A scene from the screening exercise
HEALTH WORKERS, market women and civil servants in Sunyani thronged the Ebenezer Presbyterian School last Friday for a free community health screening organised by Sustainable Impact Makers International (SIMI).
The outreach marked the official start of SIMI’s three-day summit on health equity, themed “Health Equity in Action: From Periods to Parenthood, For All.” About 1,000 participants benefited from services including nutrition talks, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) registration, mental health consultations, and checks for dental, prostate, and eye conditions.
Founder and President of SIMI, Dr. Evelyn Botwe, said the screening was designed to take healthcare directly to the people. “If access is created, the people will utilise it, and that’s how we promote health. Beyond infrastructure, we must train the workforce to add the human piece to it — making health delivery dignified, not like we are doing people a favour,” she stated.
Dr. Botwe said SIMI’s work has always been rooted in the community, with a strong focus on maternal and child health due to disparities in maternal mortality in Ghana and among Black and Brown communities globally. Through its programmes, SIMI supports women from conception until their child is 18 months old, covering medical bills and healthcare.
The organisation has worked with nearly 90 women in Sunyani communities with no recorded childbirth complications. As part of the summit theme, SIMI also runs the Feminine Hygiene and Blooming Butterfly Programme, which educates girls on menstruation and menstrual hygiene.
To ensure continuity of care, SIMI partnered with NHIS officials at the screening to register new members and settle outstanding balances for those already enrolled. “We have a registration form with disclaimers and specialists in every room. If we detect anything, you get a referral right there to continue with the same doctor,” Dr. Botwe said.
Dr. Botwe disclosed that SIMI has reached over 20,000 lives across Ghana, New York, and Belize. In Ghana alone, the reach is over 6,000 people, making it the organisation’s biggest area of investment. Dr. Evelyn Botwe says the organisation is ready to take its community health model beyond Sunyani, as it has spent years perfecting a model that works — and now it’s time to scale.
“We are hoping to not only do this in Sunyani. Obviously, there is a need here, and we presume there is a need in other places as well. We now have the blueprint of what works,” she said, and added, “We now know that we Ghanaians can mobilise and have non-profits that do what foreign non-profits come to do.”
“The SIMI future looks like creating a system that centralises our data so we can communicate our own impact on the ground. That way, the blueprint we have, we are able to replicate it in other areas of the country for success,” she added.
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke