EU supports two NGOs to tackle maternal mortality
The European Union (EU) has supported Christian Aid and Send-Ghana, both non-governmental organisations, with a grant of £656,180 to implement a project in maternal healthcare in some 30 districts in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.
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The three-year project is aimed at contributing to the effective delivery of maternal health services in Ghana, with the specific objective of ensuring that citizens in the selected districts effectively held the government accountable in order to improve accountability, responsiveness and service delivery in maternal health by 2016.
Improving maternal health
The project, dubbed “Improving maternal health service delivery through participatory governance,” also aims at helping the country meet some of the Millennium Development Goals, especially on health.
Speaking at the launch and inception meeting with beneficiary districts in Tamale on Wednesday, the Country Manager of Christian Aid, Madam Joyce Ashun, said it was important for the two NGOs to come together to seek funding to help address maternal mortality.
She added that maternal mortality was a canker in the country and appealed to all stakeholders in the health sector to collaborate effectively to ensure that the country met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG5) by 2015.
Appeal to beneficiary districts
She specifically appealed to the beneficiary districts of the project and the three regional coordinating Councils to support the initiative by playing their respective roles to ensure that maternal mortality issues were addressed.
The Country Director of Send-Ghana, Mr George Osei-Bimpeh, said the level of poverty in the three regions in the north mostly affected young women who also encountered social exclusion.
He said the project was also aimed at assisting less privileged persons, especially the rural poor and young women, to increase their understanding of maternal health.
He said other areas of the project were family planning, skilled delivery and emergency obstetric and new born care which were in line with the National MDG5 Acceleration Framework and the country’s action Plan for maternal health.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Bede Ziedeng, commended SEND-Ghana and Christian Aid for their efforts to help the government achieve MDG5 by 2015, and gave an assurance that his outfit would support the project to succeed.
The Northern Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Akwasi Twumasi, said the fight against maternal mortality could only be won if men were brought on board and serious sensitisation programmes were organised for men in the rural communities to allow their wives to attend antenatal care.
He said the rate at which women were dying during child birth in the Northern Region was very serious.
“Last year alone, some 104 women died through child birth and if you multiply the number by the 10 regions, you will get a very big figure,” he stated.
GNA