Day: February 27, 2023

Madam Monica Sadungu, a Public Health Nurse at Zebilla in the Bawku West District, says Ghana is not yet free from the Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and needs intensive education in the media to remind people to take precautionary measures.

She said the country was not out of the woods and emphasised the need for the citizenry to be mindful of the existence of the virus, even though television and radio education on the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) had declined as compared to previous years.

“HIV and AIDS are real and still with us. Because there is no public education on television and radio, unlike those days, it does not mean we are free. Let’s not think that it is all over,” she said.

Madam Sadungu said this in a side-line interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at a mentorship programme on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at Kobore, a community in the Bawku West District.

The five-day programme was organised at the instance of the Haven of Love Children’s Foundation, a Non-Governmental Christian Organization operating in the area.

The programme, which was organised on separate days in different communities across the district, mentored about 5000 pupils from basic schools on STEM and trained their parents and guardians on various income-generating skills.

Madam Sadungu, who is also a Principal Midwifery Officer, admonished the youth, especially students and pupils in basic and Senior High Schools, to abstain from sex, and concentrate on their studies to become responsible leaders in the future.

“I have observed that when pupils complete Junior High School in this District, they feel they have attained higher heights in education, and begin to indulge in sexual acts. Some of them often attend music jams at late hours.

“It is through such programmes that they indulge in unprotected sexual acts with very high risks of contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), unwanted teenage pregnancies and child marriages,” she said.

The Public Health Nurse admonished parents and guardians to take a keen interest in the care of their children, especially their adolescent girls and boys, “They should not leave the care of their children with teachers alone, but also complement the efforts of teachers to groom their children.”

Mr Samuel Nana Bekai Djirackor, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Foundation, told the GNA that apart from the mentorship on STEM, the pupils were educated on career guidance, sex education and effects of early marriage, among others.

He said the Foundation did not advocate faithful use of condoms, “We only preach abstinence because that is our core value as a Foundation. As a Christian-centred organisation, we preach love, Christ, and abstinence.

“The world would be a much better place if everyone abstains. If you abstain, you will not have STDs, so abstinence is the key, and through God who gives self-control, we can abstain,” the Founder said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

 An Austrian police officer who shot and killed a colleague during a Monday morning staff meeting at the police station in Trieben, south-east of Salzburg, was arrested, state authorities in the region reported.

The 46-year-old officer offered no resistance when taken into custody. The investigation into the shooting is being conducted by police in Salzburg.

A police spokesman told dpa that it was too early to say whether the shot that killed the 58-year-old victim was fired deliberately or by mistake.

Emergency workers arrived on the scene soon after the shooting, but were unable to help the victim. His family and colleagues are being offered assistance.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Parliament on Monday denounced media reports that it has passed a Constitutional Instrument (CI) making the Ghana Card the sole registration document for elections.

A statement signed by Madam Kate Addo, the Director of Public Affairs, Parliament, and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the House only held pre-presentation discussions on the CI, to collect input from relevant sources for its drafting.

“The attention of Parliament Ghana has been drawn to a report in the Ghanaian Times, alleging that Parliament has passed a Constitutional Instrument (CI) to adopt the Ghana Card as the sole registration document,” it said.

“Parliament states categorically that it has not passed any such instrument. In any case, Parliament does not pass Constitutional Instruments.”

“They only come into force with the effluxion of time; that is, after twenty-one (21) days of the Instrument being laid in the House.”

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Future Scholars of the World Incorporation, (FSWI), a US-based non-governmental organization, has inaugurated and handed over a computer laboratory and library to the Oshiyie Basic School in the Ga South Municipality.

The facility worth US$12,000 is aimed at improving teaching and learning within the community.

The Executive Director, FSWI, Madam Adjoa Gzifa, said the facility was in fulfillment of a request by the school to provide them with a computer laboratory and library to enhance the skills of the students in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and reading.

She said the NGO adopted the school in 2005 during a tour to the community and decided to support and provide them with quality education.

“We first started by paying tuition for all the children attending the Oshiyie school. When the government made the schools tuition free, we began to focus on development. A well-built toilet facility was placed on the grounds together with some classroom blocks for the students,” she added.

Madam Gzifa said the students were also provided with uniforms, instructional materials, sewing machines, building tools and microscopes as well as personal hygiene items through their Girls Period Programme to help them meet their goals.

She said the organisation believed that the facility would go a long way to improve teaching and learning of the students in the school.

The Municipal Officer in charge of School Improvement, Mr Nukpe Delali Kwasi, commended the organisation for the initiative and asked that it would be extended to other schools in the community since they also needed help.

He entreated the school’s management to put the facility to good use for the purpose for which it was built.

The Head of Corporate Affairs at the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr Jones Aruna Nelson, appreciated the organization for the gesture, saying it was in line with the Authority’s “Give Back to Ghana” project.

Ms Mary Cleland, Headmistress of the School, thanked the organisation for their continuous support towards the development of the school and promised to ensure that, the facility was put to good use to achieve its purpose.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate in 2022 recorded a total of 23 maternal mortalities, a marginal reduction from the 2021 figure of 25, Ms Priscilla Aboagye-Mensah, an officer at the Reproductive and Child Health Unit, has disclosed.

Ms Aboagye-Mensah, in a presentation at the annual performance review of the Directorate in Tema, indicated that the metro in 2018 recorded 31 deaths, which dropped to 18 in 2019 but rose to 25 in 2020.

She said the maternal mortality ratio for the period was 286 per every 100,000 live births compared to 294 for 2021.

She stated, however, that the figure was very high to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 70 standard.

She said 19 of the cases recorded in 2022 were documented at the Tema Regional Hospital (General) while one each was recorded at Raphal Medical Centre, Bethel Hospital, J. H. Restore Medical Center, and Narh Bita Hospital.

Giving a breakdown of some of the contributory factors, she mentioned personal and family-related factors, poor transportation system, lack of communication system, logistics, and health personnel-related problems that contributed to the deaths.

She also identified non-attendants of antenatal, delay in referrals, medication, lack of ambulance from referral facilities, blood, hypertension, ventilators, diabetes, poor examination, and lack of intensive care units as other contributory factors.

Ms Aboagye-Mensah said recommendations being considered to improve maternal mortality in the metro included capacity building, close monitoring after surgery, intensification of client education, equipping of the ICU, blood donation exercises, appropriate clinical management, and prompt and efficient referral among others.

Touching on stillbirths, she announced that a total of 8,254 births were documented in the metro in 2022 while a total of 213 stillbirths made up of 76 fresh stillbirths and 137 macerated stillbirths were seen during the period.

She explained that the number of stillbirths represented 25.8 rates per 1,000 live births.

She said even though 213 stillbirths were recorded it showed a decrease over the 220 recorded in 2021, the rate was still high and needed to be reduced.

Source: Ghana News Agency

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says the State will give late Christian Atsu Twasam, the Ghana international forward, who perished in the earthquake in Turkiye, a State-assisted funeral.

The President made this known when the leadership of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ghana Football Association and family of the late Atsu paid a courtesy call on him at the Jubilee House, Accra, to officially inform him of the death of the football legend.

Atsu, 31, until his death played for Turkish club, Hatayspor, in the Hatay province, which was hit hard by the quake.

Search teams recovered his lifeless body in the ruins of a luxury 12-storey building many days after the tragic incident.

Ghana’s President, earlier on his official Twitter account wrote: “Ghana football has lost one of its finest personnel and ambassadors, one who will be difficult to replace. He will be sorely missed.”

According to the President, he had asked the Chief of Staff to ensure a State-assisted funeral for the late footballer on the date the family and the GFA would agree on.

“Everything will be done on the part of the government to make sure that he is given a dignified exit,” the President stressed.

He said he admired the deceased for his immense talent on the field and said he had paid his due to the football world.

The demise of the legend, he said, came as a shock to the nation, and consoled the family and the football fraternity on the loss.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Principal of the Nursing and Midwifery Training College at Zuarungu, in the Bolgatanga East District in the Upper East Region, Mr Michael Yidana Mantamia, has expressed gratitude to the Government for major infrastructure projects in the College.

He said the College started in 2006 with 50 students, three tutors and a classroom, “Today, we have three big blocks with six classrooms, ten offices and two skills laboratories fitted with state-of-the-art equipment for learning.

“We started without a hostel, today we have two hostels that accommodate up to 254 students,” Mr Mantamia said at the matriculation ceremony of first-year students of the College.

He said that even though most of the achievements were through prudent use of Internally Generated Funds (IGF), “We thank Government of Ghana for its support so far over the years.”

He said government, through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, built and completed a hostel facility, which accommodated 254 first-year students, while the rest of the students’ rented rooms around the College.

“The second hostel we have is from GETFund, and that has been completed. So on behalf of the Advisory Board, we are grateful to the Government of Ghana, the Regional Coordinating Council, and the MP for Bolgatanga East Constituency.”

“We are really very happy for the hostel,” he said, adding that apart from the completed hostel facility, there were two major projects, a multi-purpose hall and one-storey lecturer hall block for the College even though work on that had stalled.

Mr Mantamia appealed to government to complete the two stalled projects of the College to facilitate academic activities.

He further called for Public Private Partnership (PPP) to construct hostel facilities for the student population of 722, saying “Government cannot do everything, we all have to put our hands on deck to support. So PPP is approved by the Board of this College, and we encourage partners to come in.”

He said management of the College had taken up the initiative to construct a two-storey building to accommodate skills laboratory for midwifery, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) laboratory and library.

He acknowledged the efforts of the Advisory Board towards the construction of the project and said, “We have fought a good fight, we have gotten to our limit and would want to appeal to benevolent organizations and individuals to come and help us construct the two-storey block.

“We need cement, iron rods, roofing sheets, nails, and cash donations. I want to assure potential donors that all contributions would be used for the intended purpose, and properly accounted for,” Mr Mantamia said.

Tarana John Bosco Atanga, the Linguist of the Zuarungu Chief, assured Management of the College that the Palace was ready to release land for more infrastructure development, and was hopeful that the cordial relationship between the College and the Palace would continue to grow.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghanaian musician Theophilus Nii Arday Otoo, known in showbiz as Epixode, says he is not expecting to be named Highlife Artiste of the Year at this year’s Ghana Music Awards.

Epixode’s “Atia” single is arguably one of the best Highlife songs released in the last few months, topping charts and racking up impressive streaming numbers.

According to Epixode, who is often known as a reggae and dancehall artiste, it takes more than just a song to be named “Artiste of the Year” in a particular genre.

Epixode, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, stated that “Atia” was to cement the growth of Highlife and a learning process for him as an artiste.

“The song did amazing last year, and the target was not initially to receive an award. However, it will be an honour to be awarded in order to recognise all of the artistes who contributed to the various versions.

“I am not eyeing the Highlife Artiste of the Year award because it takes more than just a song to be crowned the artiste of the year, but I will be pleased to get the best collaboration and the Highlife song of the year,” he said.

When asked about his plans for the coming months, Epixode said he would release another groundbreaking Highlife song in the coming weeks.

“I am new to Highlife, so I have to produce songs that match the standards. I am not in a rush to keep releasing back-to-back songs, but I am concerned about the longevity and originality of my music,” he said.

Epixode was adjudged the 2021 VGMA Reggae and Dancehall Artiste of the Year.

Source: Ghana News Agency