Tamale,- The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) has begun a new phase of its Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) project to improve the health status of mothers, newborns, children, and adolescents in the Northern, Savannah and Upper East Regions.
The new phase of the project dubbed: “Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health” (RMNCAH), which runs from now until 2024, also seeks to improve behaviour change in RMNCAH in the communities as well as increase access to quality health services for people of the communities.
It is being implemented by the GRCS in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and funded by the Swiss Red Cross.
The new phase of the project comes on the heels of the MNCH project implemented from 2018 to 2021 in the Northern and Upper East Regions by the same partners where they formed 40 Mothers Clubs in the Northern Region and 60 mothers clubs in the Upper East Region.
The Mothers Clubs composed songs using key messages on maternal and child health issues, which they used to educate communities on best practices regarding antenatal and post-natal care and accompanying pregnant women to health facilities for skilled deliveries amongst others.
Under this new phase of the project, which is an expansion compared to the previous one, the partners will build on the gains made and amongst others focus on addressing issues of fistula in the communities.
Mr Samuel Kofi Addo, Secretary-General of GRCS, who spoke at an inception meeting for the new phase of the RMNCAH project, said additional Mothers Clubs would be formed to help improve health care delivery for the targeted population in the communities.
The two-day inception meeting, which ended in Tamale, was attended by representatives from the GRCS, and GHS from the three regions and the Swiss Red Cross to focus together and plan for the successful implementation of the new phase of the project.
Mr Addo expressed gratitude to the partners for their passion and commitment, which he indicated would translate into their actions on the field for a remarkable improvement on RMNCAH situation in the beneficiary regions.
Mr Rexford King James Adjei, Upper East Regional Health Promotion Officer, said “This new phase is coming to cement the gains sustained during the previous phase. We hope it will work well as we intend to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health in the country.”
He spoke about the maternal and child health situation in the Upper East Region and said “The situation in the region is one of the best in the country but as it stands now, because of COVID-19 and its related issues, things are also changing and when you look at our maternal health situation, it is also going up. So, we laud the new phase of the project to help reduce the situation.”
Mr Thomas Okollah, Country Coordinator, Swiss Red Cross said the new phase of the project was for the good of the communities that the partners served.
He told the partners that “Now, the work begins. Let us move efficiently and effectively, give us the reports timeously so that we can generate more resources for the communities.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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