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Creating an enabling environment for premature babies’ survival – Naa Kuorkor Mayne-Eghan’s passion
● Naa Kuorko displaying an award
This week’s profile throws a spotlight on a distinguished lady whose passion is to ensure the wellness and healthy conditions of premature babies at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Ghana to survive.
As the saying goes, “it is not only giants that do great things”, Naa Kuorkor Mayne- Eghan’s story cannot be swept under the carpet.
Her passion-driven sense for seeing premature babies survive has been phenomenal through her constant advocacy and sensitisation about “Preterms lives matter” under the auspices of Jay Foundation over the years.
The selfless lady is undoubtedly a philanthropist and a leader who has carved a well-deserved reputation via her Non-Governmental Organisation with a stint of generosity, integrity, dedication and enviable accomplishment in the area of neonatal healthcare, especially the lives of preterms.
Representing the voice of the babies
Naa Kuorkor’s enthusiasm for advocating the wellness and survival of premature babies emanated as a result of experiencing the issue of giving birth to premature twins in America where one unfortunately passed away.
The aforementioned encounter traumatised her for a longer period irrespective of the counselling she received.
After the predicament, she returned to Ghana with the baby who survived and later decided to form a foundation that would serve as a mouthpiece for these fragile babies to have the best of care while striving to survive in the NICU.
According to the benevolent lady, it was very prudent to address issues of preterm babies as an issue of public health concern that require critical attention.
Naa Kuorkor underscored that, stakeholder engagement with health facilities should always come up with pragmatic measures to help create policies that would help in the survival of these vulnerable babies.
“Births that usually occur before the 37th week of pregnancy are usually considered preterms and such babies require an extraordinary treatment at the NICU to serve a term to fully survive as that of a full term.
Impact of Jay Foundation to premature babies
Shedding uncontrollable tears, she told The Spectator that, “in Ghana preterm babies do not get adequate care due to lack of space, facilities, and essentials needed to evade infection, which causes death.
The Jay Foundation since its inception in 2019 has made donations worth about GH¢500,000 to NICUs in 10 hospitals and other medical facilities in the country to support preterm babies, their mothers, and staff of the hospitals, including Tema General Hospital, Nsawam, Korle Bu, Shai Osudoku, Keta Hospitals, Battor Catholic, Wenchi Hospital, Bamboi Polyclinic, Banda District Hospital, Jama Polyclinic and recently donated to the Ho Teaching Hospital.
Items donated included vegetables, fruits, digital thermometers, digital weighing scales, suction machines, pulse oximeters, nasal prongs, baby cots, cot sheets, bedsheets, drip stands, kangaroo Mother Care clothes, baby wipes, napkins, sanitisers, baby clothing, cleaning materials, among others.
“We are the voice of these precious ones and we encourage all to help these miracle babies survive, they didn’t ask to be born that way”, she bemoaned.
Naa Kuorkor stressed that, Life was a struggle and preterm babies started theirs right at birth, and what the little Jay Foundation could do was to make them comfortable and feel the love and support they deserve.
She commended her team members for their support to make successful projects and accomplishment with an aim of reducing the high mortality rate of neonates in the short term.
“Limited space is one of the major problems with all the facilities listed above except Korle Bu. But they also need an expansion looking at their numbers”, she noted.
These problems, she stated were associated with risks that included high infection rate, high mortality, no or little education on how to handle Neonates, less medical equipment, unclean environment and inadequate cleaning materials, inadequate NICU staff, poor ventilation, limited space for babies and mothers, no physical therapy at home after discharge just mention but a few.
“This year, we are putting up proper structures for Mother and babies, Mothers’ hostels and NICU’s and since we noticed that education is key we finally have an Educational Documentary on Prematurity in Ghana”, she highlighted.
Recognition/ Background
She has been awarded both locally and internationally for her sterling performances in helping create a safer haven for premature babies in Ghana.
Naa Kuorkor was born and raised by Mr. Benjamin Nii Aryeetey Aryee, a prominent contractor and Mrs. Esther Aryee, a retired Bio-Chemist who worked with the United Nations and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. She classified them as disciplinarians.
She is the first born and has three siblings.
Naa Kuorkor Mayne-Eghan was a Corporate Relationship Manager/ Banking Officer with Cal Bank for over eight years and currently the Chief Executive Office (CEO) of a Financial and Marketing Consultancy, Korghan Limited. She is again the CEO of Lingerie Picante.
She completed her basic education at St. Martin de Porres at Dansoman-Accra, and is an old girl of Wesley Girls’ High School, Cape Coast. She has a graduate Degree in Social Sciences from KNUST, a Master’s Degree in Finance from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
Naa Kuorkor is a mother of two, and a ‘Mummy’ to all, with personal premature birth and preterm babies experience; prefers to channel her ‘calling’ to help make others going through the same experience happy and less traumatised.
Interests
The Wesleyan who speaks Ga, Fante, Twi, English and French loves to play Basketball and recounted that she was the Basketball captain during her secondary school days at Wesley Girls’ High School and they won most of their interschool trophies.
Naa Kuorkor’s fondness for children is very strong and also likes to swim, travel and watch movies during her leisure.
She commended all her sponsors for the great support given to her and called for God’s grace to continually be with them.
She admonished families to support preterm mothers and advised society never to associate premature babies with bad spirits.
By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah
Madam Sandra Seyram Kpedor, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Anloga in the Volta Region, has emphasised the importance of parental involvement in children’s education, stating that education is free, but parents need to do more to support their children.
She said parents, teachers, and students must be involved in addressing the challenges facing the district’s education sector, particularly the poor Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results.
Madam Kpedor outlined some key roles parents should play to promote their children’s education, including providing a conducive learning environment, monitoring their children’s progress, and supporting teachers.
The DCE highlighted some challenges the district faced such as inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of teachers, which have also contributed to the poor BECE results and called on well-to-do parent to help solve the situation through and other supports.
To address the issues, she also announced that plans have been taken to utilise the district’s common fund to implement educational projects, such as constructing school blocks and teachers’ bungalows at Sodzi community, and 2-unit classroom blocks each at Akplorwutorkor and Tegbi-Afedome respectively, among others.
Madam Kpedor also noted that her office had earlier notified the Ministry of Education to deploy more teachers to the area to improve teaching and learning, and encouraged students to work hard and strive for excellence, and work beyond their limit to succeed.
“To my wonderful and beautiful girls, you have to know it clear that women and girls have equal opportunities to compete with men for greater achievements,” she indicated.
The DCE cited her own achievement as a testament to the fact that women can excel in leadership positions, alongside Vice President Nana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, and stressed that girls were no longer limited to domestic roles but can pursue their dreams and become leaders.
Additionally, she mentioned that a meeting was held earlier with assembly members, and other stakeholders to address the district’s educational challenges and improve academic performance.
She promised that the district’s education oversight committee and stakeholders would work together to address the challenges and improve the district’s BECE results and called for parental involvement and support to boost the district’s education sector for children to chase their dreams to become future leaders for the success of the district and the nation.
She urged parents not to leave everything to the government but rather help in the provision of some necessary materials such as textbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, food, and guidance to children for the successes of young learners. –GNA
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The spokesperson for Dr. Bawumia, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, has criticised the implementation of the NDC government’s No Fee Stress policy, arguing that the programme has failed to deliver on its core promise.
According to him on Starr fm, the policy, which was introduced to ensure stress free payment of fees for level 100 tertiary students, has rather turned into what he described as post stress support.
He explained that students are required to pay their fees first before applying for reimbursement, a situation he believes defeats the purpose of the policy.
He questioned claims by government officials that the policy has been successful and that citizens are happy.
In his view, such claims do not reflect the lived realities of many Ghanaians. He stressed that while some people may appear satisfied, many others continue to struggle.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye pointed to the situation of trained teachers and nurses who have been picketing for nearly six months, demanding employment.
He noted that government responses suggesting it cannot accommodate all of them contradict claims of economic stability.
He further argued that economic indicators such as a stable currency mean little to people who are unable to secure jobs or access promised support.
He observed that telling an unemployed teacher or a struggling student that the cedi has strengthened does not address their immediate challenges.
On the issue of tertiary education, he maintained that no level 100 student benefited from stress free fees in 2025, despite the policy being announced.
He added that in 2026, students have already reported to school without receiving the promised support.
He insisted that asking students to pay fees first and seek reimbursement later amounts to support after hardship, not stress free education.
According to him, this approach goes against what was promised during the policy announcement.
Dennis Miracles Aboagye questioned why a government that presents the economy as strong is unable to fulfil what he described as simple and clear promises.
He added that there is a fundamental problem with the way the economy is being managed and indicated that he is prepared to explain his position further.
By: Jacob Aggrey
