Romeo Bugyei (2nd right) and Dr. Lawrence Siriboe (2nd left) in a handshake to officially launch the donation platform. With them are Jojo Esua-Mensah (1st right), Charles Osei-Owusu (first left) and some members from Consolidated Bank Ghana
In a bid to sustain funding support for patients with various heart conditions, the National Cardiothoracic Centre, in collaboration with the Ghana Heart Foundation and support from IT Consortium, has launched a crowd funding platform.
The platform is to enable philanthropic organisations and individuals donate into a regulated account in aid of heart care for patients, especially children and the vulnerable who cannot afford treatment at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) Cardio Centre.
The Director of the Cardio Centre, Dr. Lawrence Siriboe, who spoke at the launch of the platform recently, disclosed the difficulty patients go through to foot medical bills.
He said children with cardiac-related issues without treatment often pass on by age five just because their parents cannot afford the cost of treatment.
“One out of a hundred 100 children born will have hole-in-heart condition and without surgical intervention half of these children will die before age five,” he said.
“There is no insurance system that supports people with heart-related issues and even with the private insurance companies, it is difficult for them. The National Health Insurance System does not apply when it comes to heart surgeries and the Ghana Heart Foundation which helps people undergo heart surgeries unfortunately, have fatigue in donations,” Dr. Siriboe further indicated.
He was, therefore, elated about the new platform which would help raise funds on a sustainable basis for the care of patients at the centre.
The Chief Business Development Officer of IT Consortium, Jojo Esua-Mensah, the brain behind the creation of the platform, explained that the initiative is to help save patients with heart-related deaths in Ghana.
Mr. Esua-Mensah said the crowd funding idea came about during his stay at the facility as a patient.
He said after observing the difficulty some patients go through to raise funds, he decided to seek funding support for the centre.
“I spoke with Fintech Company if they could help build a donation platform as the company’s corporate social responsibility to help raise funds to support the kids with cardiac related issues.
The company then went into talks with MTN Ghana and Consolidated Bank Ghana who gladly came on board to help reach and ensure greater impact with the initiative,” he revealed.
Mr. Esua-Mensah donated an amount of GH¢10,000 as seed money.
The Managing Director of IT Consortium, Romeo Bugyei, stated that the platform makes provision for Ghanaians to give towards the initiative with small or huge amounts.
Anyone can sign unto the platform by dialing *700*9# on MTN , select ‘Donate’, enter ‘Cardio’, enter ‘Amount’, select ‘Frequency’, select ‘Duration’ (if weekly/monthly) and authorise payment.
Romeo Bugyei (2nd right) and Dr. Lawrence Siriboe (2nd left) in a handshake to officially launch the donation platform. With them are Jojo Esua-Mensah (1st right), Charles Osei-Owusu (first left) and some members from Consolidated Bank Ghana
By Nadia Nimako & Jamila Akweley Okertchiri