Category: Medicine

Adidome (VR), May. 19, GNA- The Emefa foundation, a Non-Govermental Organisation has supported four deprived schools in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region with books and stationery.

One hundred school uniforms and stationeries summing up to one thousand five hundred with playing kits were given to the various schools.      

Ms Yvette Emefa Gbeve, founder of the Foundation speaking at the donation said it’s the foundation’s initiative to support schools under their project dubbed ‘Start Right Project’ aimed to reach out to schools in some underprivileged areas in the country.      

She said the core belief of the organisation has been that every child deserves a good education, safe and conducive environment as well as learning materials that will aid their holistic education no matter the location of their schools.      

Ms Gbeve asked the schools to make efforts to provide mentoring opportunities to the children so that they could get the necessary guidance deserved in their academic life.      

“There is the need for intentional mentoring and coaching programmes for the young pupils to provide the necessary guidance and procedure to help them achieve their educational goals and ambitions in life,” she said.      

She asked the students to make good use of the items and read the books adding that, “more storybooks were added to the stationeries to develop the interest and the habit of reading in the students.”      

The pupils were elated to receive the items and thanked the foundation for their benevolence toward their schools and promised to make good use of the items for the betterment of their future.      

Madam Happy Tsifokor, the Central Tongu District Director of Education, thanked the team for choosing schools in the Central Tongu district for this project     

She also applauded the leadership of the Foundation for how they adhered to the stipulated protocols to get access to the various schools.      

Awadiwokome Primary School, Dekpoe Basic School, Meyikpor Primary School and Kowuadadekofe Primary School are the schools that benefited from the donation.

The “Start Right Project” has been a yearly initiative of the Emefa Foundation. The organization provides stationery and school uniforms to pupils in deprived areas to help them start each new academic year right.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, The Global Health and Safety Environment Contest and Awards have been launched to commemorate World Safety Day and Health at Work in Accra.

The contest is aimed at advocating global standards for safety through participation and social dialogue to build positive safety, health and sustainable environment culture in communities.

The launch, which was aligned with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, was on the theme: “Participation and Social Dialogue in Creating a Positive Safety and Health Culture.”

The Global Health and Safety Environment Contest and Awards was an initiative of Think Safety Global Limited in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Solution, and the Ghana Institute for Safety and Environmental Management Professionals (GhISEP).

Present at the programme were students from tertiary institutions and representatives of professional groups such as health practitioners, social workers, Ghana Police Service, Ghana National Fire Service, the Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Solutions (ISEES), the media, non-governmental organisations, and community-based organisations.

Nana Annor Amihere II, the National President of the GhISEP, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency called on the government to consider building and maintaining preventative safety and health culture as a national priority.

He said: “A culture in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, where government employers and workers actively participate in securing a safe and healthy working environment.

“A system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties, and where the principle of prevention is accorded the highest priority is what we all desire and advocate.”

Nana Amihere urged all stakeholders, both public and private to support the Global Health and Safety Environment Contest and Awards initiative, which advocates standards on health and safety.

He called for safety and regulations compliance while integrating them into the general business management structure to achieve a positive safety culture.

The National President said the GhISEP would continue to promote and defend a health and safety culture while ensuring that regulators would do the right thing as well as social justice.

Mr Solomon Mensah Darkwah, who deputised for Dr Ibrahim Salifu, the Chairman of the occasion said: “As a government, we are responsible for providing the infrastructure, laws, and services necessary to ensure that workers remain in employment so that enterprises flourish.

“We also ensure that institutions develop policies and enforce compliance of safety measures.”

Mr Eric Daniels, the Chief Executive Officer of Think Safety Global Limited called on the government to develop an ambitious action plan by building on existing laws to come out with national comprehensive health and safety policies.

“This would help in ensuring that regulators comply and implement laws in health and safety in the country,” he said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Covid pandemic has struck a heavy blow to India’s school feeding programme and may have reversed years of progress in the fight against child malnutrition.

Now back in their classrooms in the wake of the pandemic, students of government schools across several states may have to wait a little longer for their lunches.

Until Covid hit, more than 87 percent of children in rural government schools were being served the “midday meal”, touted as one of the largest school feeding programmes in the world.

It provided nutritious food to millions of Indian children and has also resulted in increasing student enrolment and improving attendance.

At the last count, the scheme covered 118 million children. But thousands of youngsters, especially from poor families, have dropped out of school over the past two years because of the Covid pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

Challenges

Restarting the scheme after a long interruption is proving to be challenging in many schools.

Economists and civil society members say schools in rural areas face delays in the delivery of raw materials like grains and lentils used to cook the meals, while schools in the cities are yet to sign contracts with centralised kitchens that cater for the children.

“The benefits of school meals are well established, but government budget pressures threaten the sustainability of the programme,” said Reetika Khera, a development economist. “It will also need to fend off corruption and corporate lobbyists if it is to continue to thrive.”

“This year’s budget is slightly lower than last year’s: in nominal terms, it has been slashed by about 10 billion rupees (123.4 million euros).”

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Last month, Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged the government to restart the midday meal scheme in schools. She also asked the authorities to make available hot, cooked food to children under three-years-old, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

“When schools were shut down, the midday meals scheme was also discontinued. It was because of the National Food Security Act and directions from the Supreme Court that people were given dry rations. But, for children, dry rations are no substitute for cooked and nutritious meals,” Gandhi said.

“But now, as children return to school, they need to be given better nutrition. Midday meals will also help bring those children back to school who had dropped out during the pandemic.”

Stunted growth

The country’s latest National Family Health Survey found that one-third of all Indian children under the age of five were stunted and underweight, with little or no improvement in child nutrition levels since the previous survey was conducted in 2015-2016.

Educationists say that well-designed school feeding programmes have been shown to enable students to catch up from early growth failure and other negative shocks.

As such, once the schools reopen, the meal schemes can help address the deprivation that children have experienced during the closures and provide an incentive for the parents to send and keep their children, especially girls, in school.

Last year, in the midst of the pandemic, the central government had announced that 12 billion rupees (150 million euros) were to be given to 118 million children across the country who are enrolled under the midday meal scheme.

In other words, Rs 100 (1.23 euros) will be given per child as a one-time payment through direct benefit transfer.

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This additional allocation was expected to take care of the nutritional needs of children as schools were shut for more than a year due to the pandemic.

Under the midday meal scheme of the Indian government, students in government schools receive free cooked hot meals once a day.

“The amount is just 100 rupees per child. This is also a one-time investment. How can one ensure nutritional security through this?” asked Dipa Sinha, who is associated with the Right to Food Campaign.

“Half of the money will be spent in going and withdrawing the grant from the banks.”

In terms of the food and nutrition security situation, India already has an unenviable rank of 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index for 2020.

Source: Modern Ghana

Somanya, The Ghana Health Service has launched a second special COVID-19 vaccination campaign to whip up the public interest in taking the vaccines.

The campaign, which started on April 21 will end on Monday April 25 using strategic approaches including outreach points at hard-to-reach areas and mobile clinics at vantage points throughout the country.

Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General, GHS indicated that the key objective of the special campaign was to escalate approaches to reach out to over two million people by the end of the campaign.

He said Ghana had targeted to vaccinate about 20 million people by close of June 2022 to achieve a herd immunity as a country.

About 6,000 health vaccination teams have been deployed throughout the country to undertake the special campaign exercise.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye reiterated that all the five covid-19 vaccines approved by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) have proven to be effective against complications and fatalities from the disease.

“The vaccination has been a potent tool in fighting the COVID-19 and that has resulted in the easing of the restrictions, however, we are not out of the woods yet,” the Direction-General noted.

He urged the public especially those who have not received any of the vaccines to do so in their own interest and that of the country.

Dr Winfred Ofosu, Eastern Regional Director of Health, said studies of other pandemics have shown that “there were periods of remission where the disease goes down and resurfaces aggressively,” and warned that there was the risk of the disease resurfacing.

“That is why we must not relax on our collective efforts in ensuring that each and every one within the eligibility bracket takes the vaccine alongside observing the Protocols where necessary.”

From January of this year, the Eastern Region has not recorded any case and has no active cases in any of the health facility across region.

He added his voice on the need to use this period to do the needful by vaccinating to ensure herd immunity should the disease resurfaced.

Source: Ghana News Agency