Category: News

 

Tamale, Oct 4, GNA – A week-long of activities to commemorate this year’s World Mental Health Week has been launched inmale to draw stakeholders’ attention to the need to intensify sensitisation on mental health.

It is on the theme: “Make Mental Health and Wellbeing for all a Global Priority,” being spearheaded by the Public Health and Psychiatric Units of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH).

Total Life Enhancement Centre TOLEC-GH, and the Mental Health Advocacy Foundation, both non-governmental organisations advocating mental health services, are also partners.

Activities lined up include media interactions, advocacy campaigns at schools and religious settings, and mental health literacy challenge quiz.

The Day is observed on October 10, every year, to provide opportunities for all stakeholders working on mental health issues to examine their work, and what needs to be done to make mental health care accessible to all.

Dr William Frank Hill Koomson, the Head of Psychiatry, TTH, said: “Although the World Mental Health Day is celebrated in just a day, the Public Health and Psychiatric Units of the hospital decided to extend it to cover a week to heighten awareness on mental health across the region.”

He said the launch was also to ensure that all stakeholders were involved in the awareness creation on mental health to address misconceptions on the issue.

He called on the Government to increase budgetary allocation on mental health as the current allocation of 1.4 per cent was insufficient to address those issues.

Dr Braimah Abubakari Baba, the Acting Northern Regional Director, Ghana Health Service, whose speech was read on his behalf, said mental health remained a global problem, especially in developing countries, hence the need to strengthen partnerships and develop mechanisms to address it.

Mr Peter Amadu Mintir, the Executive Director of TOLEC-GH, called on stakeholders to intensify campaigns to address various misconceptions associated with mental illness.

“Mental illness is not a curse, but a health condition that requires medical attention,” he said, and called on all stakeholders, including government, to ensure persons with the condition were protected.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, Oct 04, GNA – Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health, has expressed gratitude for a funding support of 10 million pounds from the United Kingdom Government for high-level research into Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs).

He noted that the project, funded through the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and the National Institute of Health and Research (NIHR) would be executed over the next five years.

The implementation is co-led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,  and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

This comprises a cluster of research and three academic institutions in West Africa – the Catholic University of West Africa in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, LASDEL in Niamey Niger, Ashesi University in Ghana, the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said this at the Public Announcement of the NIHR Global Health Research Centres West Africa (Stop NCDs) Award in Accra during a two-day meeting attended by participants from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger.

“I must say that the timing is apt because the prevalence of NCDs is increasing globally and is currently the leading cause of death and disease burden worldwide, including our sub-region,” the Minister said.

He said NCDs were among the topics discussed at the just ended United Nations General Assembly.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says heart diseases, stroke, cancers, diabetes and respiratory diseases now outnumber infectious diseases as the top killers globally, accounting for about 74 per cent of all deaths.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said those conditions were mostly due to modifiable risk factors, which include tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, harmful use of alcohol, and air pollution.

He added that, unfortunately, the disease control structures in West Africa priorities had been traditionally driven by the burden of communicable diseases.

He said despite an increasing trend in NCD-related morbidity and mortality, implementation of global interventions such as WHO policy recommendations remained slow.

“For example, Africa was off track in achieving the WHO recommendations for tackling NCDs targets for the 2015 and 2016 deadlines,” he said.

It appears that despite the initial achievements by African countries towards fulfilling the commitments in the 2011 UN Political Declaration and the 2014 outcome, Africa’s commitment to implementing the NCD policy responses had waned, Mr Agyeman-Manu said.

He said there was no doubt that the region had been slowly responding to the increasing disease burden and most interventions addressed individual diseases rather than focusing holistically on people.

A recent World Bank report indicated that unless urgent action was taken, the rising NCDs burden would add great pressure to the already overstretched health systems and pose a major challenge to development in the sub-region, he said.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said in Ghana, the Ministry of Health with the support of its agencies and stakeholders launched the National Policy for NCDs in March this year with a goal to “ensure that the burden of NCDs is reduced to the barest minimum to render it of little or no public health importance and an obstacle to socio-economic development”.

That, the Minister said, was aligned with the ideals of the National Health Policy, 2020, and the Universal Health Coverage Roadmap (2020-2030), which calls for the use of multisectoral collaboration as a mechanism for addressing, in a comprehensive manner, all the social determinants of health for better health outcomes.

Consequently, the development of the comprehensive policy framework on NCDs had received a high political commitment.

Professor Richard MK Adanu, the Rector, College of Physicians and Surgeons, said the College was greatly honoured to be a recipient of the award for the prevention of NCDs in Ghana and the sub-region.

Professor Irene Agyepong of the Public Health Faculty of the College said the Accra meeting would enable stakeholders to find out what was workable for them with regard to combating NCDs.

Dr John Nkrumah-Mills, President, College of Physicians and Surgeons, who chaired the meeting, lauded the NIHR and the UK Government for their efforts in combating NCDs.

 

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, Oct. 4, GNA – Management of the Mfantsiman Girls’ Senior High School (SHS) at Saltpond in the Central region has appealed for the construction of new dormitories and a classroom block to mitigate the challenge of overcrowding in the school.

Headmistress of the school, Mrs Phyllis Arthur-Simpson during the 62nd Speech and Prize-giving Day held over the weekend said, “the school which started in 1960 with 70 students now has an enrolment of over 5000.”

This represents 7,042% increase in student population within the 62 year period, woefully unmatched by the slow infrastructure provision.

The school has teaching staff strength of 146 and 92 non-teaching staff.

The event was held on the theme: “Solution-Based Training for Girls: The Panacea for Academic Excellence.”

The Headmistress said, “with the increase in our school population available infrastructure has become woefully inadequate and organizing activities which bring all students together has become a big challenge.”

Overcrowded, with the attendant pressure on existing, woefully inadequate facilities, Mrs Arthur-Simpson made a plea for a 5000 seating capacity Assembly hall for use for school gatherings.

She appealed for the re-construction of the school’s drains which she indicated were all “in a bad shape.”

“Management would appreciate their re-construction to enable the free flow of water,” the Headmistress stated.

Mrs Arthur-Simpson further called for the school to be walled to protect the students and staff from intruders and encroachment.

“As a girls’ school, our safety and security is important. If we are not careful, the vision of our founding fathers will disappear. It is in the light of this that l am making a special appeal for our school to be walled. First because it will protect our girls and second because it will hold the land to protect it from continuous encroachment,” she explained.

Mrs Arthur-Simpson said the school’s sporting activities had been stalled due to the poor shape of the school field, noting, “Mfantsiman, which used to be the best when it came to sports, is no longer on top.”

If the school field could be rehabilitated and brought to standard it will go a long way to serve not only the school but the entire Mfantsiman community, she said.

In spite of the challenges, management of the school paid glowing tribute to the efforts the teachers, the old students, known as the Mfantsiman Old Girls Association (MOGA), parents and stated and non-state actors for contributing their quota to the development of the school.

Madam Arthur-Simpson was thankful that the school had over the years benefited from a number of government projects, which included a one storey dormitory block, a yet to be completed two-storey emergency dormitory block, a 12-unit Classroom Block Completed while a 24-unit Classroom Block commenced in 2006 was still on-going.

The school had also received 1,500 classroom furniture, 520 bunk beds, 440 mattresses and 90 pieces of office chairs.

The MOGA had commenced the construction of a school library, undertaken the renovation of Butler house and extended the Visual Arts block.

 

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

 

Sunyani, Oct. 04, GNA – Professor Ellis Owusu-Dabo, the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Pro VC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has stressed the need for teaching and learning curriculum to be problem solving for sustainable growth of the Ghanaian economy.

“Current national situations were clear indications that problem-solving based curriculum for particularly secondary and tertiary education was needed to meet holistic development demands, he said”.

Prof. Owusu-Dabo made the call during the opening of a four-day ‘Retreat and Advance Teaching and Learning’ organised for Senior Members of the College of Health Sciences of the University on Monday in Sunyani.

The event, on the theme “Quality Education: Implementing Integrated and Case-based Learning” was to empower the College to develop and implement an ‘Integrated and Case-Based Learning Approach’ into the curriculum within and across its respective schools.

It also aimed at enhancing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to implement case-based, interactive and integrated learning to improve their students’ education and ultimately the health of individuals, families and communities in Ghana.

Besides, the retreat was to enable faculties to integrate content within and across their disciplines as well as create examinations that would challenge their students not only in terms of recall of factual knowledge, but also in applying critical thinking skills.

Prof. Owusu-Dabo said practical and issues-based curriculum for teaching would help to churn out good and innovative students well-equipped for problem solving to ensure quality and universal services provision for the country and significantly contribute to achieving the goal four (4) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The intention, he explained was for the faculties to be able to teach in an interactive manner that “engages and stimulates students” toward more active learning and improve teaching and learning through integrated and case-based learning approaches as well as strengthen the relationship among faculties, staff and students.

The retreat would discuss various forms of learning activities with emphasis on active learning, use of cases and integration of different disciplines and constituted team responsible for the integrated and case-based learning for the enhancement of the University’s core mandate enhanced.

The interactive sessions of the retreat included how to write high-quality multiple-choice questions, especially using clinical cases/laboratory scenarios/real world scenarios for both clinical and non-clinical courses.

The faculties “will practice the concepts learned in the sessions and receive feedback provided by their peers and the facilitators”.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema, Oct. 4, GNA – The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Tema Metropolitan Office has organized its annual Smart Governor’s Challenge quiz for five basic schools in the Tema Central constituency.

It was funded by Mr. Yves Hanson-Nortey, Tema Central Member of Parliament saw Tema Parents Association School, Witsands International School, St Stephen Anglican School, and Community 11 Complex School competing in three rounds of questioning.

The first two rounds had questions on the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, while the last round touched on the Local Government Act and the Act of Parliament.

At the end of the contest, Tema Parents emerged first, Community 11 Complex and Witsands International were adjudged second and third respectively.

For their prize, the winning schools received a plaque, copies of the 1992 Constitution, and a medal, while all contestants received a certificate of participation and branded T-shirts as well as Bibles from the Tema Council of Churches.

Ms Gifty Badu, Tema Metro NCCE Director, said the Commission was established by chapter 19 of the 1992 Constitution and by an Act of Parliament, Act, 452, of 1993 to create and sustain within the society the awareness of the principles and objective of the Constitution as the fundamental law of the people of Ghana.

Ms. Badu said one of the strategies the NCCE uses to perform its functions was through the formation of civic education clubs in basic, senior high schools and tertiary institutions, which was used to encourage and promote the study of the 1992 Constitution among the youth to get an in-depth understanding and knowledge on democracy and nation building.

Madam Bernice Ofori, Tema Metropolitan Education Director, on her part, commended the NCCE for promoting and encouraging the study of the 1992 Constitution in the schools adding that it was important that every Ghanaian became abreast with the provisions of its provisions instead of leaving its study to only the Judiciary and Legislature.

Madam Ofori said the study of the constitution had numerous benefits including allowing the youth to understand their rights and responsibilities as a citizen of Ghana, how law works and the maintenance of peace.

She stated that it helps the student to know the importance of democracy, democracy, and diversity as well as the governance structure and promotion of citizenship geared towards helping to build the community and the nation.

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

 

 

Tamale, Oct 4, GNA – School for Life, a non-governmental organisation, has sensitised members of the Northern Network for Education Development and other civil society organisations (CSOs) on education policies to enable them to contribute to their successful implementation.

The three-day workshop also sought to build the capacity of local citizen groups to influence policies of basic education in their respective regions.

Participants were drawn from the Northern, Savannah, North-East, Upper West and Upper East regions, and discussed various topics relevant to advocacy in education.

The training formed part of the Citizen Led Action for Educational Accountability and Responsiveness in Ghana (CLEAR) project.

Madam Wedad Sayibu, Director, School for Life, said the engagement was to empower stakeholders to collectively represent the north in national deliberations.

She said it was to build the capacity of groups and relevant CSOs using social accountability tools to advocate policies at the sub-national and national levels.

Miss Akorfa Ama Akoto, the Chief Executive Officer of Spring-Up Global Network, a resource person, took participants through the Ministry of Education’s current policies and emphasised the need for CSOs to understand those policies and factor them into their work.

CLEAR is a consortium project implemented by the School for Life, in partnership with YEFL-Ghana and Ghana Developing Communities Association.

It is a two-year project aimed at mobilizing citizen groups and civil society organisations for advocacy and policy influence to promote equity and quality education delivery in the country.

The project, which covered six districts across the five regions, is funded by Global Partnership for Education and managed by Oxfam International.

 

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

Saltpond (C/R), Oct 04, GNA-Mamdev Ghana Limited, a civil engineering and building construction firm, has reiterated its commitment to transforming the Mfantsiman Girls’ School through a raft of development projects.

The move is aimed at giving the school a befitting infrastructural facelift to commensurate with its status as one of the best girls’ schools in West Africa in terms of academics and size.

Already, the firm has undertaken a number of activities in the school including sponsoring science students for the renewable energy challenge project and providing digital training for the teachers.

Mamdev was also the strategic sponsor for the school’s just-ended 62^nd speech and prize giving day which saw the firm branding the entire school with painting and flags.

Mr Joseph Kojo Mamphey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, gave the assurance when he called on Mrs Phyllis Simpson, the Mfantsiman Girls’ School Headmistress to discuss a development roadmap for the school.

He indicated that the gesture formed part of an educational support for all Senior High Schools (SHS) in Cape Coast under the Firm’s $10 billion ‘Cape Coast Green City’ project involving housing estates and an industrial city which sought to put Cape Coast under massive transformation to make the historic town a Smart City.

He explained that although Mfantsiman Girls’ School was not in Cape Coast, their special qualities made them impossible to neglect.

With a student population of more than 5,000, Mr Mamphey was worried that the school had only 10 working computers which he said did not augur well for the training of the girls.

He said with their partners, Mamdev, through Mamdev Foundation, would renovate the school’s computer lab and provide them with 40 iMac computers.

Mr Mamphey made a strong case for the need for the private sector to be neck-deep in the development of education in the country.

He noted that education development was a shared responsibility, which required a solid partnership between the private sector and government, insisting that government was not capable of handling it alone.

“In the times that we are in, we should be able to challenge the existing roadmap and government alone does not have the capacity to fund education. There are a lot of challenges and the private sector should partner government to uplift a lot of these schools,” he indicated.

He further stated that there was the need for Ghana to interrogate the funding for education thoroughly “and we believe Mamdev and its consortium partners are the game changers when it comes to navigating the unchartered territory in the educational system.”

The Mamdev CEO also  indicated that there was room for the private sector in Ghana’s education system and called for support from foreign investors and donors for the schools.

Mrs Simpson thanked the firm for its continuous support, pledging the school’s resolve to strengthen the partnership with the firm.

She, however, indicated that the Mfantsiman Girls’ School was faced with a plethora of challenges which were taking a toll on their activities as an academic institution.

Of greatest concern, she noted was the anomaly that the school was not fenced and as a result, they were dealing with encroachers and intruders, a situation she said threatened their safety and security.

She therefore appealed to all stakeholder for a wall to protect the girls and prevent further encroachments.

Reiterating other concerns, Mrs Simpson appealed  during the school’s speech and prize giving day for a 5,000-seater capacity assembly hall, new dormitories and a classroom block to mitigate the challenge of overcrowding.

“Our school field is in a bad shape. As a result, our sporting activities have been affected badly. Mfantsiman, which used to the best when in sports, is no longer on top.

“If our field could be rehabilitated and brought to standard, it will go a long way to serve not only the school but the entire Mfantseman Community,” Mrs Simpson said.

 

 

Source: Ghana News Agency

 

A moment of silence will be held at all matches in European competitions this week in memory of the victims of the Indonesian stadium disaster that killed at least 125 people, European soccer’s governing body Uefa said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of spectators were crushed as they tried to flee the overpacked stadium in Malang, East Java on Saturday, after police fired tear gas to disperse agitated fans of the losing home team, Arema FC, who had poured onto the pitch.

The incident is one of the world’s worst stadium disasters, with police saying 125 people died, while the Malang city health department put the death toll at 131.

“Uefa has today announced that a moment of silence will be held prior to kick-off in memory of the victims of the tragic events at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Indonesia,” it said in a statement.

“This moment of silence will take place at all Uefa matches this week (Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League and Women’s World Cup play-offs).”

Indonesia’s soccer federation said the club’s security officer and the head of its organising committee would be banned from the sport for life while dozens of police officers have been placed under investigation, with at least nine suspended.

 

Source: Modern Ghana