By Lydia
Kukua Asamoah, GNA
Tema, Sept. 17, GNA – The Kokrokoo Charities
Foundation has presented two infant incubators valued at 20, 000 dollars to the
Paediatric Unit of the Tema General Hospital, to help cater for premature and
neonatal babies at the hospital.
The two incubators add up to a total of 17
incubators so far that had been donated and installed by the Foundation under
its Project 100 incubators programme.
The Project 100 incubators programme, is being
undertaking by Kwami Sefa Kayi, Founder of Kokrokoo Charities Foundation and
host of the Kokrokoo Morning Show on Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, to
help promote the health of newly born babies in the country.
A UNICEF report indicates that Ghana records
about 140,000 preterm births annually, out of which 8,000 of them die before 30
days.
Project 100, was therefore, designed to help
champion the targeted strategy for accelerating a reduction of newborn deaths
in Ghana.
Mr Sefa Kayi, who handed over the incubators
to Dr Audrey Frimpong-Barfi, Head of the Paediatric Department of the Tema
General Hospital in Tema on Monday, said he was hopeful that the incubators
would help improve the care for neonatals at the hospital.
He said in addition to the incubators, the
Foundation would help fix sliding windows for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
(NICU) and provide two air conditioners that Dr Frimpong-Barfi requested.
Dr Frimpong-Barfi commended the Foundation for
coming in to assist the hospital with the best brand of incubators that would
add up to the five functioning ones,
which were woefully inadequate for the number of babies that were brought for
care at the NICU.
She said the Department received about 50
babies every month and that in August this year, over 51 pre-term babies were
admitted in the hospital from other hospitals all over Tema, which add lots of
stress on facilities at the NICU.
She appealed that an ongoing mother and baby
Unit project on the hospital premises that had been stalled, should be
completed to help ease the congestion at the Department.
Mr Dennis Adutwum, Programmes Director of
Kokrokoo Foundation said three other incubators had been purchased by the
Foundation and those would be presented to the Sunyani Government Hospital in
the Brong Ahafo Region and the Atibie Hospital in the Eastern Region in two
weeks’ time, making it 20 incubators to be presented under the project since
its inception.
He said the foundation raises funds through
individual support and that of corporate organisations, which it uses to
purchase the incubators.
He announced that the Ghana National Petroleum
Corporation (GNPC), had supported the Foundation with a donation 50, 000
dollars to help it fund the Project 100 incubator programme.
Hospitals that had benefitted from the Project
100 Incubators programme are the Police Hospital and the La General Hospital in
Accra, the Prestea Government Hospital in the Western Region, the Nsawam
Government Hospital in the Eastern Region, the Cape Coast Regional Hospital,
Tamale Regional Hospital, among others.
The distribution of the incubators was based
on a survey carried out by the Ministry of Health, assessing the needs of the
various hospitals in the country.
GNA