FDB begins tour in the Eastern Region

Koforidua, May 4, GNA - The Eastern Regional Deputy Minister, Ms Susana Mensah, has attributed the many problems facing Ghanaians to ignorance and misplacement of priority.

"The many problems we face are not because we are so poor and cannot live above our needs, but we tend to find solace in habits, which rather complicate our problems", she said.


Ms Mensah, who was speaking when a Breast-feeding Monitoring Team from the Ghana Food and Drugs Board (FDB) called on her on Monday at Koforidua, advised people to identify realities from perception so as to improve upon their well being.


She debunked the notion that parents inability to educate their children was due to poverty, saying, "the low education among children clearly shows that people are just taking their children's education for granted".


Ms Mensah said looking at the ostentatious appearances of most people at funerals and other social gatherings and the number of local gin that people buy everyday, then "the paying for education and the NHIS should not be a difficult issue".

She called on all public servants to educate the people on the need to educate their children and also patronise the NHIS and other policies in their own interest.


Briefing the Deputy Minister, the head of the monitoring group of the FDB, Mrs Goski Alarbi, said the purpose was to ascertain the fact and realities of the exclusive breast-feeding of babies and how best to sustain the policy.


According to her, it had been noticed that manufacturing of baby formulas and their promotion were violating the Breast-feeding Promotion Regulation (BPR) resulting in complications of babies' health issues. Mrs Alarbi called on mothers to accept to breastfeed their babies as the safest and less costly way, as compared to other baby foods sold in the market and asked all stakeholders in babies' health to promote the breastfeeding concept to ensure a baby-friendly environment. May 4, 05