By Samuel Akumatey
Ho, Sept. 20, GNA – A health outreach at Adaklu by the Rotary Club of Ho, has received record attendance.
More than 2000 benefited from the free health campaign which was made possible through heavy mobilisation effort that brought people from more than 10 communities in the Adaklu district.
The school park at Adaklu Goefe was covered in tents all round, and health seekers accessed numerous services available including dental, blood pressure, diabetes, and eye screenings.
The Ketu South Municipal Hospital was in charge of a blood donation unit there that targeted 200 pint, while the local NHIS office also occupied one end, offering free services to all.
The event caused an invasion of the popular mountain community as members of the Rotary Club from across the country participated, and were joined by members of sister club, the Lions Club in the Region, engaging also in activities such as cycling, and hiking up the mountain.
Hundreds of nomadic tribe members brought from the district would stay on at the NHIS Registration stand long after the exercise concluded, and officers of the health insurance authority there told the GNA the initiative supported stakeholder efforts at reaching reach out to the roving tribe.
539 NHIS cards were renewed at the end of the exercise, and there were 66 new registrations.
Rotary is a centuries old humanitarian organisation with several clubs in the country, and the Ho Club was established in the 1980s.
Alphonse Makafui Dzakpasu, President of the Rotary Club of Ho, said Rotarians without health insurance cards took the chance to own one, and commended all for helping make the event, part of its 39th annual Presidential Ball and fundraiser, a success.
The fundraising dinner that followed that evening at the Volta Serene Hotel was dedicated to the rehabilitation of the Kpando Health Center.
This is part of a broader project to upgrade the health center to a polyclinic status, and the President said the project would bear significantly on the health outcomes of the Municipality.
The amount of GHC 250,000 is being sought towards its realisation.
“The maternity unit at the Kpando Health Center has served as a lifeline for expectant mothers and their newborns for the past five decades or more. Unfortunately, it has fallen into disrepair and the conditions in which mothers bring new life into the world are far from ideal,” the Club President said.
The Overlord of the Akpinis, Okpekpewuokpe Togbui Dagadu IX, was special guest of honour, and noted how he had mobilised a dedicated team of experts around his quest to improve healthcare of the people.
He said the team had established collaboration with the Rotary Club of Ho towards the intervention at the health center and commended the humanitarian commitment the Club and the quest for the realisation of its facility’s full rehabilitation.
The Rotary Club of Ho received its charter in 1985 and has a heavy track of social intervention projects including in water, education, and health.
It presently has 30 members, and two new ones were inducted at the Presidential Ball.
As part of the activities, the Club partnered with other organisations and institutions to plant 1,000 trees in the Ho Municipality, and which the President said was in support of the infamous Oxygen City project.
Last year, the Ho Rotary Club, through its external partners, commissioned a fully equipped state of the art mobile clinic van for the Ho Teaching Hospital to support community health outreaches.
GNA