Sustainable Development in Ghana
David and Brenda Mensah are in Canada right now and will be speaking at a few events. You are welcome to join us at any of these and hear our news first-hand.
The one-of-a-kind conference for Christian chiefs in Ghana’s Northern Region was a wonderful success.
Over 100 chiefs and 40 of their attendants met, despite the tribal differences that so easily could have separated them. They were able to share their unique challenges with one another and receive encouragement to continue as faithful leaders in their communities.
Thank you for your prayers for this event. We provide an in-depth report with our next newsletter later this spring.
Gary and Elenor Paisley, members of Talbot Creek Community Church, have recently returned from visiting GRID/NEA projects in Ghana. They’ve posted a summary report, with photos, of their visit. The report gives a nice overview of some of the things that GRID/NEA are doing in the region, so please check it out.
From February 25 to March 1st, more than 140 Christian chiefs from across Northern Ghana will meet at NEA’s project centre in Carpenter for a conference. This is the first conference of its kind in Ghana, and one that we’re excited about.
Christian chiefs in Northern Ghana face many challenges. Their position as chiefs would normally link them closely to the traditional religious practices of their communities. Their choice to follow Christ is a radical decision that impacts how they function as chiefs.
Christian chiefs also face serious pressure from those who resent their chosen faith. Some chiefs have been offered money, gifts, and expensive holidays if they would convert from Christianity.
It’s an isolating, lonely position for many chiefs.
It’s understandable, then, that these chiefs are excited to meet together. Over 140 of them have confirmed that they will be attending the conference in Carpenter this week, where they will participate in several days of teaching, worship, and sharing together.
Please pray for this unique event: for safety as everyone travels to Carpenter, for strength for those preparing for this conference, and for the participants’ spiritual encouragement.
As mentioned in our latest newsletter, we’ve launched the 2010 Ghana Health Team process.
The Ghana Health Team is a medical / surgical / dental / eye mission that serves the very poor in Northern Ghana. The leaders of the team are Dr. Jennifer Wilson (Canada) and Dr. Andrew Kingsnorth (England).
Planned dates for the 2010 Health Team’s mission are October 29 to November 13.
For more information, you can check 2010 Health Team’s online home.
If you are a health care professional who is interested in participating in this team, we encourage you to learn more about the team, subscribe to team email updates, and plan to attend the information meeting on Thursday, March 4th at 7 pm at Shobrook Gardens.
Applications are due by Wednesday, March 31st.
Abraham Nsiah (Nsiah means 7th born) is from the village of Jugboi. He faces the challenge of being paralyzed from the waist down. In Ghana, where accessibility measures are few and far between, this challenge is particularly difficult.
However, anyone who meets Abraham is impressed by his warmth, exuberance, joy and determination. He overcame many obstacles just to be able to get to secondary school and when his results came in, there were a few courses that he needed to improve on before he could be accepted in tertiary level institutions.
In an effort to support the local clinic at Bamboi, NEA hired Abraham as a record keeper. This freed the medical staff from many administrative tasks and enabled them to concentrate on the patients’ medical needs. While working at the clnic, Abraham continued to study and sit exams again to improve his grades.
Two years ago he was accepted into the Rural Health Training School, Kintampo. He is in his final year of the Health Information Programme and will graduate as a Technical Officer in 2010. He is committed to working in the Deg area and will be a valuable team player in promoting health once he graduates.
In November 2009, members of the visiting medical team encountered unusual skin ulcers in many children from remote villages in the Deg area. They became suspicious that Yaws might be the cause of these painful sores, even though the disease was considered to be eradicated in Ghana.
Yaws is an infectious tropical disease that affects skin, bone, and cartilage. Its primary victims are children under 15 and it can lead to chronic disability.
Consulting with local health care workers, the medical team determined that what they were seeing was indeed Yaws. Their Ghanaian colleagues hadn’t seen any cases of Yaws for over 20 years, and the discovery caused real concern that this contagious infection might be returning. Team members began treating patients for this condition.
The medical team members also carefully documented 81 cases of suspected Yaws, which David and Brenda Mensah then submitted to the Regional Director of Health Services. In a meeting with the Director, the Mensahs learned that health officials are concerned about a resurgence of Yaws in the country.
Although treatment is a relatively straightforward and cost-effective injection of Penicillin, it can be difficult for Ministry of Health personnel to locate patients afflicted with Yaws in order to give them the necessary treatment.
The Ministry of Health is thankful for the contribution that NEA and the medical team have made by sharing important information about the incidence of Yaws in the Deg region. They also expressed deep appreciation for the team’s treatment of afflicted patients in the Deg Region.
In their recent mission in Ghana, members of the 2009 medical team were blessed by a man who calculates himself to be 120 years old.
The surgeons with Operation Hernia, who were once again a part of the medical team, had completed a successful hernia repair on this gentleman. The elderly man was very emotional when he addressed the team, explaining how he wished he could give them something to express his gratitude for the team for coming to help him. The hernia had caused him great suffering and now he was pain free and felt like a young man again!
He went on to say that the only thanks he had to offer was to ask that the Most High, Almighty God would bless the team members and their children with every possible blessing, and that he considered them all to be adopted members of his family from that day forward.
For more stories from the medical team’s two weeks in Ghana, you can download our latest newsletter [PDF].