Author Archive

LET’S GET MOVING!

Persons disabled or limited in pedal movement or mobility require aids such as wheelchairs or mobile carts to go about their daily activities.

The high cost of wheelchairs coupled with the difficulty in getting a dedicated person to
wheel one around places a huge burden on persons with such challenges. This causes such persons to become dependent on others and in the case of young people affect their education and future productivity.

Women’s Health to Wealth in its quest to support the education of girls to complete at least basic schooling considered the mobility hardships, faced by physically disabled adolescents, and physically disabled women in productive ventures.

To address the undesirable circumstances of such females, Women’s Health to Wealth donated sixteen (16) P.E.T Carts of which, ten are for children and six for adults, to the Department of Social Welfare in the Dormaa East district of the Bono Region on November 8th, 2022.

The WHW Logistics officer (left) showing the contents of a case of the P.E.T Cart to the Dormaa East District Chief Executive
Photo credit: WHW, Nov. 2022

The ten carts are to be distributed to physically disabled adolescent students primarily adolescent girls to enable them to go to, and from school in a hassle-free manner and physically disabled adult women who are engaged in profitable ventures. The P.E.T. carts provide extra exercise for the upper body as it uses the manual strength of the beneficiary to move the cart.

The Dormaa East District Chief Executive handing over a P.E.T Cart to a physically-disabled school girl from Wamanafo
Presby. Junior High School
Photo Credit: Social Welfare Department Dormaa East, Dec. 2022

Women’s Health to Wealth by this intervention hopes to make our physically disabled girls and women more independent in terms of their mobility and thereby enhance their education and economic activities.

Story by : Yaw Sekeyere Frimpong
Logistics Officer December 20, 2022.

IMPROVING HEALTH CARE DELIVERY THROUGH SUPPLY OF MEDICAL LOGISTICS

Women’s Health to Wealth’s (WHW) warehouse serves as the place for the storage of shipments of medical supplies from their partner in the United States of America, Americares for free onward distribution to over 100 sub-recipients of the Gift-In-Kind (GIK) program was in a deplorable state. The building had substantial external structural defects and lighting and ventilation issues which affected the means of storing medical supplies, especially those that required cold chain storage. This situation demanded urgent redress.

A picture of the inner part of the warehouse (before the renovation) during a meeting with public health nurses from the beneficiary districts in 2021 (Photo credit: WHW, 2021)

As part of the current Maternal Newborn and Child Health Intervention Program (MNCHIP) project Women’s Health to Wealth (WHW) upgraded the warehouse by awarding a renovation contract to a local real estate firm. The renovation works started on May 10, 2022, and were fully completed on July 25, 2022. During the renovation works, a ceiling joist and noggin to carry high-quality plastic T&G ceiling with corner moldings were fixed, two (2) Midea 2.5HP standing AC units with their accessories were installed, the access ramp into the warehouse was reconstructed, and lockable glazed windows to control
draft through existing jalousie windows were fixed, a connection of electricity from the power grid-ECG was done as well as the installation of a single phase meter at the warehouse and finally, the interior walls of the warehouse space and the entire exterior walls were repainted using American Acrylic paint (gloss). The renovated warehouse now has lighting, air-conditioning a reconstructed access ramp, and it looks beautifully repainted. Further to the renovation works, six 1000kg shelves were also installed at the warehouse, and also to improve security measures there, a glass security door and metal roller shutter
at the gate have been installed.

Inner view of the warehouse after renovation works and the installation of shelves (Photo credit: WHW, August 2022)

Now WHW has an improved warehouse and is putting in additional measures to strengthen its supply chain management in order to continuously provide health facilities with logistical support to improve healthcare delivery.

Story by : Yaw Sekeyere Frimpong
Logistics Officer December 20, 2022.

Client Satisfaction Soars from a Positive Intervention

Client Satisfaction Soars from a Positive Intervention

Cervical cancer is a malignant tumor of the cervix affecting the lower part of the uterus and it is one of the leading causes of death in women.  It occurs mostly in women over 30 years. It is a condition that can have no symptoms though some  may experience pain in the pelvis, pain during sex, bleeding after sexual intercourse and abnormal bleeding from the vagina.

Management of this condition includes chemotherapy, cryotherapy, surgery such as hysterectomy, cervicectomy and others depending on the stage of the disease.

Over the past three years, 3456 women in the reproductive age in 70 communities spread over seven districts of the Ashanti region  were screened by Women’s Health to Health through the mobile clinic program  to detect early abnormalities that can lead to cancer of the cervix. The women are screened for this condition by visual inspection of the cervix by applying 5% Acetic Acid (VIA) on the cervix and inspecting for signs of  pre-cancerous cells. Women found to be VIA positive were referred to Kumasi South Hospital and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for management.

To alleviate the struggle and stress that these women to go through when referred to these facilities for cryotherapy, Women’s Health to Wealth has purchased a Cryotherapy machine to manage women who are VIA positive  and require cryotherapy  in an efficient stress free manner at an affordable cost.  . This service is not limited to referrals from WHW mobile clinics   but also to many women who require cryotherapy referred from other from other public facilities.

Indeed, this is has come as a great help to women who previously had to wait out an average of 4 to 6 months to be scheduled for cryotherapy at the  Kumasi South Regional Hospital that was the main and cheapest source for this treatment. Clients can now have the treatment provided at suitable cost within  10 days after the diagnosis. The  staff of Women’s Health to Wealth and especially clients are  thankful to the management for this initiative as it has yielded very positive results in terms of client and job satisfaction.

 

Story By

Beatrice Nyamekye (Health Coordinator).

SUCCESS STORY: A STITCH IN TIME

Daniel Osei Bonsu is a 14-year-old boy resident of the Wawase in the Afigya Kwabre district of the Ashanti region in Ghana. Daniel, a junior high school student of the local Roman Catholic School registered with the  Women’s Health to Wealth (WHW) Boys’ Club program in May 2018. The program  trains adolescent boys to attain life skills required for self development and to contribute positively towards the development of  their communities.

About a year ago, Daniel got  so ill hat he sometimes missed a whole term of  school could not participate  in the National Juvenile Football Association of which he was a  member.  After seeking medical help from a local community clinic without any improvement, Daniel’s parents concluded that, the  source of his illness was spiritual and started seeking help from local spiritualists.

Daniel’s absence in school and during club sessions was reported to WHW by the club facilitator. A team from WHW visited Daniel at  home after he two weeks of absence from club sessions in June 2018 and found him  in a critically ill and helpless situation. Despite the fact that his  mother was convinced it was a spiritual issue, she was encouraged to send Daniel to the WHW hospital in Kumasi.  Daniel was found to be severely anaemic and required  urgent blood transfusion. He was referred to and admitted at the emergency unit the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) where he was transfused with three pints of blood and later  hooked onto a ventilator. Sadly, Daniel was unable to make it and passed on seventeen days after  intensive  care at  KATH.

Daniel was diagnosed as having a congenital malignant blood disease that usually affect other siblings. This disorder occurs in people with a compromised immune system and in persons that have a family history of having this malignant disease. It was evident Daniel received late treatment for this disease because parents and his community attributed his sickness to work of demons in the spirit world.

With this knowledge of the cause of Daniel’s ailment and the fact that this disease is genetically transferrable, his parents were urged after being educated on the nature of the illness to send his four other siblings for testing.    As the saying goes, “A stitch in time saves nine”– even though we lost Daniel, we have had the opportunity to save his four other siblings through early detection and appropriate treatment for two others  who also have the same problem.

Fig. 1. Group discussion among boys during a Boys’ Club session.

 

Report by:

Deborah Mensah Duah.

SUCCESS STORY: INITIATIVE

Between December 2015 and May 2016, WHW Girls Clubs members were given fruit trees to nurture as a way of learning how to be responsible and responsive to issues that affect their lives. Girls Club members were taught to consider and represent the fruit trees as their dreams and therefore were tasked to always reflect and adhere to principles of plant growth as fundamental precepts for realizing their dreams. Moreover, Girls Club members were given these fruit trees to grow as supplements for food and vitamin minerals.

Girls Club members in Aduamoa D/A JHS received eight fruit trees made up of four seedlings   each mango and orange that were successfully planted in May 2017. The members were alarmed when five of the eight trees were vandalized by unknown assailants in July 2017 and therefore provided special fencing to guard the remaining three plants.

In April 2018, when Girls Club members (2018 Graduands) realized that the Ministry of Road and Urban Development (Ghana) was going to construct a road from Aduamoa to Aduman that would affect the parcel of land housing the fruit trees, they quickly sought assistance from the school authorities to transplant the fruit trees which had grown and firmly rooted in the soil

The students provided animal manure and building blocks as fence for transplanting. In May 2018, the students with their teacher-facilitator successfully transplanted the remaining three fruit trees which are about 25 months old. Unfortunately one fruit tree died as a result with the remaining two alive and growing steadily.

Girls Club members have learned from this experience that they need to be current, observant, proactive and cooperative in life especially on their education and health. They have also gained the experience of going extra mile to do the impossible by changing their environment and also by turning threats to opportunities in order to achieve their dreams. With the teacher-facilitators coordinating this activity, exited Girls Club members have left legacy of Girls Club members protecting one another from harm.  

Written by Abraham Kwasi Nkrumah (Program Officer, WHW)

Women’s Health to Wealth Equips Physically Challenged Individuals

On April 19, 2018, Women’s Health to Wealth whose motto is “Boa me ma Me boa wo” donated eleven PET carts to young men and women whose inability to walk has limited their mobility and consequently their efficiency. The recipients made up of made up of five women and seven men included 4 students two of whom are in university, 3 tailors and 1 shoe maker among others .

WHW objective in providing the carts is to enhance the mobility of the recipients so that they can go about their daily work without having to crawl on the ground or depend on others to move them around.

WHW is extremely grateful to the Americares organization in Connecticut USA that supplied the carts to WHW.  WHW has and continues to make donations of these carts to the Nsawam Orthopaedic Centre that provides rehabilitation services for people who are unable to walk for various reasons so that they can move about.

(See pictures of recipients after donation and picture of cart)

Picture of some recipients and well-wishers at the ceremony. The ones in wheelchairs all received carts that are in cartons and are yet to be assembled.

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