GREL provides health facility at Abura in Western Region
A Community Health Centre to serve the people of Abura and seven other towns in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region has been inaugurated.
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The 100,000 Euro facility, which was started in October 2015, has male, female and children's wards. Others are a maternity/labour ward, a dispensary, consulting rooms, a laboratory, as well as an outpatients department (OPD).
Social responsibility
The centre, which was provided by the Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL) as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), is to help solve the health problems of the people of its operational area.
The other beneficiary communities are Anyano, Gyabengkrom, Abease/Tumentu, Mpatase, Edumako, Adiewoso and Apemanim.
Already, GREL has provided the Abura community with a community centre and a 10-seater KVIP toilet facility.
The company has also offered scholarships to some brilliant, needy students in senior high schools in the area.
New factory
At the inauguration and handover ceremony at Abura last Saturday, the Managing Director of GREL, Mr Lionel Barre, announced that the company had decided to construct a new factory at Abura to create more job opportunities for the youth.
The company already has a factory at Apemanim, near Agona Nkwanta.
He further indicated that the people would enjoy more facilities under the company's CSR once the price of rubber on the world market appreciated.
Observations
Mr Barre, who was enstooled at the function as the Nkosuohene of Abura, with the stool name Nana Ogyenkwa I, observed that some of the rubber outgrower farmers were selling their produce to unscrupulous buyers who were not identified in the community with any rubber plantation, neither did they have any CSR policy for the people.
He said Ghana had about 25 per cent shares in GREL and, therefore, any benefits accruing to the company would be of benefit to the people.
Chiefs
The Chairman of the Association of Chiefs on whose Land GREL Operates (ACLANGO), Awulae Agyefi Kwame, who is also the Omanhene of the Nsein Traditional Area, said his outfit would expose any chief whose activities were found to be detrimental to the smooth operations of the company.
Accommodation
The Omanhene of the Lower Dixcove Traditional Area, Nana Kwesi Agyeman IX, appealed to the company to provide accommodation for staff of the clinic to enable them to respond quickly to emergency cases.
The Chief of Abura, Okofo Kweku Mensah, commended the management of GREL and promised that Nananom would ensure the regular maintenance of the facility.
The Ahanta West District Director of Health Services, Madam Caroline Otoo, on behalf of the regional health directorate, expressed appreciation to the management of GREL for its support which she said would help improve quality of health delivery in the area.