Emmanuella holding her son while midwifery assitant, Alberta vaccinates her son
Twenty three-year-old Emmanuella Bludo Sena walks past the rusty sign post directing community members to the Obenyemi Epicentre in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region.
With her one-month-old baby boy strapped behind her back, Sena makes her way through the footpath into the multipurpose L-shaped compound.
Sena was supposed to join the early morning postnatal clinic, but activities at home had kept her from making the time for the appointment.
That notwithstanding, she has managed to bring her soon-to-be named baby boy to the clinic for his routine immunisation.
With a smile on her face, Sena dressed in white attire, as is culturally expected of women who have been delivered of their babies successfully, releases her baby from her back as she sits in the empty waiting bench on the corridor of the clinic.
“It is past 10:00am why are you now coming,” the community health nurse trained as a midwife queries Sena in her native language, Krobo.
Sena smiles in response to the question.
She is beckoned by the nurse to come in after a few minutes for her son to be vaccinated.
Sena is a junior high school (JHS) graduate and a stay-at-home mother of two children; a two-year-old girl and the baby boy.
The father of her children is a farmer and the breadwinner of the family.
“When I was pregnant, I came here and they taught me what to eat during pregnancy and how to care for my baby. What I learnt here has helped me a lot,” Sena says.
The Hunger Project (THP)
The L-shaped compound is the signature landmark of The Hunger Project (THP), an organisation committed to ending hunger through its programmes aimed at mobilising rural grassroots communities to achieve sustainable progress in health, education, nutrition and family income.
The multi-purpose centre, commonly known as the epicentre, consists of a clinic, micro-finance unit, food storage room, a kindergarten and other facilities for training and capacity building.
In Ghana, THP offers support, in close collaboration with government agencies, to households and provide them with livelihood activities so they can be financially independent and sufficient.
“Our epicentres which serve surrounding communities undertake women health and empowerment projects, including training the women in human rights, child rights and marriage rights,” Samuel Erasmus Afrane, THP-Ghana Country Director, says.
“Throughout the 45 epicentres we have in Ghana, we are able to reach out to approximately 450,000 people who fall under the surrounding community numbering about 500 rural areas,” he adds.
THP Health Impact
The project, with funding from the Else Korner Fresenius Stiftung (EKFS), a German-based foundation, is implementing interventions in maternal and child health.
The maternal and child health improvement project, which is being implemented in 15 epicentres, has benefitted 150 communities in three regions.
The project has so far trained 14 community health nurses (CHN) as midwifery assistants, 15 CHN in family planning services, 15 standard delivery equipment have also been provided for the community clinics, and the protocol for maternal & child health (MCH) has been distributed to the clinics.
Seventy-three health volunteers and CHN in MCH education and nutrition have also been trained according to the project data.
Over 11, 650 people have benefitted from various forms of sensitisation in the beneficiary regions.
The MCH Project Coordinator at THP, Stephanie Ashley, who commented on the project, says it was initiated to basically help in the reduction of maternal and child mortalities in some epicentre communities the project operates from.
This, she adds, was done through “re-orienting services and creating supportive environment to improve quality healthcare services.”
“We can say that the indicators for maternal and child health have greatly improved in the areas we are working. And the health and well-being of the community members have improved,” she states.
Alberta Dowuna is one of the community health nurses at the Obenyemi Epicentre Clinic and a beneficiary of the midwifery assistant training programme.
She says the centre offers care, including clinical, antenatal, delivery, postnatal and family planning, as well as hosts an adolescent corner where teenagers can access services tailored for them.
Alberta was transferred to the centre about a year ago and has since been engaging the adolescents in the communities on reproductive health through school clubs and community outreaches.
“I have been here for about a year now and I have two adolescent clubs where we talk on issues concerning them,” she adds.
Alberta attests that but for the provision of certain medical equipment by THP under its maternal and child healthcare improvement project, young mothers like Sena would have to travel long distances on bad roads to get her babies vaccinated.
Alberta, also a beneficiary of the joint midwifery assistants training programme by the Ghana Health Service and the Hunger Project, points out that delivery at the health facility has increased.
“When I came here, they did not have the haemoglobin (HB) metre and refrigerator for storing vaccine and the delivery bed was also very high.
With THP coming in to help the clinic, we can now check the HB level and now a delivery bed has been provided instead of the recovery bed which was used for the delivery.
We can also now store our oxytocin in our own fridge. We have had up to 40 safe deliveries. Teenage pregnancy is also very low this year we have less than five girls getting pregnant in fact 1 person is pregnant. Community members are really patronising the family planning, especially the injectable,” Alberta reveals.
THP Economic Impact
Most of the communities THP works with are engaged in peasant farming, so the alternative source of livelihood the project provides through capital from the micro-finance unit of the epicentre helps them to diversify their income.
Patience Sena Doe, a worker at the micro-finance unit, is tasked with the day to day running of the facility, which is solely managed by representatives of the epicentre communities.
The unit is also used as a savings centre for those who would want to save their profits.
“When they come, I help them fill the forms and get all the necessary things needed for the loan application.
When successful, we give a starting loan of GH¢500 to first applicants and then the amount increases based on their consistency in repaying the money. Normally, it takes six months for a loan to be repaid,” she explains.
While some people take the loan for ‘Okada’ business which is popular in the surrounding communities because of the poor nature of the roads, others inject it back into their business.
“I started taking the loan for my business in the last three years and I have seen some improvement,” says Fati Haruna, a trader in kitchen utensils.
“My second hand clothing business has also taken off since the last time I came for the loan. Now, I can take care of myself and child without relying on anyone,” Comfort Kwapong adds.
Nicholas Kwadjo Adamtey, chairman of the Obenyemi Epicentre Committee, also a beneficiary of the loan facility, testifies of the economic impact the project has had on his livelihood.
“I have also benefitted from the loan. I used it to see my child through school and now they are graduates,” he asserts.
Mr. Adamtey, a farmer, says the project has also trained agric trainers of trainers from the community, who have, in turn, trained the farmers in best farming practices resulting in increased farm yields.
“We have the food bank where we keep our food produce and sell it in the lean season to offset some of our bills. The next step for the committee is to start a sustainable business which would yield income for the running of the centre,” he explains.
Leni Nebal, Hunger Project German Country Director, who recently toured the epicentre during his visit to Ghana, expressed her satisfaction at the impact of the activities being undertaken by the THP is having on community members.
“I have seen how important empowerment is for people to overcome hunger and poverty… only when I saw the sites that I realised how much people can make out of resilient and power,” she says.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri