SEND Ghana trains maternal health champions

SEND Ghana, a policy research and advocacy organisation has organised a two-day intensive maternal health training for 27 community maternal health champions.

The training, which is under its Improve Project is to empower participants to serve as maternal health ambassadors in their communities.

The project, which is being implemented in 30 districts across Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions is in collaboration with Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Christian Aid with funding support from the European Union.

Mr Adamu Mukaila, Upper West Programme Officer for SEND Ghana noted that maternal health issues in Ghana especially in the three regions remain thorny in spite of the numerous interventions by the government.

“Majority of pregnant women lose their lives in the course of exercising their inalienable rights of procreation in each passing year,” he emphasised.

Mr Mukaila said in view of this, SEND Ghana selected people in influential positions within traditional or religious leadership or at the local level and who are willing to act as community champions to undertake further down streaming of messages through peer to peer sensitisations in order to engender the needed impact at the wider grassroots level.

He noted that SEND Ghana has in partnership with the GHS secured materials and resources such as leaflets and audio visual documentaries on good maternal health policies and practices around family planning, supervised deliveries, antenatal and post natal services and safe motherhood.

He said the materials have been prepared in simplified language and would be distributed to the champions to guide them in sensitisation programmes within their communities.

Mr Mukaila appealed to the media to use their platforms to develop more effective targeting of advocacy messages to better promote citizens-government engagement on maternal health issues.