In the northern belt of Ghana, a tiny hospital room is filled with relief and quiet joy. Three-year-old Yussif, once wracked by pain and exhaustion, now rests after a surgery that might have seemed impossible to his struggling family.
Yussif’s journey started over a year ago with a hernia diagnosis. Medication provided little comfort, and the search for affordable treatment became a relentless trek between clinics. Each visit not only drained the family’s modest income but also left Yussif weaker, turning simple tasks like attending kindergarten into monumental challenges.
For his father, Abdulai Mohammed, a farmer working small plots of land, the situation was unbearable. Farming stalled, older children paused school, and daily survival became a tightrope walk between medical needs and basic household sustenance.
Then came a lifeline: the Telecel Ghana Foundation’s Homecoming initiative. The programme covers medical bills for patients who have recovered but cannot leave hospital due to unpaid expenses. For Yussif, this meant the surgery he desperately needed without the crushing financial burden.
Across three hospitals in the northern belt—Tamale West District, Salaga Government, and Janga—nearly 100 patients are benefiting from the programme. Nationwide, Telecel hopes to help about 300 people this year in hospitals spanning the north, middle, and south.
Rita Agyeiwaa Rockson, Telecel’s head of Foundation, Sustainability and External Communications, highlighted the purpose: to relieve families of medical debt, allow patients to return home, and open up hospital resources for those still in need. At Salaga Hospital, paediatric nurse Hawa Iddi described how critical the support is, especially in a community where food insecurity and poverty are daily realities.
Now, Yussif can focus on healing, return to school, and simply enjoy being a child. His father can resume farming, and hope has returned to a family weighed down by worry. As part of the Homecoming programme, Yussif and Abdulai received a care package, marking the beginning of a brighter chapter.
