Plan Ghana provides CHPS Compound for Duwie community

Duwie, (U/W), July 27, GNA - Plan Ghana International, a non governmental organization (NGO) operating in the Upper West Region, has provided a Community Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound for the people of Duwie in the Sissala West District at a cost of 42,000 dollars.

The NGO would also spend 100,000 dollars to provide two boreholes, one at the CHPS compound and the other in the community.

Plan Ghana's gesture is to complement government's efforts to provide accessible and quality healthcare services for people in deprived communities and improve the lives of children to achieve the millennium development goal.

Mr. Richard Boadu, Programme Area Manager of Plan Ghana, said this during the inauguration of a CHPS Compound in Duwie on Saturday. He said for the past six years, the NGO had spent about 12 million dollars on development projects in the Upper West Region. He said Plan Ghana was committed to helping to provide more CHPS compounds in the region since they have the potential of providing effective healthcare services to the rural people who were far away from health facilities.

The Duwie CHPS Compound would benefit about 1,500 people in four communities in the district.

Madam Florence Angsomwine, Upper West Regional Coordinator of CHPS Compounds, said the regional health directorate and its development partners would build 197 CHPS compounds in some rural communities by 2015 to help provide quality healthcare services for the people. She mentioned reduction in malaria cases, high maternal and child deaths, diarrhoea and measles as well as improving immunization coverage and high acceptance on the part of family planning as some of the benefits of the CHPS Compound concept sought to accomplish Madam Francisca Bagni, Sissala West District Director of Health Services, thanked Plan Ghana for providing the facility for the people but said the compound still lacked electricity, potable water and communication systems and other equipment to make it functional and called for assistance.

She urged the people in the communities who had not yet registered with the National Health Insurance Scheme to do so to benefit from the services that the facility would be providing them. Mr. Salifu N. Baluwie, Sissala West District Chief Executive, said the district assembly was collaborating with its development partners such Plan Ghana and the European Union Micro Project to build more CHPS Compounds.

He said the inadequate staffing challenges from the Ministry of Health was thwarting the efforts of the assembly and appealed for sponsorship support from its development partners for trainee nurses to work in the facilities after completion. He said the assembly would provide decent residential accommodation, potable water and electricity for the CHPS Compounds to encourage nurses to deliver. The Upper West Regional Minister, Mr George Hikah Benson, told the people to assist their pregnant women to go the clinics for antenatal services.

He said the high maternal and child death in the region was unacceptable and all must work hard towards its reduction. Kuoru Salifu Chuopulin, Chief of Duwie, appealed for accessible roads, electricity and potable water for the people in the community. 27 July 08