Upper East : Two health facilities benefits from Lordina’s Medical Outreach Support

The First Lady, Mrs. Lordina Mahama, says government’s long term vision of providing quality and accessible health care for all hinges on the collaborative effort of key stakeholders. 

She said going forward, the Lordina Foundation is  willing to work in tandem with any organisation whose ideas is routed to supporting the underprivileged have access to basic health service delivery. 

Mrs Lordina Mahama made the observation at  a mini durbar in Navrongo, where she presented large quantity of medical equipment and supplies to the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo to round up the foundation's medical outreach programme dubbed " Preventing Mother -to-Child Transmission: The key to an HIV free Generation and Keeping Mothers Alive”, PMTCT.  

 A similar donation was extended to the Bolgatanga Regional hospital backed by a free health screening exercise on syphilis as well as HIV and AIDS.

The Upper East Region is the last administrative region to benefit from the nationwide medical outreach and health screening by the First Lady. 

The provision of the medical supplies estimated to cost thousands of cedis is to equip and augment the limited medical items used by the two major hospitals. 

This is expected to translate into the provision of quality health care to the increasing number of persons that visits the said facilities. 

Among the items received were respirators, plastic bandages and adhesives, syringes, electrical orthopaedic beds, theatres gloves and mask including urological products among others.  

 These were procured by the Foundation in partnership with a US-based medical group called MEDSHARE. 

Presenting her a keynote address at separate venues, First Lady Mrs Lordina Mahama said her foundation has not only surpassed its primary objective of addressing the needs of orphans and the vulnerable in society, but also gone a step further in serving as advocates for PMTCT and issues regarding reproductive health and care for persons living with HIV and AIDS especially women. 

This, the foundation considers as a driving force for the realisation of the universal health coverage as stipulated in the SDGs. 

While commending the district for its contribution to agriculture, Mrs Lordina Mahama said the health of the people is central to the people is central to governments transformational agenda and would therefore appreciate the corporation of  other institutions in bringing health care to the doorstep of the poor and the disadvantaged.

The stepped up campaign geared at improving PMTCT and sexual reproductive health is being implemented with support from the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV and AIDS, OAFLA, the Ghana AIDS Commission and the National AIDS Control Programme.

 Among its key objectives is to galvanize community support and sensitize men to support their spouses to access PMTCT services. 

The First Lady Mrs. Lordina Mahama said, as President of OAFLA, she was committed to addressing the critical health needs of women and called for an end to child marriage and other obnoxious traditional practices that impedes their  socio-economic lives of women.

Speaker after speaker commended the Lordina Foundation for the benevolence. Receiving the items, the Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Kofi Issah, hinted that the facility has 98.5 percent of PMTCT coverage and that out of 12 children born this year to HIV positive mothers, only one had tested positive to the disease. 

He was however hopeful that with the provision of surgical and anaesthetics, medical care will be greatly improved. 

The First Lady who was bestowed with the royal name “Awewonno”, meaning God’s Gift, later presented another set of medical equipment’s to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. 

With her were dignitaries including the Upper East Regional Minister, Albert Abongo and his deputy as well as the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur. 

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10-hour torrential rains inundate flood prone areas of Upper East

 Story by Isaac Asare GBC

Premises of Mount Sinai International school being inundated by the flood waters

Portions of farmlands

Bridges under siege

 Most residents of the Upper East Region are still counting their losses following Wednesday’s torrential rains that lasted for almost ten hours. 

Business activities in the Bolgatanga and its catchment areas were greatly affected. 

The heavy downpour which began around 4: 30 am resulted in flooding causing wanton destruction to farmlands in affected areas. 

A number of houses in flood prone areas were inundated by the flood waters. Some of the affected Communities include Sawaba, Damoen, Kalbeo, Kumbangre, and Tindonsolbogo. 

Affected areas in the Talensi district include Winkogo, Nyaasa, Abi-yeri, Awus-Yeri, Kodeema, Kori and Alab-yeri. 

Most communities in the Builsa and Kassena-Nankana districts were not spared as households and farmlands were submerged in water.

The regional vaccination exercise against Cerebrospinal Meningitis which was originally scheduled to begin on Wednesday suffered a major setback as health officials were stacked at their homes.

The rains also disrupted school activities as well as the ongoing voter exhibition exercise taking place in designated polling centres across the region.  
 

 In an interview with Radio Ghana, the Regional NADMO Officer in charge of Operations, Paul Wooma said Zonal officers are still on the field compiling data on the affected persons and households to enable them attend to their plight. 

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Passage of Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill will accelerate pace of development: PIAC

Open Forum

Dignitaries at the high table

In a bid to actualize the extension of power to facilitate economic development, the energy sector in 2015 was allocated an amount of three hundred and ten point 57 million Ghana cedis as capital outflow for rural electrification. 

Out of the projected figure, the Upper East Region could not get its fair share of the allocated budget expenditure though it enjoyed more than 15 percent of rural electrification in 2014 through the petroleum revenue. 

In addition nine irrigation project were undertaken to improve the Agric sector of the region.

Experts believe that with the coming into force of the Local Content Policy and the expected passage of Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill, the region is poised to maximize the benefits from exploration of the country’s oil and gas resources.

 This was made known by Professor Paul Kinsley Bua-Bassuah at a consultative forum on petroleum revenue organized by Interest and Accountability Committee, PIAC in Bolgatanga. 

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee is stipulated under section 51 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 815 with a mandate to among others, monitor and evaluation compliance by government and institutions in the management and use of petroleum revenues. 

The establishment of the PIAC is in pursuance of government’s resolve in the promotion of transparent and accountable governance. 

The PIAC is composed of thirteen experienced diverse groups and other professional bodies, whose mandate is to detail how much petroleum revenue has been bagged in the year under review and how the revenue accrued had been utilised. 

The public consultative forum therefore serves as a platform to share and highlights the content of the PIAC report for 2015. 

The forum also provokes public discourse on spending prospects for petroleum revenues in line with identified development priorities of the country. 

 The PIACs annual report however underscores the performance of the Ghana Petroleum Funds, GPF, and other related disciplines in the petroleum sector. 

Highlighting the role of the PIAC at the 9th regional consultative stakeholders meeting in Bolgatanga, the Chairman of the PIAC, Professor Paul Kingsley Bua-Bassuah schooled participants on the variance between the actuals and projected revenue of petroleum, which according to him has witnessed a cumulative shortfall of 470 million US dollars as compared with a revised budget estimate of 496.31 million US dollars.  

 The huge disparity in the projected revenue, he indicated is attributable to the significant decline in the expected price of crude oil, which is faced with a year-to-year decline of nearly 49. 4 percent.

 Professor Buah-Bassuah said inspite of the dramatic shortfall, government through the Finance Ministry was able to spread development in both rural and urban areas of the countries. 

The allocation was used to develop four some priority areas including, roads, oil and gas infrastructure as well as agriculture modernisation and capacity. He outlined these in a detailed presentation. 

Facts

Indeed the five years of petroleum extraction in Ghana spanning 2011-2015 had benefited some major sectors of the economy of which the Upper East is no exception. 

Revenue from oil which went to government was used to expand social interventions across the region.

 With an anticipated increment in revenue from petroleum resources from additional field such as the Tweneboah-Enyeran-Ntomme and Sankofa-Gye-Nyame in the Western Region, the Upper East stands to gain from increased allocation of projects. 

The Deputy Upper East Minister, Dr Robert Kuganab-Lem who represented as the guest speaker was hopeful that with the coming into force of the Local Content Policy, Ghanaians are poised to maximize the benefits from exploration of the country’s oil and gas resources.

 During an open forum, participants raised valued question regarding the allocation and distribution of the oil proceeds. 

Others bordered on the protection of the heritage fund and the environmental impact of the oil exploration. Key among the concerns raised focused on why the region in 2015 did not receive its fair share of the road infrastructure.  

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