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Inside May 20, 2019.qxp_Layout 1 5/18/19 1:17 PM Page 5 06 Views DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, MAY 20, 2019 Indecent dressing debases women BY ELIZABETH DANSO, STUDENT, GIJ IN CONTEMPORARY times, one might have noticed how most ladies, even married women, put on clothes that reveal parts of their bodies which hitherto were considered sacred and therefore forbidden to expose to the public. This deviant behaviour in our society these days is gradually eating into the moral fibre of our country, which should not be condoned. Years ago, women were the centre of morality and decency and it took eternity to come by a Ghanaian woman dressed in a seductive, sexual or tempting way. Today, it is very uncommon to see majority of women decently dressed. Some women even go to the extent of taking shots of their naked bodies and uploading them on social media, all in their quest to get more likes, comments and followers on social media. Some too walk about without brazziers just to free •Indecent dressing debases women their nipples to enable them to pierce through their dresses. This has made majority of bloggers to describe such ladies as 'ashawobrities'. Due to the influence these ladies have on social media, they are gradually getting some females to tread this same path, hence the emergence of 'slay queens'. Notwithstanding the fact that most women long to appear in fashionable clothes that might boost their confident level and also identify them as classy. Clothes like ‘skinny’, ‘show your stomach’, ‘bare back’, and ‘Apuskeleke’ as they are referred to in our local parlance enslave, demean, devalue and portray women as whores. Such are patronized all in the name of modernity or fashion but this should not be patronised. It hurts even more to see how some married women who are supposed to inculcate moral values in their children and other young girls dressed in clothes that display sensitive parts of their bodies as if they are a new product that is being unveiled. The most irritating aspect of it is how they gather the confidence to parade themselves as role models. Forgive me for being harsh but this act is irritating, dehumanizing and a disgrace to womanhood. Education is mostly recognized as a way of shaping human behaviour. On the contrary, most of our dear ladies in institutions of higher learning -- universities, polytechnics and even training colleges -- have the worse sense of dressing; their way of dressing is so despicable. They go for lectures in clothes that depict them like sex workers trying to entice their clients. The most ironic aspect of it is how these half-naked students complain of being sexually harassed or raped by male lecturers and male school mates. If I may ask, what do they expect?. Men are certainly not angels so it is high time women stopped leading innocent men to the abyss of hell. Sometimes one has to close his or her eyes or sit in shame when a lady comrade has her beads and G-strings revealing to almost everybody in a troski, upon alighting from or getting on board a vehicle. Such a pity! The painful part of it is how you receive insults from them when you try correcting them. It is so ridiculous how most of the half-naked women desperately cover their mobile phones instead of their bodies, which is capable of making someone sin. Dressing decently does not make a woman nerd or less human but it rather makes people to accord you great respect. God, in the fullness of His time and knowledge, hides all precious resources beneath the earth. A woman's body is more precious than any of those minerals and it needs to be hidden too. Cover your bodies as cultured and disciplined women and you will be respected. Remember that nudity cannot fetch any woman a good and responsible husband. The writer is a level 300 student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism BY GEORGINA WUNKUMI MABE, STUDENT, GIJ GROWING UP in the village while living with my mum, I realized that there were certain times in the month that my mum would just stay in the room throughout, sometimes for up to a week. All she did was to eat, take her bath, then sleep. I never understood why until I got a bit older. It was all because she was “menstruating”. She was considered unclean and so she was not allowed anywhere near my father until her period was over. She could not cook, wash or even touch anything that would be used by my father or any male in the house (that was 12 years ago). A lot of things have changed since then but this problem still exists in some villages in the Northern Region of Ghana. Menstruation is not a taboo Menstruation is a normal monthly flow of blood and any adolescent girl could experience this. Culturally and religiously, the people of the Northern Region believe that a menstruating woman is impure and therefore cannot mix with other people, especially males. Thanks to education, many people are now enlightened about this condition but there are people who still hold this notion, particularly Islamic and traditional communities. Girls of school age are the most affected by this mentality. They have to stay out of school throughout their period because they are stigmatized by boys. The case is even worse for girls who live in poor and deprived communities. They do not have any knowledge about menstrual hygiene and do not know how to manage themselves during their Some of these girls use rags to catch the flow of blood during their period. They wash these rags (sometimes without soap) and hang them in the room because they are too shy to dry them in the sun. For girls whose parents are able to buy them sanitary towels, they use just one for a full day because they have to manage it to last the whole period. period so that the boys do not find out. Some do not have access to hygiene products and in cases where they even do, they cannot afford them. Some of these girls use rags to catch the flow of blood during their period. They wash these rags (sometimes without soap) and hang them in the room because they are too shy to dry them in the sun. For girls whose parents are able to buy them sanitary towels, they use just one for a full day because they have to manage it to last the whole period. These practices pose serious health problems to the girls. Besides, some schools do not have facilities that will aid them to manage this condition properly while they are in school. In the case where they stain their clothes with the blood (which happens often), they have to go back home to change and some do not come back to school. According to a report launched by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a Christian NGO, in 2016, 95% of girls stay out of school during their period because they are shy, and 20% stay out because their schools do not have facilities to help them manage the condition. With the help of non-governmental and civil society organizations like UNICEF, CRS, NOORSAC and Garls World, menstrual hygiene is improving in the Northern Region but more education and facilities are needed to get everyone covered, and to make others, especially males, know that menstruation is not a taboo but rather one sure way to tell that a woman is fruitful.. The writer is a level 300 student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism
Inside May 20, 2019.qxp_Layout 1 5/18/19 1:17 PM Page 6 5 Things you can do to prevent stroke • Lower blood pressure High blood pressure is a huge factor, doubling or even quadrupling your stroke risk if it is not controlled. ‘High blood pressure is the biggest contributor to the risk of stroke in both men and women. • Lose weight Obesity, as well as the complications linked to it (including high blood pressure and diabetes), raises your odds of having a stroke. If you're overweight, losing as little as 10 pounds can have a real impact on your stroke risk. • Exercise more Exercise contributes to losing weight and lowering blood pressure, but it also stands on its own as an independent stroke reducer.Take a walk around your neighborhood every morning after breakfast. Drink in moderation Drinking can make you less likely to have a stroke up to a point. Studies have shown that if you have about one drink per day, your risk may be lower. WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, MAY 20, 2019 &Env. Physician assistants: the major pillars of primary healthcare in Ghana BY SAMUEL WIAFE PRIMARY HEALTH- CARE (PHC) refers to ‘essential health care’ that is based on scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology, which make universal health care accessible to all individuals and families in a community. It is through the full participation of all stakeholders and at a cost that the community and the country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of selfreliance and self-determination. This ideal model of healthcare was adopted during Alma Ata Declaration in 1978 at Kazakhstan, and became a core concept of the World Health Organization's goal of Health for all. The Alma Ata Conference mobilised a ‘Primary Healthcare movement’ of professionals and institutions, governments and civil society organizations, researchers and grass-roots organizations that undertook to tackle the ‘politically, socially and economically unacceptable’ health inequalities in all countries Ultimate goal of primary healthcare The ultimate goal of primary healthcare is the attainment of better health services for all. It is for this reason that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified five key elements for achieving this goal, namely universal coverage reforms; service delivery reforms; public policy reforms; leadership reforms; and increasing stakeholder participation. Behind these elements lies a series of basic principles identified in the Alma Ata Declaration that should be formulated in national policies in order to launch and sustain PHC as part of a comprehensive health system and in coordination with other sectors. The 4th, 5th and 6th portions of the eight Millennium Development Goals set in the year 2000 place emphasis on reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Therefore in order to achieve this, a comprehensive healthcare is required which relies on an adequate number and distribution of trained physicians, nurses, allied health professions, community health workers and others working as a health team and supported at the local and referral levels. (WHO) Additionally, it requires the commitment of the government of the day to infuse into the health system resources to improve the health of the citizens in the country. But how is this achievable if the government does not have a team of dedicated work force, who are ready to serve in their capacity everywhere they are posted within the country? With the growing demand for better health care across the country by citizens of this country, which has led to government upon government embarking on various forms of expansion at various health facilities, it seems not to be enough to accommodate all our patients in the country leading to congestion and spill over at the various health facilities, especially regional and tertiary health institutions. Ghana, as a country, has chalked up successes from adopting the PHC model. The burden of the community in having to travel distances to seek health care and the numerous number • Physician assistants are the pillars of healthcare in rural communities of mortalities that occur through these means have drastically reduced though not eliminated. This is in spite of the implementation of the CHPs concepts, establishment of health centres and district hospitals, increased training of health workers, particularly those who serve at the community and in rural areas and deployment of logistics to such hard-to-reach areas for the initiation of care and to fall on referral protocols, if necessary. Among the cadres that work in such deplorable areas are the Physician Assistants. Who is Physician Assistant? Who is a Physician Assistant (medical) in Ghana and around the globe? Formerly called Medical Assistant, A Physician Assistants (PA) is one trained by the health training institutions in the country to bridge the gap between doctor-patient ratio and to save the dying who could not reach the hospitals but yet need urgent care to survive. They are trained in community medicine and health, public health, surgery and obstetrics and gynaecology within a period of four years and practise independently after their internship at over thousand health centres across the country and do so within their scope of practice guarded by the laws of the country and ethics of the profession. They are regulated by the Medical and Dental Council of Ghana. This category of workers practise medicine and dentistry across the globe with names such as Physician Assistants (Ghana,USA, UK), Clinical Officers (Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Burkina Faso) etc. A Physician Assistant is the subdistrict head, though unofficially appointed, and is answerable to the district director of health services and manages the health centre, with his or her headship covering Administration, Human Resource clinical work, health promotion, Research & Surveys and supervision of activities of the CHPS compounds and Community-based Volunteers within his catchment area. From the 1950s up to the adoption of PHC concept in 1978 and beyond, the government saw a huge deficit in the health sector due to the lack of doctors in the country, which made it impossible to achieve universal health coverage and the then sustainable development goals, now revised to millennium development goals, hence the need to train this special work force of Physician Assistants to intervene in the collapsing situation and bring health closer to the people. Unfortunately, after the Physician Assistants have been and employed, everyone including the government, forgets about them and leave them to their fate in deplorable facilities with scarce resources, which most at times leaves them to improvise but they have survived and continue to sacrifice their quota for this country to where it has reached today. Not being privileged to have electricity and even reception for phone calls, the Physician Assistants manage to deliver. If someone will hear my voice today as I put it in writing, they should pat this category of health workers on the back, motivate and give them the requisite remunerations for their sacrifices, for where there is no doctor there is a Physician Assistant. Threat So if there is any threat against this professional group, who are doing this tremendous work in the country, then it should be the concern of all to defend them because without their efforts our fathers, mothers, siblings, uncles, nephews etc living in the rural areas would either die in an emergency because of lack of transportation coupled with our bad roads or even suffer complications because they could not reach on time the hospital far away from their commuinities. Should this category of workers not be empowered through career progression and given other opportunities to enable them to deliver better services to the patients they treat every day? Food for thought. Physician Assistants are also found in the consulting rooms of most of our hospitals treating patients every day. In Kenya and the other countries they are also trained to perform caesarean session and other surgeries as well. They have gained the name doctor in their villages where they practise as some would ridiculously say village doctor but they are proud of what they do and proud to be called their own name as Physician Assistants (medical). The country would not have gained this much without the PHC concept and would not have gained same either without Physician Assistants at the grass roots.
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