Mrs Lordina Dramani Mahama, the First Lady, Founder and President of the Lordina Foundation has commissioned and handed over the fully renovated and well-equipped Anyima Health Centre at Anyima in the Kintampo South District of the Bono East Region.
The renovation, which was done by the Lordina Foundation, brings six to the number of health facilities built or renovated by the Foundation.
These include four new maternity and children’s wards built at Bole in Savannah Region, Nkoranza South and Bodom in Nkoranza North, both in the Bono East Region and more recently at Asukawkaw in the Oti Region.
The Foundation also renovated and expanded the Adabraka Health Centre in Hohoe Zongo in the Volta Region and provided essential medical equipment.
Speaking at the commissioning of the newly renovated Anyima Health Centre at Anyima in the Kintampo South District of the Bono East Region, Mrs Mahama expressed gratitude to Naa Saa Gyamfuaa II, the Queenmother of Anyima for her passion and advocacy which led the Lodina Foundation to work on the Centre.
“Today’s commissioning of the Anyima Health Centre holds a special place in my heart because it is in my home area.
As many of you may be aware, Jema-Ampoma, which is nearby, is where my late mother Abena Gyamfua comes from,” Mrs Mahama said.
“But beyond my personal ties to this project, we at the Lordina Foundation believe that every Ghanaian community deserves access to quality health care, especially for maternal and infant health.
She said Ghana’s maternal mortality rate was nearly 300 deaths per 100,000 live births while infant mortality was reported to be about 32 deaths per 1,000 live births and behind these numbers were mothers, daughters, sisters and precious children whose lives could be saved with timely access to quality health care facilities and skilled birth attendants.
She noted that many of these were preventable, and that they occur because expectant mothers had to travel long distances to access basic maternal care because facilities lack essential equipment or because health centres like this one have been in a very poor condition for many years.
“This is why the Lodina Foundation continues to be dedicated to lowering maternal and infant mortality throughout the country.”
The First Lady said following the completion of the rehabilitation, the facility would have a functional Primary Health Care to serve over 3,000 people in the community as well as the neighboring towns of Amoma, Apesika and Jema.
The renovated Anyima Health Centre has an Out Patient Department (ODP), a consulting room, an examination room, a delivery room, a labour ward, a children’s ward and male and female wards.
Other important additions include an adolescent centre, laboratory, dispensary, offices for nurses, midwives, and an emergency room.
She said the Anyima Health Centre had new beds and mattresses for the wards, examination beds, an electric obstetric bed, an infant incubator, an infant phototherapy unit, an ultrasound system, a digital electrocardiogram (that is the ECG), oxygen equipment, delivery set, patient monitoring devices and essential neonatal care equipment.
She expressed the joy that sick relatives and pregnant women in Anyima and neighbouring communities would no longer endanger their lives by travelling long distances for quality health care, adding that, newborns would get immediate professional care.
The First Lady hinted that President John Dramani Mahama would soon launch the Primary Health Care Programme to provide free care at facilities like the Anyima Health Centre and the programme would include increased health care utilisation, early disease detection, reduced health expenditure for families, and a healthier, more productive nation.
She urged the facility’s health workers to treat every patient with dignity and compassion, saying, “Let us work together to make this facility a zero maternal mortality and a zero infant mortality facility.”
Mrs Mahama urged the Anyima community to take full ownership of the Centre, keep it in good condition, and make full use of its services.
She appealed to the chiefs to keep their eyes on the Facility, so that it could continue to meet their people’s health needs for years to come and expressed gratitude to the donor partners of the Lordina Foundation for their support.
Obrempong Ameyaw Amponsem II, Chief of Anyima Traditional Area, thanked the First Lady and her Foundation for the gesture.
He noted that since President Mahama assumed office, the Kintampo South District, had not lacked in development.
Nana Saa Gyamfuaa II, Anyimahemaa, as part of her gratitude to Mrs Mahama, presented her with a citation for her exceptional commitment in championing the empowerment of women, the health of mothers and children, and the rights of the vulnerable.
