The Christian Children’s Fund of Canada has launched its flagship project to promote safe delivery and reduce maternal and infant mortality in the Northern Region.
The project christened CCFC- PROMISE would also improve delivery of essential health services to mothers, pregnant women, new born, and children under five years.
With financial support from Global Affairs Canada, the four year project would begin in April 2017 and end in March 2020 would be implemented in the Savulugu-Nanton, Saboba, and Nanumba-North Districts of the Northern Region through two local partners Tuma-Kavi Development Association and the Assemblies of God Reliefs and Development Services together with the district assemblies.
CCFC-PROMISE is expected to contribute to the Muskoka Initiative on Maternal and Child Health (MNCH) as well as Ghana’s Sustainable Development Goals through its partnership for strengthening maternal, newborn, and child health.
According to the representative from the Canadian High Commission Tina Guthrie, “the $ 2.5million project will directly and indirectly impact the lives of over 100,000 beneficiaries including men in the three districts and also improve utilization of essential health services by mothers, pregnant women, new borns, and children under five years, whiles increasing consumption of nutritious foods and supplements by mothers, pregnant women, new borns, and children under five years by applying an integrated approach to MNCH which also seeks to implement both demand and supply side interventions to ensuring the reduction in maternal and child mortality in the region with its key strategies being the strengthening of the health systems to improve the quality of care coupled with the improvement of districts and communities level structures through capacity building and behaviour change communication”.
In its bid to improve the quality of health care, nine health facilities in the Savelugu-Nanton, Saboba, and Nanumba-North Districts would be improved.
Project Manager of CCFC Esenam Kavi de Souza, bemoans some cultural beliefs that deny pregnant women and infants nutritious diet.
“Here in this region, there is this cultural belief that says pregnant women give birth to thieves when they eat eggs, there is another that denies the infant eggs because it is believed the infants grow into thieves when they are given eggs at the tender age, meanwhile eggs are the cheapest and readily available source of nutrition in the northern region as almost each home rears fowls and they wouldn’t need money to buy eggs to feed”.
Madam de Souza however revealed the quest to succeed should supersede the challenges, “we have to take the bull by the horns or we will not change certain things, this project seeks to bridge the gap in nutrition for our targeted group and save delivery. The project will not build new hospitals but it will resource existing ones to deliver quality health care in the catchment area.”
By Zubaida Ismail | 3news.com