Chulchulga chief lauds Australian High Commission for WASH facilities
The Chief of Chulchulga, RISE-Ghana, and NGO and the Builsa North District Health Directorate of the Ghana Health service have commended the Australian High Commission in Ghana for its contributions toward improving maternal and neonatal health care in both Builsa North and Kasena Nankana West Districts in the Upper East Region.
The chief, Naab Francis Asangalisa II, who paid a courtesy call on the High Commissioner in his office last Tuesday in Accra, said through the interventions that the High Commission has made in the districts, there has been an increase in demand for maternal and newborn health care services in the health facilities in the area.
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He said the High Commission provided Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities in the community’s health centre, the Chulchulga Health Centre, which for many years had no water, hence compelling pregnant women who delivered at the facility to bring their own water.
Naab Asangalisa added that following the installation of a mechanised borehole by the High Commission at the health centre, it has made it easy for patients to easily access WASH facilities at the health centre, thus attracting many expectant mothers in and around the community to seek health care services at the place.
“On behalf of the Chiefs and People of the Chuchulga Community and its environs, I wish to express our profound gratitude to your high office for supporting the aforementioned project which was implemented by RISE-Ghana, the local partner leading to significant improvement in maternal and child health in my community,” he said.
He also pleaded with the High Commission to help the community to build a maternity unit at the health centre since the one there is currently unable to contain the high number of people who visit the facility.
The Builsa North District Health Director, Mr Samuel Anyogdem, expressed his happiness about how the WASH facility has contributed to improved maternal and neonatal healthcare in the area.
“The project has really helped us,” he said, adding that “women were not even getting water to bath after delivery.”
According to him, “Infections have reduced drastically” in the community and pointed out that prior to the construction of the WASH facility, many of the babies delivered at the facility suffered infections which even led to some of them dying.
The High Commissioner, Andrew Barnes, said he was happy that the commission’s intervention has led to improved healthcare in the area.
He said WASH in healthcare facilities are fundamental for the provision of quality and people-centred care, adding that the commission would continue to assist the area in the provision of health-based interventions.
The Executive Director of RISE-Ghana, Mr Awal Ahmed
