Sixteen health facilities in the Northern Region have been provided with Information and Communications and Technology (ICT) equipment to help reduce maternal and child mortality in the region.
The equipment included mobile phones, laptops, projectors and project screens, pointers and a mini-public address system, meant to support the 16 facilities participating in the implementation of the Technology for Maternal and Child Health (TAMCH) project in the region.
It is expected that the ICT equipment will educate, raise awareness on good maternal health and disseminate vital maternal and child health information to expectant mothers to keep them and their babies healthy.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiary facilities are Choggu, Kaponhini, Bagabaga and Kanville Health centres in the Sagnarigu District; Kunkua, Kabori, Yizesi and Yagaba health centres in the Mamprugu Moagduri District; Bawena, Daboya, Lingbinsi and Mankarigu in the North Gonja District; and Sawla Polyclinic, Tuna, Gindabo and Kalba health centres in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District.
The TAMCH project
TAMCH, an initiative of Savana Signatures, an ICT for development organisation working in the Northern, Upper West and Volta regions, is to help improve health outcomes for women and babies in 33 health facilities in those regions.
The five-year project, funded by Global Affairs, Canada, is being implemented by Savana Signatures in partnership with Salasan Consulting Inc and Mustimuhw Solutions based in Canada and it is to contribute to the reduction of maternal and infant mortalities in the Northern, Upper West and Volta regions.
TAMCH is aimed at making maternal health information easily accessible to pregnant women, new mothers and their families using ICT. Beneficiaries in the TAMCH project receive free text or voice messages weekly on maternal and child health tips via their mobile phones. These messages are tailored according to the gestation period of each registered expectant mother.
Ceremony
At the hand-over ceremony in Tamale, the Executive Director of Savana Signatures, Mr John Stephen Agbenyo, said the project was being implemented in 33 health facilities in the Northern, Upper West and Volta regions and it was to help improve health outcomes for women and babies in the beneficiary facilities.
He stated that already, more than 160 health staff in health facilities participating in the project had been trained in the use of ICT tools such as the mobile messaging platform, power point presentation, Excel spreadsheets, file management and troubleshooting, all of which were geared towards the reduction of maternal and child mortalities.
The Deputy Director of the Northern Regional Health Directorate in charge of Public Health, Dr John Abenyeri, who received the equipment on behalf of the health facilities, thanked Savana Signatures and its partners for the gesture and said it would go a long way to contribute towards the reduction of maternal and child mortality in the region.
He urged the beneficiaries to take good care of the equipment and also use them for the purposes for which they were donated.
