The Gold Fields Ghana Foundation (GFGF) has committed GH¢320,000 toward 2026 World Malaria Day activities in the Tarkwa Nsuaem and Prestea Huni-Valley municipalities, partnering the municipal assemblies and health directorates.
The commemoration, held under the theme “Drive to End Malaria: Now We Can. Now We Must.”, took the form of a community forum in Tarkwa. It drew queen mothers, assembly members, unit committee members, Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) committee members and school children from the mine’s host communities.
GFGF Executive Secretary Abdel-Razak Yakubu said the funding would cover the celebration and a range of related activities, including expanded radio awareness programmes, follow-up donations and additional education sessions through the year. He stressed that the campaign aimed to show residents that malaria was not a minor ailment to be ignored but a deadly condition demanding serious attention.
Yakubu said the foundation had also purchased and donated weed slashers to WATSAN committees to help clear overgrown vegetation during communal labour, a measure intended to reduce mosquito breeding sites. He said GFGF was glad to partner local institutions to lower malaria prevalence across the two municipalities.
Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal Health Director Wilhemina Tiwaah Duah Morttey said the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the directorate collaborate with the foundation each year to sensitise the public on the disease. She noted that an environmental dimension had been added to this year’s awareness drive, including larval source management and other interventions to accelerate progress toward elimination.
Morttey urged residents to keep their surroundings clean to deny mosquitoes breeding grounds. “When we control the vector… then we break the transmission,” she said, while expressing gratitude for the foundation’s sustained support over the years.