Day: May 6, 2023

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Inclusion Ghana advocates education system that embraces persons with intellectual disabilities

Inclusion Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation, is advocating equal opportunities for and inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities in Ghana’s educational system.

It has, therefore, called for the elimination of factors denying such people access to education.

It wants stakeholders to work together to protect the inalienable rights of children with such conditions to education to collectively build an inclusive society.

Mr Kofi Tibuahson, the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Coordinator of Inclusion Ghana, said progress had been made through advocacy, but more could be done to address the exclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities from the education system.

He was speaking at a stakeholder’s evaluation meeting to assess a three-year project implemented in the Bekwai Municipality as part of an exit exercise in all beneficiary districts.

The project, dubbed: ‘Promoting Inclusion in Ghana from District to National,’ was implemented in six main districts and six other adjoining districts to raise awareness about the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities.

With funding from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) through the Danish Disability Fund, Parents Self-Help Groups (PSHGs) were formed at zonal and district levels.

The PSHGs, Mr. Tibuahson said, were empowered to mobilise resources to support their livelihoods to be able to take care of children with intellectual disabilities who were their dependants.

Other stakeholders such as heads of schools, teachers, assembly members, as well as duty bearers in the Local Government and Education Directorate, were also engaged as part of the project implementation.

The goal was to push for the inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities in all forms of social services, especially education.

Most of such children in the project districts, Mr Tibuahson noted, were developing the confidence and interest to participate in school and community activities, adding that parents who used to hide their children were also departing from those acts.

Madam Aba Oppong, the Executive Director of Rights and Responsibilities Initiatives Ghana, local partners of Inclusion Ghana, said the Sustainable Development Goal- Four ensured inclusive and equitable quality education and promoted lifelong learning opportunities for all.

She called on key duty bearers in health, education, and social protection to ensure all the policy requirements regarding those social services for persons with autism, cerebral palsy, and down syndrome were well taken care of.

‘They should be allowed into schools if their assessments require that they go to school, otherwise their parents and guardians should be supported to take care of them,’ she added.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Ghana making strides in maternal and newborn health outcomes

Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Friday, said through the collaborative sacrifices of stakeholders in health, Ghana has witnessed significant improvements in maternal and newborn health outcomes.

According to him, as of the close of last year, neonatal mortality decreased from 7.1 per 10,000 live births to 6.5 per 10,000 births, whilst institutional maternal mortality ratio decreased marginally from 111 per 100,000 live births to 102 per 100,000 live births.

Similarly, the total of maternal deaths decreased by some 70, moving from 875 deaths in 2021 to 805 deaths at the close of 2022.

The Director-General of GHS disclosed this at the launch of the 32nd International Day of Midwives (IDM) put together by Ghana Registered Midwives Association (GRMA) in Cape Coast on Friday.

‘Together again, from evidence to reality,’ was the carefully chosen theme for the programme to draw attention to the need for Governments and non-state actors to invest in training more midwives for the improvement of maternal and newborn health outcomes.

‘Haemoglobin checks at registration and the incidence of anaemia in late pregnancy as at 36 weeks have been on a decreasing trend over the past couple of years.

‘Skilled delivery coverage and antenatal care (ANC) clients making 4th visits have been on an increasing trajectory over the past years,’ Dr Kuma-Aboagye stated.

The Day was also used to honour some 22 Midwives drawn from health facilities across the country for their dedication and commitment to duty after a thorough selection process.

The awardees were presented with table-top freezers, tablets, and a plaque.

IDM is recognized around the world as a celebration of midwives and their contribution to women’s and newborns’ health and wellbeing.

It is also to recognize and appreciate the work of midwives and raise awareness of the essential care that midwives provide in the areas of maternal and newborn care.

The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) formally launched the idea of the ‘International Day of the Midwife’ in 1992 after suggestions and discussions with Midwifery Associations around the world.

Celebrated globally on May 5, the annual programme supported by UNFPA and USAID was interspersed with cultural displays from the Cape Coast School for the Deaf and Blind drew scores of health-related personnel, traditional and religious leaders.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the absolute number of the country’s midwifery workforce has also been increasing, positioning Ghana to surpass the WHO standard of 6-7 midwives per 1000 institutional deliveries, by almost two folds, to 13 midwives per 1000 institutional deliveries.

The Midwife to Women in fertility age (WIFA) ratio had equally been improving, moving from one midwife to 720 women in fertility age in 2017 to one midwife to 387 women in fertility age in 2021.

While highlighting the contributions of midwives which led to the improved health outcomes, he indicated that they continue to work under harsh conditions, ‘often times at the peril of their progress and cost to their families.’

That he said include challenges relating to the pre-service training of midwives, in-service work environment and others associated with their continuous professional development.

‘If, as a country, we intend to attain the maternal and newborn health outcomes we desire, we would need to come together once more and move from the glaring evidence that midwives indeed save lives to addressing the challenges that confront midwives in reality.’

He proposed a restructuring of the Ghana’s health system to promote midwifery leadership at all levels, embrace midwifery innovation, encourage evidence-based practice, and institute the character of empathy in our midwives, allowing for the practice to be guided by the sensitivities of our clients.

‘We must also begin to match the evidence of smaller class sizes, availability of preceptors and requisite faculty with the realities of larger class sizes and inadequate

skill mix and number of faculty in the pre-service training and continuous professional development of our midwives.

‘I have, as a result, in my own small ways, increased the study leave quota significantly for serving midwives of GHS who intend to pursue further studies and consulted the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives on proposed residency programmes for midwives,’ he said.

Collectively, he urged GRMA and other Sister associations to set standards to maintain excellence, commitment to duty, and play the very critical role of identifying potential leaders to develop a critical mass of empowered midwives who will advocate for the profession, the mother, and the newborn.

Mrs Netta Forson Ackon, the President of GRMA called for better working conditions and remuneration for Midwives as they battle challenging times at work.

Mrs Tina Mensah, the Deputy Minister of Health who launched the 32nd International Day of Midwives, commended them for going all out to save lives and pledged the government’s support for them.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Local Government Service honours former Chief Director of VRCC

The Local Government Service has presented a plaque to Mr Prosper Afenyo, former Chief Director of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) for his inspirational leadership.

The plaque was presented to him by Mr Emmanuel N. Nartey, Director of Budget at the Local Government Service, on behalf of the Head of the Service, Dr Nana Ato Arthur.

The Service said Mr Afenyo was an inspirational leader, who made a difference and extraordinary contributions towards the 2021 Annual Performance Contract.

It said the commitment and dedication of Mr Afenyo through a coordinated approach towards development has resulted in the VRCC being at the top.

‘For distinguishing yourself as one of the best amongst your peers, we say ayekoo.’

Mr Afenyo was at the helm of affairs as Chief Director, when the VRCC was adjudged, the overall best performing Regional Coordinating Council in the 2021 Annual Performance Contract.

Mr Afenyo thanked the Service for the honour and the recognition and said he was happy for contributing his quota to the development of the country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Minister tours Girls-in-ICT Programme training centres at West Gonja

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, as part of activities for the Girls-in-ICT programme, has toured four training centres in the West Gonja Municipality of the Savannah Region.

The tour was to enable the Minister to witness and assess the ongoing training for girls on ICT skills.

The training centres toured were Cathedral Junior High School (JHS), St Anne’s JHS, and Yagbon JHS located in Damongo and Busunu JHS.

On April 25, this year, as part of the Girls-in-ICT programme, the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation started training 1,000 girls from all the districts in the Savannah Region on ICT skills to expose them to the basics of computing and coding.

To facilitate the exercise, a total of 100 teachers had been trained as trainers to train the beneficiary girls, who were divided into two batches.

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, briefing journalists in Damongo on Friday while touring the training centres, said ‘I am very impressed with the quality of instruction that

they have been given in the last four days. Some said they had never seen or touched a computer before. Now they are creating their own games. They can create their own word documents and do other things with the computer.’

She said ‘Tomorrow, this second batch will have an exam. The first batch has already done their exam. So, the best 100 girls will be the top performers, who will be awarded prizes of their own laptops.’

She spoke about the rationale for undertaking the programme in the region saying ‘We decided that we will go round all the newly created regions even though we have already been to the old Northern Region but we will go round all the newly created regions. So, we did the three Bono Regions last year. We have already done Oti, Western North, and North East. So, it is left with Savannah and the Northern Regions, and we are here in Savannah Region this week to do the Girls-in-ICT training.’

She said ‘The theme for this year’s celebration is: ‘Digital Skills for Life’, and it is being celebrated globally, and we do not just have a day’s celebration; we had two weeks of instruction for the girls; we trained teachers, we provide the top 20 schools with computer laboratories so that they can continue learning, we give the top 100 performers their own laptops so that they can continue learning and get better so that even after the programme ends, they can continue building on the introductory skills that we have given them and utilise it in their studies and beyond, which is what we mean by digital skills for life.’

Mrs Owusu-Ekuful told the beneficiary girls that the skills they were acquiring now would be relevant for them no matter where they found themselves in life adding ‘The reason we are focusing on girls is to narrow the gender digital divide; fewer girls utilise or have computer skills or use them than boys do. So, we want to demystify it; introduce them to it and let them know that they can also do it, and the response I have had today so far is fantastic, and I am confident that no matter where they find themselves in life, they can compete with their peers and come out very favourably.’

She said ‘I am looking forward to Monday when we will have the mentorship day; we will bring female ICT professionals from various fields of endevour to talk to the girls about their own experiences and encourage them and let them see that the skills they are acquiring today, they can utilise them in the world of work tomorrow so that they can also consider choosing ICT careers instead of or in addition to more traditional careers that they are exposed to.’

Source: Ghana News Agency

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Dodi-Papase, venue for Akan NDC Parliamentary, Presidential primaries

Leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Akan Constituency in the Oti Region, has selected Dodi-Papase Senior High Technical School (DOPASS) campus as the centre for the Parliamentary and Presidential primaries polls slated for May 13.

Mr. Emmanuel Klu, Director of Elections, who revealed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the polls would open at 0700 and close at 1700 hours.

He said 1,060 delegates from 39 wards including the Constituency Executives and former NDC appointees are expected to cast their ballots.

Mr. Klu advised the three aspirants to engage in a clean campaign devoid of personal attack, insult, acrimony, and animosity.

The Constituency had Mr Yao Gomado, the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Nana Nyarko Emmanuel Dabo, an Entrepreneur and Mr. Ahmed Muniru, a Businessperson contesting for the parliamentary primaries.

Information picked by GNA indicates that the contestants are engaging the delegates in various forms to woo votes in their favour.

Source: Ghana News Agency