Sustainable Development in Ghana
Congratulations to David and Brenda Mensah, Laureates of Ghana’s Millennium Excellence Award for Peace.
[Read more…] about David and Brenda Mensah Receive Millennium Excellence Award for Peace
The 2015 Ghana health team spent two weeks caring for thousands of patients. Seven Ghanaian health workers joined the team serving in clinics. (Heroes is how team leader Dr. Jennifer Wilson referred to these men and women.)
One of these health workers, Eric, a nurse anaesthetist from Wenchi Hospital, joined the surgical team and worked with anaesthetist Dr. Tony Brown from Port Perry, Ontario. Eric’s words of thanks perfectly capture why this aspect of the team’s work — the transfer of skills between Ghanaian and expatriate health workers — has such a positive impact on the quality of health care in the region year-round.
Eric writes,
I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to work with the team. Thank you so much and may God bless you.
You have changed my life, my way of thinking and have given me the opportunity to update myself so as to render the best of services to my clients. You and your team received me, worked with me, ate with me, saw me as one of you, and showed love and appreciation towards me. I thank you for this. And I promise to show the same to all my patients.
Attached is a photo of me managing a 15-year-old boy with supplies Dr. Tony had given to me. The surgery was smooth and so was the anaesthesia. I used all Dr. Tony taught me and all, including my bosses, were astonished.
Thank you.
Eric
Photojournalist Erika Jensen, volunteer member of 2015 Ghana Health Team, captured Iddrisu’s story in photos. [Read more…] about Iddrisu’s Story in Photos
GRID and NEA are thrilled to announce that the Government of Canada will contribute $1.9 million towards our work to save the lives of mothers and children in Northern Ghana.
The contribution announced by DFATD this week will support our Leyaata Ane Project, which is Phase 2 of our Leyaata (“Rescue Us”) Project.
Through the Leyaata Ane Project, GRID and NEA will expand our community health home visit program to another 80 villages in rural Ghana, a strategy that has been proven to dramatically reduce neonatal mortality. We will train health workers in live-saving skills for mothers and infants at birth, encourage the adoption of codes of conduct, and ensure that local health facilities meet basic requirements for safe care around birth. This initiative will improve the delivery and use of essential health services by mothers, pregnant women, newborns, and children under five.
We gratefully acknowledge the Government of Canada’s contribution to this important initiative, and look forward to sharing more information about this in the coming weeks.
Brenda Mensah has written a post about the Leyaata Project that has been featured on the blog of the Canadian Network for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health.
We are just one small NGO. … But we are a part of the global effort reduce the numbers of babies who die needlessly, and we are committed to “keep doing what we know works” in our corner of the globe.
The whole post is worth reading.
Thanks to funding support from our donors, NEA is able to provide scholarships to students who need financial assistance to attend secondary or postsecondary education. In 2014, we noticed some interesting changes in our scholarship program.
Why is a decline in the number of secondary school scholarships a sign of success? Because the lower numbers reflect a decreasing need for assistance.
As people are becoming more food secure and financially stable, they are able to provide for their children’s secondary school education. It’s always a special moment when a parent tells us, “This year, I had enough money to send my children to secondary school.”
In 2014, the number of women who received scholarships for postsecondary education actually exceeded the number of men. This was a first for GRID and NEA, and we see it as a reflection of a much deeper change that is happening in communities. More girls now have access to primary and secondary education, thanks to their families’ increased financial security. Their parents can afford to pay their fees to attend school, and they can afford to have them attend school rather than working for the family’s survival.
With great sadness we are announcing that the Ghana Health Team’s November 2014 mission to Northern Ghana has been postponed due to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The decision to postpone was made by GRID’s Executive Director, Dr. David Mensah, in consultation with the leaders of the Ghana Health Team.
[Read more…] about 2014 Ghana Health Team Postponed Due to Ebola Outbreak
