● 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.

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