A couple of months ago, I came here to ask for your assistance in implementing a REACH Ghana project in Glefe, Ghana. Through the help of many of you, readers, friends, family and other REACH Ghana associates, we raised close to $4,000. The official tallies are yet to be made but I am here to give you thanks for your support and to give you an unofficial account of the difference your money made.
We arrived that morning to Glefe to a water body, whose banks were filled with filth, puddles with stagnant water and trash. It was readily apparent the community needed some sort of intervention and, at the Ghana Health outpost, people were trickling in for it.
Through the course of the day, we screened approximately 200-300 children, women (including nursing and pregnant mothers), and men for malnutrition, diabetes, high blood pressure and breast cancer. Once attendees passed through the screening process, they were transferred to a final station where they were counseled on healthy eating and lifestyles and where needed, given medication supplied by Cocoa Clinic for malaria.
At this station, one hundred insecticide-treated mosquito nets were distributed to nursing mothers and pregnant women in the hopes of decreasing the incidence of childhood malaria in those homes. Parallel to this, one hundred and seventy one children and elderly people were registered for the National Health Insurance Scheme allowing them access to free healthcare and some medications for a year. REACH capped off the day by donating weighing scales, an electronic sphygmomanometer and the canopy tent under which we held activities to the health outpost.
Moving forward, REACH has initiated work with the Member of Parliament for the area, and Zoomlion, a waste management company towards establishing a waste disposal system in the community. We will be commissioning studies of the project’s effectiveness in the coming months.
As the organization looks forward to another year full of ambitious projects like the HIV/AIDS Intervention and Clean Water for Life initiatives, I would like to thank all our sponsors and ask for your continued support in making a better Ghana a reality.
For pictures of the event and other REACH news, go here and here and become a fan on facebook.
Special thanks to Maame Sampah, REACH Ghana Executive Secretary, Marie-Stella Essilfie and William Okyere Frempong, Local Operations Directors of REACH Ghana, students of the University of Ghana Medical School, volunteering members of REACH Ghana, REACH Ghana Executive and Advisory Boards, Cocoa Clinic, Citi FM and the New Ghanaian Newspaper.
Prime
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This is the way I choose, the destiny I pursue
To help the unfit and the fit
To treat each according to his need
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