News Story

Church Leaders Meet with Deputy Minister of Health

Local leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ghana paid a courtesy call to Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Victor Asare Bampoe, at his office on January 27, 2015. 

Elder Legrand Curtis, Jr., president of the Africa West Area of the Church, Elder Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah and Philip Xaxagbe visited with the Deputy Minister about efforts to improve health delivery in Ghanaian communities.
During 2014 the Church joined the Ghana Ministry of Health and other health providers in efforts to improve health delivery. Dr. Bampoe thanked Elder Curtis and the other Church leaders, and asked that these visits become more regular, promising he would pay a visit to the Church’s administrative offices.

Examples of the projects in which the Church participated include the following:

The GA West Hospital

The GA West Hospital had a lab that was without furnishings and equipment. The Church supplied cabinets, counters, tables, desks and chairs to make the space usable. It also donated a hematology analyzer, autoclave, water bath, and incubator for the lab. This enabled blood tests to be done at the site rather than having to send people into Accra.

Gomoa-Oguaa Health Centre Solar Panels, Gomoa West District

This is a 24-hour clinic that delivers many babies and services the surrounding community. The electricity supply to the clinic had been undependable and many times torches (flashlights) were the only available light. The Church made arrangements for solar panels to be installed on the roof and connected to batteries.
  
Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Cape Coast

The delivery ward of this hospital had water damage to the ceilings and sink cabinets. Nine rooms had seriously deteriorated and were rotten and falling to pieces. The Church supplied materials and hospital maintenance staff made repairs. The ceilings in the hallway and in two delivery rooms were replaced and new cabinets were constructed in the nine rooms.
 
Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, Cape Coast

This hospital faced many urgent needs.   
1)    The cement wall in the women’s quarters was cracking and falling to pieces due to water damage. Cement was replaced and leaking drain pipes were dug up and replaced with PVC pipes. Some cracks on the stairs also were repaired.
2)    Church members cleaned, repaired and painted the women’s ward. Some of the people helping were professional painters and spent several days finishing the job.
3)    The commercial washers, dryers, flatirons and sewing machines needed repairs. The hospital’s laundry was being sent to other hospitals. These machines were all repaired with the Church’s help and hospital personnel were trained so they could do minor maintenance and repairs on the machines by themselves.
4)    The hospital was in great need of medical supplies. Some examples of the Church’s donations include autoclave, oxygen tanks, suction pump, blood pressure machines, stethocopes, syringes, needles, bandages, gauze, and ambu bags.
5)    The hospital’s water system was only partially operational. Two water boreholes (wells) were refurbished and new lines were trenched, enabling the water to be dispursed through all parts of the hospital. Pumps at the boreholes were replaced. Two water towers were corroded beyond repair, so new fetching points were constructed with new poly tanks.

2014 Polio Immunization Campaign

The goal of the 2014 Ghana polio campaign was to immunize 5.7 million children, ages 0 to 5.   The Church, in partnership with the Ghana Ministry of Health and Rotary International, provided advertising in the form of posters, newspaper advertisements, volunteer badges and visors. Training was coordinated for Church volunteers who went door to door, informing families of the impending immunization days.  Immunizations exceeded the goal of 5.7 million children.

Neonatal ResusitationTraining, Accra

Using the “train-the-trainer” approach, a team of three medical specialists sponsored by LDS Charities, the humanitarian arm of the Church, instructed 32 physicians from hospitals and clinics throughout Ghana in an advanced course of newborn resuscitation techniques. These doctors will, in turn, train other physicians within their jurisdiction, using training materials and clinical equipment provided by the Church.
The visiting medical team, with the help of some of the earlier-trained Ghanaian practitioners, also taught lifesaving skills to 70 nurses and midwives, side by side, using a newer level of training called “Helping Babies Breathe.”  
Part of the comprehensive training included realistic newborn manikin simulators with the ability to imitate an umbilical pulse, bag-mask ventilators, and new-style nose and mouth bulb suction devices that can be cleaned by boiling or autoclave.
Easily transportable bags of training equipment were donated to participants so they can effectively train others. At least one hand-operated resuscitator was provided for each clinical setting to ensure the new techniques can be applied.
Each person who attended the training was encouraged to train ten other people so the training could reach as many people as possible and have more impact.

Water Boreholes, Assin South 

In the Assin South Area of the central region of Ghana, LDS Charities initiated water projects that provided clean water to 31 communities. Many of these communities are in rural farming areas where cocoa is the main crop. Hygiene training was also a big part of projects to help people improve their health. 
The villagers were thrilled to have clean water. They pay a small fee for the water as they use it so there are sufficient funds to make repairs when parts wear out or break down.

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