NGO to help reduce childhood mortality
Neonatal Network Support System (NNSS), a health non-governmental organisation (NGO), has decided to use technology to reduce early childhood mortality in northern Ghana.
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This has become necessary in view of the high neonatal mortality in the northern part of the country
Speaking to newsmen in Tamale after the presentation of 50 phones to the NGO by tiGO, a telecommunication company, the Executive Director of NNSS, Dr Peter Gyamfi Kwarteng, said among all deaths relating to children less than five years, 40 per cent of them died within the first month after delivery.
He said the situation was worse in deprived areas such as the Northern Region as it lacked both human and material resources to ensure quality health care delivery.
“Most health professionals are found in the southern part of this country and among all the health facilities in northern Ghana, it is only the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) that is equipped enough to deal with neonatal cases,” he stated.
“This problem of lack of health professionals and resources in this part of our country will not change overnight and it is important that the few professionals and resources that are available are networked to ameliorate the situation, hence the emergence of NNSS,” he added.
Dr Gyamfi said with the NNSS, all health facilities in selected areas would be provided with phones and linked to a common network called close user group where calls to any of the facilities would be free.
He said 20 districts in the Northern Region would initially be covered under the programme “but all areas within northern Ghana would soon be covered and we even plan to extend it to the south to cover all deprived areas.”
The Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of tiGO, Madam Deborah Tayo Akakpo, who made the presentation, said tiGO’s social responsibility focused on nurturing youth potentials by supporting them to realise their dreams in life.
“A child has to be alive to grow to become a youth before his or her dream can be nurtured, therefore, we believe that the nurturing should start with the newborn baby,” she added.
She said tiGO would support NNSS with $25,000.00 a year for the next three years to enable them to fully enrol their programme to save many more neonatal lives.
By Marcelinus Dery/Daily Graphic/Ghana
