The First Lady and President of the Lordina Foundation, Lordina Dramani Mahama, last Saturday inaugurated a newly built maternity and child health facility at Asukawkaw in the Krachi East District in the Oti Region.
The handover of the facility, financed by the foundation with support from donors and partners, fulfils Mrs Mahama’s response to a request from the chief of Akroso-Asukawkaw, a year ago.
This brings the number of maternity and children’s wards built and handed over to communities and the Ghana Health Service by the Lordina Foundation to four.
It is in fulfilment of Mrs Mahama’s personal commitment and the objective of her foundation to reduce maternal, infant and child mortality cases in the country’s hospitals.
The first three were inaugurated for the Bole District Hospital, the Nkoranza Health Centre and the Abodom community.
The foundation has also renovated and expanded the Hohoe Adabraka Health Centre and continues to donate medical equipment to health centres across the country.
Call to action
According to Mrs Mahama, while planning the next phase of support programmes, her office received an email from the Paramount Chief of the Akroso-Asukawkaw Traditional Area, Nana Odamu Gyamfi III, stating the risks pregnant women in his community faced in reaching distant clinics, often too late to save them and their newborns.
“This is no coincidence, it was a call to action,” Mrs Mahama told a crowd of happy community members, health officials, workers, community elders and chiefs.
Designed for dignity and excellence, the facility includes a reception area, doctors’ and nurses’ offices, maternity and children’s wards, a fully equipped operating theatre, a delivery room, a sterilisation room, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), storage, and data rooms.
Key equipment installed in the facility includes electric beds, operating tables, infant incubators, ultrasound machines, C-section and delivery kits, ECG machines, phototherapy units, patient monitors, oxygen systems and television sets, among others.
Also installed is a hybrid power system that combines the national grid with solar to ensure reliable emergency lighting and efficiency.
“No woman should die while giving life, and no child should start without proper care just because of where they were born,” Mrs Mahama said.
She noted that nearly one in 10 Ghanaian women faced pregnancy-related death risks.
She urged health authorities, facility managers, and the Akroso-Asukawkaw community under the Akroso Traditional Council to maintain the facility to benefit more generations.
“Let this be more than a building but a reminder that with government, leaders and partners, we can protect every vulnerable Ghanaian,” she added.
Gratitude
The Minister of Health, Kwabena Akandoh, praised the project as “a practical step towards safe, timely, and dignified care for mothers, newborns and children.”
He thanked Mrs Mahama for her “unparalleled contributions” to women, girls and children’s health.
The Board Chair of the Lordina Foundation, Pastor Kwame Boateng Sarpong, hailed the project as emblematic of the foundation’s mission to support rural women and children, pledging continued aid to deprived communities.
Nana Odamu Gyamfi III expressed profound gratitude, calling the project a “life-saving initiative” that will ease prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care for mothers in Asukawkaw and surrounding communities.
The chief and his elders enstooled Mrs Mahama as the Development Queenmother of the Akroso-Asukawkaw Traditional Area, with the title Nana Oseadeayo Odamwaa II.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh