Bolgatanga, April 25, GNA – The Upper East Regional chapter of the National Association of Registered Midwives–Ghana, on Saturday took delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for onward distribution to members in health facilities across the Region.
The items included boxes of surgical face masks, boxes of liquid soap and bleach among others.
Madam Agnes Mariam Gumah, the Upper East Regional Chairperson of NARM- Gh in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at a meeting of Regional Executives to plan the distribution of the items to members, expressed gratitude to the National Executive of the Association for the show of concern about the safety of members.
She said midwives played critical roles in the health care delivery, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic era, “we as midwives deal with two lives, the woman and her unborn baby and so we need to protect our members very well to render services without fear of contracting the virus”.
Madam Gumah said even though government played a significant role in the fight against COVID-19, NARM-Gh saw the need to complement the role of government in the pandemic.
“Government alone cannot do everything, as an Association we need to complement with the little that we have to help protect our members. It was rather unfortunate that one of our members, in her quest to deliver midwifery services to a pregnant woman got infected with the virus.”
The Chairperson who attributed the infection of their member to lack of PPE, especially face masks, emphasized that “because we don’t want that unfortunate incident to happen to any of our members again, leadership of the Association at the national level took up the initiative to support midwives with basic PPE across the country”.
“We have taken delivery of the items for distribution, and we shall make sure all our members at every health facility benefit from the items.”
Madam Gumah used the opportunity to appeal to philanthropists, Civil Society Organisations and benevolent donors to assist the Association in the Region to reach out to its members with more PPEs so that they would feel safe and protected to deliver midwifery services.
Mr Zakariah Haruna Tahir, a male midwife at the Pusiga Health Centre in the Pusiga District of the Region, was grateful to the Association for the gesture and said it would help to protect them in the present difficult time of their profession.
“This clearly shows that our leaders think of our safety, and we thank them for the initiative,” he added.
GNA