Business News of Thursday, 29 January 2015
Source: Graphic Online
Five communities are to benefit from a $421,000 grant under the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGHSP).
The beneficiary communities are Tsatee in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region, Pantang Hospital in the La-Nkwantang Madina Municipality in Accra, Breweniase in the Nkwanta South District of the Volta Region Koransang in the Suhum Municipal Assembly in the Eastern Region, and Akotosu, Dadieoaba area, in the Asutifi South District of the Brong Ahafo Region.
The grant is to be used for developmental projects in the health and educational sectors. The GGHSP is a small scale assistance for communities with basic needs in the area of health, education, water and sanitation, agriculture and relief purposes.
To date, the GGHSP scheme has supported more than 260 projects in various communities in Ghana. In Tsatee, the grant will be used for the construction of a clinic, a nurse’s quarters, a mechanised borehole and a toilet facility for the people in the community and its surroundings.
A maternity facility will also be constructed to improve the reproductive and maternal health care for pregnant psychiatric patients on admission at the Pantang Hospital in the La-Nkwantang Madina Municipality in Accra.
The facility would consist of a delivery room, labour room, lying-in room, sluice room, changing room, washroom, an office for staff and a store room. At Breweniase , the grant would be used to construct a health centre which would benefit, especially, pregnant women and children.
The Akotosu, Dadieoaba area would also benefit from a six-unit classroom block and a four-seater toilet facility to cater for the needs of the people in the community and its surrounding areas.
At Koransang in the Suhum Municipal Assembly of the Eastern Region, the grant would be used to construct a Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHIPS) Compound which would comprise a clinic and a nurse’s quarters to cater for the health needs of the people in the area.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Kaoru Yoshimura, was optimistic that the grant would go a long way to improve the health and educational needs of the beneficiary communities and their environs for generations to come.
He also urged the beneficiaries to put the grant to good use and also ensure that their projects were completed on time for inauguration.
In his remarks, the District Co-ordinating Director of the Nkwanta South District Assembly, Mr Yussif Ibrahim, expressed his commitment to ensure the successful implementation of the project to improve health service delivery.
Mr Yaro Badimak Peter, the Executive Director of Basic Needs Ghana, a non-governmental organisation that will be supervising the construction of the Maternity Ward of the Pantang Hospital, said since Ghana was off-track in achieving the Millennium Development Goal five (MDG5), the construction of the maternity clinic was timely.
He said it would help to double efforts to reduce maternal mortality in the country and also improve maternal services and enhance the health of pregnant women and mothers.
The Distrist Chief Executive (DCE) of the Asutifi South District Assembly, Mr Modestus Yao Nuworsu, pledged to use the grant solely for the construction of the six-unit classroom block .
For his part, the Executive Director of Support Services Foundation, Mr Moses Oduro, said as a civil society organisation, it would collaborate with the South Dayi Assembly to build the CHIPS Compound for the people of Tsatee.
The Municipal Health Director of Health Services for the Suhum Municipal Health Directorate, Dr Samuel Agyemang Boateng, lauded the support of the people of Japan to the people of Koransang and the other communities in the country.
“We promise to maintain and use the facility to deliver quality health care and also abide by the rules and regulations of the project”, he said.