Iftar: Prof Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah shares meals with Muslims in Essikado-Ketan Constituency

Prof Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, the main opposition National Democratic Congress parliamentary candidate for Essikado-Ketan in the Western Region, has, for the past few days, been providing iftar – the meal eaten by Muslims to break their fast after sunset every day during Ramadan – to different Muslim communities in her constituency.

On Thursday, March 28, 2024, for example, Prof Dr Ayensu-Danquah joined Muslims at the Kojokrom Wangara Mosque for Jummah and then distributed meals to the adherents for iftar.

Muslims around the world started the Ramadan fast on 11 March 2024.

The fasting period lasts for a month.

“Whoever feeds a fasting person will earn the same reward as him without diminishing in any way the reward of the fasting person,” Prof Dr Ayensu-Danquah to quoted to explain her reason for sharing iftar to Muslims in her community.

This is just one of the several philanthropic works of Prof Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah.

A few weeks ago, she organised a free ear screening exercise for her constituents to mark World Hearing Day 2024.

She focused on the children of her constituents.

Prof Dr Ayensu-Danquah and her team, on Thursday, 29 February 2024, health-screened both clients and community members who thronged the Dr Grace Mall.

She said: “In line with our healthcare policy, we vow to take a comprehensive approach to addressing health disparities within our constituency”, indicating her party’s intention to change and transform the lives of the constituents of Essikado-Ketan.

Also, in March 2023, her munificence saved 62 elderly patients suffering from cataracts from total blindness.

They were offered badly needed surgical interventions that saved their sight.

Hundreds of eye patients were also diagnosed and gifted medical glasses.

Most of the beneficiaries were the aged pensioners, many of whom were in their late sixties and seventies, who hardly earned any income.

The eye screening exercise held at Essikado attracted over 1,000 people who were assessed and given free glasses and other forms of medication.

Prof Dr Grace Ayensu, who contested the constituency’s seat in the 2020 elections, footed the bills for accommodation and feeding for the two days that the patients underwent examination for their surgeries.

Prof Dr Ayensu-Danquah, who is passionate about serving, also uses her private medical centre, Sage Medical Centre, located at 24 Boundary Road, East Legon, opposite Ampomah Hotel, to help kidney patients in whatever way she can.

Last year, in the heat of a national debate on kidney disease and the cost of treatment, Dr Ayensu-Danquah advocated the scrapping of taxes on dialysis consumables and also urged the government to cover the treatment under the National Health Insurance Scheme.

In line with her medical philanthropy, Dr Ayensu-Danquah's NGO also provides free medical supplies and equipment to clinics and hospitals in rural areas.

Who Is Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah?

Grace Ayensu-Danquah (MD, MPH, FGCPS, FICS, FACS) is a gender advocate, humanitarian surgeon, educationist, and philanthropist.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a Medical Degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

She is a double board-certified surgeon trained in general surgery, having completed a trauma and burn fellowship and trained in reconstructive surgery, too.

In addition to this, she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health in International Health Management and Planning with special certification in humanitarian assistance and disaster management from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene Public Health.

Dr. Ayensu-Danquah has also worked in private practice in the United States and holds licenses to practice in California, Michigan, and Maryland.

In Ghana, she runs a private surgical facility in Accra. She is also the Founder of Healing Hands Organisation, an NGO dedicated to providing medical and surgical care to the poor and needy who have no access to proper healthcare. The organisation also provides free medical supplies and equipment to clinics and hospitals in rural areas.

Dr. Ayensu-Danquah is a member of the Ghana FDA Advisory Team for Vaccines and Biological products and a board member of Days for Girls International Ghana.

She is also a Professor of Medicine at the Center for Global Surgery at the University of Utah in the United States, a lecturer at the Cape Coast University Medical School, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.