Daily Heritage November 16

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HEALTH WORKERS in Ghana have
lashed out at successive governments
over their failure to properly equip
facilities to reduce maternal and child
mortality.
Despite several interventions like
the free maternal health, about 25%
of women still do not have access to
health facilities. The institutional
maternal mortality hovers around 151
per 100 live births.
This trend has been attributed
generally to difficulties in accessing
health facilities and gaps in the
creation of awareness on antennal
services among others. But the Head
of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ali
Samba, said maternal health
campaigns would continue to fail if
facilities are not well equipped.
“You see, we all are talking very
nicely, they should come and deliver,
they should come and do this, but the
institutional delays and resources are
poor. And until we resource the
institutions, then telling them to come
and deliver and things we won’t
achieve anything,” Samba stressed.
He added: “There are little things
that we can do, but if you are
clinicians you see that people just talk,
it’s all talk and funfair.”
Expressing frustration at the
factors that contribute to maternal
mortality, Dr Samba revealed the
health professionals suffer sleepless
nights as a result of the deaths.
News
Equip facilities to
curb child mortality
– Health workers
BY ABENA OWUSU NYAMEKYE
• Patients in a health facility
“As a head of department, when
you listen to the audit of maternal
deaths, you go home and cannot
sleep. It’s not about campaigns; we
need the resources to work.”
Dr Samba was speaking at a panel
discussion at this year’s campaign of
accelerated reduction in maternal
mortality in Africa (CARMMA).
Deputy Health Minister Tina
Mensah tasked health professionals to
ensure appropriate supervision of
health workers whose actions may
contribute to maternal mortality.
Mrs Mensah revealed that though
the country had made significant
improvement in reducing maternal
mortality much was still needed to be
done to reduce the rate to the barest
minimum.
She reiterated the government’s
commitment to ensure the needed
resources are provided at the various
facilities to drastically reduce maternal
and infant mortality rate in the
country.
Established in 2009, CARMMA is
an initiative by the African Union
Commission and seeks to encourage
member states to promote the
implementation of the Maputo Plan
of Action – put in place viable policy
framework for the reduction in
maternal, newborn and child mortality
and morbidity.
The objective of CARMMA is to
expand the availability and use of
universally accessible quality health
services, including those related to
sexual and reproductive health that are
critical for the reduction in maternal
mortality.
A
WORKSHOP on investigative
journalism has opened in Takoradi
with a call on journalists to report
accurately on issues of migration.
The workshop, on the theme
‘Support to Free Movement of Persons
and Migration in West Africa,’ is being
attended by more than 20 journalists
drawn from both the private and
public media.
Organised by Media Response
Communication Without Borders with
support from European Union and
Economic Community of West
African States Community (ECOWAS)
Commission, the workshop seeks to
equip journalists with skills to advocate
the rights and responsibilities of
citizens on issues of migration.
It is also to increase their
knowledge on regional integration and
international migration as well as create
a network of journalists to work on the
promotion of safer inter-regional
migration.
The journalists would be taken
through topics such as Human
Trafficking and Child Rights,
ECOWAS Protocols and Dangers of
Irregular Migration.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the Western
Regional Minister, in a speech read on
his behalf, gave the assurance that the
Government would continue to
support the Ghanaian media to enable
them to conduct investigations on all
aspects of social life.
He said the region, with its
numerous natural resources, including
oil and gas, was prone to migration
issues and urged journalists to critically
report on migration and human
trafficking.
Mr Moses Dotsey Aklorbotor, the
Western Regional Chairman of the
Ghana Journalists Association,
commended Media Response for the
workshop, which he noted would
adequately resource journalists to
conduct investigative journalism.
He called on the management of
the various media houses to pay their
journalists well and shift from general
to specialised reporting.
Mr Aklorbotor noted that the
current situation where journalists were
made to cover all programmes, from
agriculture to sports, was not the best
since it did not allow journalists to
master subject areas effectively.
He stressed the need for media
houses to always endeavour to
maintain journalists who attended such
specialised training workshops to
enable them to develop the requisite
DAILY HERITAGE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2017
Report accurately on issues of migration
BY JUSTINA PAAGA
skills in writing good stories.
Mr Samuel Dodoo, the Executive
Director of Media Response, noted
that the media in Ghana had a critical
role to play in the promotion of safe
and secure inter-regional migration.
He said the inability of Ghanaian
journalists to adequately cover and
accurately report on migration had
resulted in the gradual erosion of
public confidence in their ability to
provide trusted information and
knowledge necessary for promoting
migrants’ rights and safer migration
practices.
"The lack of adequate knowledge
and understanding of national, and
international frameworks for migration
among frontline journalists and field
correspondents, coupled with negative
Drivers urged to be
vigilant during Xmas
BY BERNARD QUANSON
THE WORLD head of the Seventh
Day Congregation of Theocracy
Church, Apostle Kadmiel
Agbalenyo, has noted that as the
year draws to a close this December,
commercial drivers and drivers in general need to
be extra-careful on the road.
He also advised those involved in petrol
filling station and gas businesses to be careful
and avoid siting such facilities in populated areas.
In an interview with the DAILY
HERITAGE in Accra, Apostle Agbalenyo
noted that it is when the year is drawing to a
close that calamities such as fire outbreaks and
lorry accidents occur and blood is shed
indiscriminately.
He said such calamities could be averted if
men of God would stay holy, fast and pray
fervently against accidents.
Apostle Agbalenyo called on opinion leaders
• Apostle Kadmiel Agbalenyo, Head of the Seventh
Day Congregation of Theocracy
• The journalists would be taken through topics such as Human Trafficking and Child Rights, ECOWAS
Protocols and Dangers of Irregular Migration
Apostle Agbalenyo
called on the
country’s
politicians and
their numerous
followers not to
politicise disasters
but unite to fight
calamities that
afflict the country.
perceptions of migration among the
populace, are some of the weaknesses
that underline these challenges," Mr
Dodoo said.
There were solidarity messages from
the Ghana Police Service, Ghana
Immigration Service, Ghana News
Agency, Information Services
Department and the Ghana
Independent Broadcasters Association.
and stakeholders to support in various ways
possible to avoid end-of-year accidents,
adding that Charismas Day was a day
instituted for the sun god and not the actual
birthday of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the
world, so there must be more prayers before,
and after the Christmas festivities to avoid
fatal accidents.
Apostle Agbalenyo called on the
country’s politicians and their numerous
followers not to politicise disasters but unite
to fight calamities that afflict the country.
He said Christmas Day is not the day of
the birth of Jesus but rather a day to
celebrate the sun god so in the
contemporary world, on a day like that
Christians need to pray fervently for God to
protect mankind from Satan and damnation.
He said once “we are alive, humans have
the chance to repent to be followers of God
but after death there is no more opportunity
to repent, hence the need to repent early to
avoid the bad effect of procrastination.”
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
N/R: Gunshots
in Yunyoo over
new district
BY ELIASU TANKO
GUNSHOTS RANG
continuously at two villages in
the Yunyoo constituency of the
Northern Region, police sources
and residents have confirmed to
‘Starr News’ on Accra-based
Starr FM.
Unknown armed men last
Wednesday fired sporadically at
Nawango and Yunyoo while the
villagers were still asleep. No
casualties have so far been
recorded.
Sources say police are
patrolling the communities.
It is still unclear what
triggered the exchanges but a
former assembly member for
Namong, James Kwaku Yeboah,
said he believes the shooting is
linked to the ongoing confusion
over where to site the capital of
the yet-to-be-created district.
He said the police
commander called to inform
him about their intelligence and
he also later received a call from
the community reporting the
random firing.
Mr Yeboah appealed to
authorities to quickly intervene
to arrest the confusion from
further escalations.
He said politicians would
find it difficult to resolve the
matter at their level.
Three communities have
been lobbying for the capital of
the new district,Yunyoo District,
which the NPP government
promised to carve out from the
Bunkprugu/Yunyoo District.
Majority of the Konkombas
want the capital to be sited on a
Konkomba land while the
minority Mamprusis who are
the land owners demand it to be
brought to Yunyoo, the
constituency capital.
Tensions have been
simmering over the confusion
and intensified when President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-
Addo, during his recent visit to
the area, announced the
creation of two districts in the
region – Yunyoo and Nanton.
It is still unclear
what triggered the
exchanges but a
former assembly
member for
Namong, James
Kwaku Yeboah, said
he believes the
shooting is linked to
the ongoing
confusion...
• Sources say the Police are patrolling the community