UK based NGO supports health delivery in Talensi

Dr Nana Gruer Health Initiative Ghana Foundation, an UK based NGO, has embarked on a number of health-care interventions to improve health care delivery in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.  

Among the interventions is the construction of a CHPs facility at Shiega, a deprived mining community popularly referred to as the Accra site. 

The facility which was used as an outreach point is to be upgraded and assisted with a borehole.  

The NGO has also initiated moves to offer training to a number of Community Health Officers to enable them manage other CHPs compounds. 

At a brief ceremony held at the premises of the Tongo District Hospital, the Chairman of Dr Nana Gruer Health Initiative Ghana, Professor Laurence David Gruer, donated a brand new motorbike to the District Directorate for onward presentation to staff of the facility to enable them travel to hard- to reach areas. 

The presentation of the motorbike was in response to a request made by the Chief of Balungu, when Prof. Laurence Gruer visited the area. 

Prof Gruer who was once married to a Ghanaian doctor,  Dr Nana Gruer said the NGO was set in memory of the late wife who through dint of hard work supported him in the execution of his professional duties as a medical doctor. 

Prof Gruer  who is also a Professor of Public Health  and  Independent Consultant in Public Health Medicine of Edinburgh  and Glasgow universities,  said aside the request by the Balungu Chief, he saw it prudent to support the poor and the underprivileged in deprived communities as a way of giving back to the Ghanaian community.  

He commended Peal Deng, a local NGO in the area and the District Assembly, the GHS and the community for facilitating the process to make his dream a reality.

Professor Gruer who expressed concern about the challenges facing the health sector in the District, said the foundation intends to continuously partner the Assembly and Peal Deng, to seek additional funding from donors in the UK to complement the effort of the GHS in addressing some of the challenges facing the health sector.
  
The Talensi District Director of Health Services, Evelyn Naaso Domeh, thanked the foundation and its associates for the sense of responsiveness, and said the gesture will help address some challenges confronting health care. 

She bemoaned the poor state of the Tongo District hospital and appealed to other institutions to assist the facility, which is currently in a deplorable state. 

The District Coordinating Director, Alhaji Mohammed Issahaku, who also lauded the effort of the foundation stated that the Assembly is cash trapped and therefore require the support of other NGOs in bringing health care to the doorstep of the poor and the disadvantaged.

The Director of Peal Deng, Dr Daniel Bangrey, said apart from contributing to improving health delivery in the district, the foundation for years had partnered Peal Deng to implement a health and nutritional project, where food items including soya beans, maize, rice, oil and processed gari are distributed freely to malnourished children in extreme poor families and households. 

It has also a water pumping machine meant for irrigation to 56 households to go into vegetables farming during the dry season. 

This has impacted the lives of over 600 malnourished children drawn from Walgu, Gbego, Balungu aand Sheiga communities. 

Those with ringworm and other skin diseases were equally given medical attention. 

According to Dr Bangrey, the foundation has purchased textbooks and distributed them to some basic schools in the district.

GBC