Bolgatanga, March 30, GNA- The Upper East Regional branch of the Northern Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicines Association (NOGHAFT), has urged the Government and NGOs to develop traditional healing, to enhance good health and safety of Ghanaians.
The NOGHAFT, which is under the umbrella of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicines Practitioners Association (GHAFTRAM) has a strong membership dotted throughout the Upper East Region and is working to improve the health of the people.
Mr Abdul Rashid Amoah, the Regional Organizer of NOGHAFT, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, said the Association was working in collaboration with faith-based organizations such as (Association of Church based Development Projects (ACDEP), Basic Needs, an NGO, in area of mental health and the psychiatric Unit of the Ghana Health Service.
He said his outfit collaborates with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) in its operations in the region to ensure members prepared their medicines in accordance with the current code of manufacturing practice.
He urged all organizations, philanthropists who care for the wellbeing and health of people in the region to support it to also reach out to all its members to build their capacity and to streamline activities of the practitioners.
The regional organizer reiterated that bush fires were a major impediment in the search of raw materials for preparation of medicines and noted that some traditional medicine healers with little knowledge in the preservation of nature, ignorantly fell trees and destroyed shrubs after harvest without ensuring its regeneration.
Mr Amoah who is also a task force member of the Ghana Federation of traditional Medicines Practitioners Association said “Just as there are men of God, traditional healers are also called by God to do the work of healing and treatment of people and so anyone who uses the name of the association to do malicious things will be sanctioned.
He called for assistance from government, NGOs, chiefs, and opinion leaders to help the association to develop plant gardens in some communities, to protect some medicinal tree species.
Mr Amoah said membership of the Association desired to do their best in herbal treatment but without the natural resource base, coupled with climate change challenges, the trees and shrubs were gradually getting extinct.
“We should not neglect our own herbs,” he said, and urged the public not to rush into buying medicines from vendors just by looking at their physical appearances and the way they dressed nicely and indicated most of such products could be fake.
Act 575 of the Traditional Medicine Practice Act. 2000, established a council to regulate the practice of traditional medicine in Ghana, register and license practitioners, regulate the preparation and sale of herbal medicine to provide for related matters, among others.
GNA