms of sex abuse and wrong information on sexuality education.

Senior Projects Coordinator of Savana Signatures (SavSign) Abdul-Rashid Imoro who made the call during the launch of the Ghana version of World Starts With Me (WSWM) in Tamale, said whether parents liked it or not, their children were being misinformed on matters of sexuality and were practicing it wrongly. “The earlier we start teaching them the right thing, the better it will be for them and us as parents”, he posited.

In view of this, SavSign which uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address development challenges, will be partnering with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to roll out the WSWM which is a computer and rights based comprehensive sexuality education programme designed to educate in-school and out-of-school children between the ages of 10 and 20 years.

WSWM was developed in 2003 by Rutgers WPF in collaboration with Butterfly Works and is now being used by many schools and youth clubs in a number of countries in Africa and Asia. The curriculum of WSWM combines SRHR education with information technology skills and creative expression to deliver SRHR lessons to young people.

WSWM also uses creative learning methodologies to deliver sexuality and sexual education to young people at basic schools. With a curriculum blended with a lot of exercises, WSWM helps students to internalise essential messages, learn crucial life skills and explore new behaviours as they grow up.

About 25 basic schools in the Upper West, Northern and Volta Regions of Ghana are to benefit from the project which is being supported by Rutgers WPF, EduKans and Eduaid. They are Yapei Presby D/A JHS, Sambu JHS, Gambaga Presby JHS, Sawla Model Girls JHS, Zogbeli JHS Block ‘A’, Yilonaayili JHS, Sakasaka JHS Block ‘C’, Darul Hardis Islamic JHS and Nyohini Presby JHS.

Others are Moglaa JHS, Savelugu Experimental JHS, Yoo R/C JHS, Pong Tamale M/A JHS, Tolon Model JHS, Tolon M/A JHS, Yapei Presby JHS, St. Ann’s Vocational School and St. John’s Vocational School.

The rest are Rawdatul-Atful Junior High School, Kpetoe E/P JHS, Akoefe Tokor M/A JHS, Ho Dome R/C, Kpodeta Ashanti JHS, St. Basilde’s Vocational School (Kaleo) and St. Claire’s Vocational School (Tumu).

Northern Regional Director of the GES Alhaji Mohammed Haroun Cambodia, who launched the WSWM project expressed happiness and appreciation about it, saying “it targets young people in their formative years who are largely ignorant in many ways”.

According to him, there is a lot of misinformation about SRHR among young people that sometimes leads to confusion in their mindset. “It is therefore appropriate and timely that SavSign decided to partner with the GES to address this confusion in their minds”, he noted.

Alhaji Cambodia also appealed to SavSign and its partners to endeavour to scale-up the project to benefit many more schools in the Northern Region because it has the tendency of reducing teenage pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted infections among young people.

Mr. Imoro further explained that, WSWM aims at contributing not only to the improvement of sexual and reproductive health of young people, but also to their socio-economic development. “This is to enable them make informed decisions on their sexuality and sexual behaviour”, he emphasised.

The project’s curriculum, according to Mr. Imoro, is intended to make sexual and reproductive health more real and appealing to young people by combining sex education with useful and fun information technology skills. “The project has an overall goal to give young people self-confidence and self-control over their own lives by supporting them to make well-informed decisions about themselves”, he stated.

Non-Existent Of Bye-Laws Affecting Existence Of Shea Trees In Northern Ghana

A research conducted by Strategic Development Alliance Ghana for Shea Network Ghana (SNG) in nineteen (19) districts in the three regions of the north –Upper West, Upper East and Northern Regions, has revealed that there is no specific bye-law for the protection of shea trees.

The research revealed that, only three (3) districts –Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, Wa East and Sissala East District Assemblies had written and documented general bye-laws aimed at protecting the environment and all other trees.

Mr. Chimsah Francis of Strategic Development Alliance Ghana who presented the research findings at a stakeholder meeting organised by SNG in Tamale, said the findings revealed, also that, none of the 19 districts had their bye-laws gazetted. However, only the Savelugu-Nanton Municipal Assembly, he noted, had passed bye-laws and was awaiting support to gazette them.

The National Coordinator of SNG Iddi Zakaria told Savannahnews, the network was very much concerned about the level of destruction of shea trees, hence the decision to research on the existence of bye-laws and ways to protect shea trees as well as other economic trees.

Mr. Zakaria admitted that, the continuous destruction of shea trees had serious ramifications on the lives and livelihoods of most rural dwellers, particularly women shea nut pickers and butter processors who depended on it as source of food and income.

According to him, there was increasing felling of shea trees to pave way for the creation of other tree plantation, for wood works, fuel wood and charcoal production, stressing that, the economic value of shea fruits was enormous and should be protected by all well-meaning citizens in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.

He hinted that, SNG would soon organise a stakeholder forum involving all actors in the shea nuts industry, ministries, departments and agencies working in the environment sector as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to share findings of the research with them for appropriate validation.

The objective of that forum, Mr. Zakaria stated, would be to seek the views of stakeholders on how to enact the appropriate bye-laws for shea trees conservation and protection from total extinction in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.

The research, nonetheless, pointed out that about 80.8% of District Assemblies were willing to fund processes involved in gazetting their bye-laws. Whereas 11.5 did not agree on the Assemblies themselves funding the gazetting of their bye-laws, 7.3% of respondents were uncertain.

In some communities also, it was a taboo according to the research, for people to cut down shea trees. Those who defied this order were fined by their chiefs to pay an amount of GHȼ200.00; hence the practice had encouraged many community members to protect shea trees.

Many respondents including chiefs, District Assembly officials, shea nut pickers and butter processors among others, maintained that the biggest challenge towards the conservation of shea trees were charcoal producers, lack of bye-laws and bush burning.

The economic importance of the shea tree cannot be over emphasized. A mature shea kernel contains about 61% fat which when extracted is edible, and can serve medicinal as well as industrial purposes.

It is estimated that about 9.4 million shea trees are in Ghana, and these can potentially yield one hundred tonnes of shea nuts worth about 100 million United State dollars per year. Shea butter has been found to have a fat composition similar to cocoa butter, and is used as a substitute for lard or margarine because it makes a highly, pliable dough.

Shea butter is also used in making soap and candles, and it is incorporated in margarine formulations. After the oil is extracted, the residue serves as excellent fuel, and can also be mixed with mud for plastering traditional mud huts. The shea butter is known to be naturally rich in Vitamins A, E, and F, as well as a number of other vitamins and minerals.

Meanwhile, SNG is a civil society organization made up of shea actors along the value chain, and envisions a shea industry in which there are increased equitable benefits for all actors along the entire value chain. SNG is a 66 member organization; 219 shea cooperatives and 7000 women shea butter processors in all three regions of the north.

Formed in 2010 through multi-stakeholder actions of producers, non-governmental organizations and government agencies, SNG among other things seeks to build and share information and experiences on the shea industry; provide an equitable space for engagements/discussions among shea sector stakeholders in a coordinated way; contribute to shaping and sustaining a supportive policy and business environment; and provide an institutionalized platform to support the development of the shea industry.

SNG seeks to be a civil society organisation, a voice for the sector, to be able to represent the private sector in dialoguing with government so that the pertinent issues in the shea industry are addressed.  For instance, issues of low pricing, inability to conserve shea parklands due to non-existent of specific bye-laws, among other things are what SNG discusses at its fora.

Tamale Assembly Officials Urged to Use Tax Revenue to Reduce Maternal, Infant Mortalities

Jacob Mansu, Project Coord. NORDESO

Authorities at the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly have been urged by a section of citizens to use some of the tax revenue collected from businesses and property owners to address the problem of maternal and infant mortalities, which they claim, is a bane on healthcare delivery.

They suggested that, the Assembly could procure special medical equipment for some of its health facilities, as well as sponsor practicing nurses to be trained as midwives. They observed that, there was inadequate number of such critical personnel at most of the facilities in the metropolis, hence the long queues and hours spent by expectant mothers during antenatal care.

Madam Ashetu who was among a group of women making the clarion call at a day's social public expenditure and financial accountability (SPEFA) forum held in Tamale by Northern Development Society (NORDESO), also appealed to government to train more health personnel for adequate deployment to health facilities in the Northern Region.

Project Coordinator of NORDESO Mansu Jacob told journalists the forum was organized to sensitize citizens on budget planning and expenditure tracking processes at the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly and how they could track the use of taxes collected by Assembly officials. Participants at the forum were mainly petty traders, artisans, persons with disability, women groups and some former Assembly members.

Madam Muniratu who was also contributing to the discussion, indicated that deployment of adequate health personnel such as midwives and other personnel to the health facilities would help provide adequate attention and care to expectant mothers who visit the hospital for antenatal care.

The Tamale Metropolis has only two public hospitals, Tamale Central and Tamale West Hospitals– in addition to the Tamale Teaching Hospital, which is a referral facility serving the entire northern Ghana. There are, however, other private hospitals providing healthcare to the people.

Some of the participants also encouraged the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to use taxes collected from citizens, businesses and property owners to address challenges in basic education. They cited for instance, continuous poor performances of schools and students at the annual Basic Education Certificate Examination and called on authorities to increase students pass rates by at least 80% by the end of 2018.   

A cross section of participants at forum

They also wanted Assembly officials to directly consult citizens and chiefs aside their Assembly members before contracts were awarded to enable them monitor progress of work of construction projects. According to them, it was the only way to also avoid shoddy execution of development projects by local contractors. 

Participants also said they wanted clear distinction between Assembly, Government and Members of Parliament social programmes in their communities.

NORDESO is a local non-governmental organisation implementing SPEFA, a project of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and SNV, a Netherlands based organisation.

SPEFA is being implemented by a network of citizen groups that engage local government authorities on public financial management. SPEFA provides consistent and high quality support for the development and operationalisation of civil society-led SPEFA processes in Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies (MMAs).

SPEFA also builds the knowledge and capacities of civil society organisations, community based organisations and communities in local government public financial management to equip them to engage MMAs and their sub-district structures on these issues.

By the end of the SPEFA project, it is expected that the understanding of key participating stakeholders in the MMAs planning and budgeting process, expenditure patterns, assets management, monitoring and general decision-making for social public accountability is enhanced.

There is also a well defined understanding about the roles and functions of all stakeholders in ensuring social accountability among all stakeholders; and participating stakeholders’ capacity to engage on social accountability, tools and mechanisms, public financial management processes is improved.