NGO provides Nandom Hospital with a Canteen

Nandom, Nov.02, GNA - The Foundation for Education Empowerment and Development (FREED), a United Kingdom based non-governmental organization, has provided a canteen for the Nandom Saint Theresa's Hospital at the cost of 35,000 pounds. The canteen would serve meals to patients, especially in-patient pregnant women and children. Naa Dr. Puoure Puobe Chiir VII, Paramount Chief of the Nandom, who inaugurated the facility on Saturday, expressed gratitude to FREED, UK, for the Canteen. He said the canteen would not only provide services to patients in the locality but also for those from other parts of the region and neighbouring Burkina Faso. He said FREED has established a Community Radio Station in Nandom town to help educate the people on a wide range of issues which was impacting positively on the lives of the citizenry. Naa Chiir called on sons and daughters of the area who have left home to come home and support the development efforts of the communities. Madam Catherine Gyilko, a Deputy Director of Nurses at the Hospital who stood in for the Medical Director, said FREED had provided sponsorship package for 10 nurses who had completed their training and were rendering services to the people. She said three nurses were still on training and three others waiting to be absorbed for training under the sponsorship. Mr. Ambrose Dery, Member of Parliament for the Lawra/Nandom, who presided, said civil society organisations were important development partners and mentioned the Catholic Church as one of them that had contributed immensely to development of the Nandom Traditional Area. He said the Church's interventions in education, health and agriculture had helped the people in the area to become self sufficient and dependent. Mr. Dery commended FREED for providing an ambulance and a neurologist for the hospital who is also rendering medical services to patients at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. He bemoaned the high infant and maternal deaths in the country and called on stakeholders in the health sector to collaborate effectively to help tackle the misfortune. He called for active involvement of women in health issues to reduce maternal and child deaths to enable Ghana to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Miss Anne Hicks, a Representative of FREED in Ghana, said the canteen was a gift for the Nandom people and urged them to use it to improve on the feeding of children and patients. A delegation of 20 members of FREED UK, comprising four medical doctors, a Dentist and a Dentist Nurse, four Laboratory Technologists, two Teachers and two Football Trainers graced the occasion. They are providing various medical services to the people of the Nandom area. 02 Nov 10