Queen mother (right) comissions healthcare facility in UWR

With support from US­AID Office of Transi­tions Initiative (US­AID/OTI), the Queen mother of Duong in the Nadowli-Kaleo District of the Upper West Re­gion, Pognaa Rosemary Bang­zie on Thursday commissioned and handed over a facility to the Duong community to sup­port healthcare delivery.

The facility comprised two-bedroom nurses’ apart­ment, adolescent health centre with consulting room, a store room and washrooms which were constructed with 80 percent of support from USAID/OTI and 20 percent sup­port from the community and other benevolent individuals

She indicated that due to the problem, the delivery room at the only Communi­ty-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound in the community was convert­ed into accommodation for a live-in midwife to enable her attend to emergency cases, especially at night.

She said the issue of staff accommodation came up at community meetings in Jan­uary and she decided to take up the initiative of mobilising the community members and lobbying other benevolent individuals for support.

“I came out with the an­them “one bag of cement from every Duongbie” (natives of Duong) residing or outside the community strategy to start this project and was surprised to get more than 130 bags of cement in less than one week of appeal”, she stated.

She noted however that when the building was raised to lentil, there was no hope of getting support to complete the project until she met the USAID/OTI team and present­ed her proposal to them for assistance.

“Duong Community will forever remember the USAID/ OTI team for the great sup­port; the total contribution of USAID/OTI to this project amounted to GH¢360,000.00 which is about 80 percent of the total cost of the entire project”, she highlighted.

As the Regional Focal Per­son for Adolescent Health, the Queen mother said her passion for adolescent health and girl-child empowerment led her to include an Adolescent Health Centre to provide privacy to teenagers seeking reproduc­tive health services and guid­ance.

“As the saying goes “char­ity begins at home”, I want to start in my traditional area to help reduce teenage pregnan­cies by providing a platform for young people to seek education, counselling and the needed information for a healthy life”, she said.

Pognaa Bangzie appealed for additional support to furnish the facility, provide a kitchen and to also renovate the CHPS compound.

She reiterated her resolve to continue working with the community to lobby for support to help de­velop the community and also charged the nurses and community to take good care of the facility.

The handing over ceremony was attended by the Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, repre­sentatives from USAID/ OTI and some traditional authorities.

 From Lydia Darlington Ford­jour, Duong