Twenty-three community-based health promoters graduate

Bolgatanga, Oct. 4, GNA - The Bolgatanga Municipal Director of Health Services, Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifubah on Monday described as a wrong conception, the notion by some parents that polio only paralyses but does not kill its victims.

He said polio affects the respiratory system which leads to death, and charged parents to take immunisation days seriously and have their children immunised against the disease.

Dr. Nang-Beifubah said this when he closed a two-week training workshop for 23 community-based reproductive health promoters in Bolgatanga.

It was organised by Rural Health Integrated (RHI), a Bolgatanga-based non-governmental organisation and sponsored by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

The Municipal Director of Health Services commended RHI for its contribution towards health care in the Upper East Region and the Bolgatanga Municipality in particular.

Dr. Nang-Beifubah said the training and relief brought to several homes and communities by RHI interventions could not be easily quantified, and urged other health providers to collaborate with the Ghana Health Service.

He also urged health providers to spread the messages on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the HIV/AIDS in their communities.

The Executive Director of RHI, Dr. Kwasi Odoi-Agyarko said the non-governmental organisation has trained 247 volunteers over the last six years in 130 communities in Bolgatanga, Bawku West and Bongo Districts. He said the non-governmental organisation has also given 303 bicycles and 247 first aid boxes to volunteers in various communities, while providing four corn mills and shea-nut processing machines in Bolgatanga and Bongo Districts under its income generation programme.

The Chairman of the Board of the non-governmental organisation and chairman of the occasion, Mr. Joseph Abarike, cautioned the volunteers not to turn themselves into quack doctors in the communities by treating and charging patients.

He also advised them to take good care of the facilities provided to ensure that they last long. The 23 trained volunteers were each given a bicycle, a certificate and first aid box.