Datuku (UE), Dec. 5, GNA- Grass Roots Africa, a Non-Governmental Organization working in the area of reducing poverty, strengthening political, economic and social rights of the marginalized and the Ghana Health Services (GHS) are working to stamp out certain negative cultural practices hindering the delivery of health services to the people in rural communities in the region. One of the major health areas which had been identified by the two bodies are maternal mortality in the region, especially in the rural areas as many pregnant women were disallowed to attend health facilities on the bases of cultural practices where family heads had to consult soothsayers and perform some rituals which they believed could facilitate the delivery process but which led to the death of many pregnant women.

As part of the measures to check it, Grass Roots Africa, through one of its modules known as "Local Civic Coalitions" (LCC) is providing capacity building and logistical support to community members aimed at empowering them to take decisions on issues affecting them, and to work out solutions.

It organized a community meeting on Tuesday at Datuku in the Talensi-Nabdam District where the District Director of Health Services, Ms Rosemond Azure, gave a talk on the poor supervision in the delivery of pregnant women in health facilities. She expressed worry about the trend by which pregnant women were disallowed to attend health facilities because of cultural practices, and urged family heads to allow them to access healthcare, while they also consult their soothsayers to perform rituals. She indicated that it was wrong for pregnant women to be disallowed to attend health posts and stated that most of the maternal mortality could be curbed if pregnant women were allowed to go for anti-natal check-ups and their deliveries supervised by qualified midwives at hospitals.

Ms. Azure indicated that, among the districts in the region, the Talensi-Nabdam district was at the bottom in terms of patronage of pregnant women at health centres during delivery. She thanked the Management of Grass Roots Africa for their initiative and said her outfit and Grass Root Africa would help address the problems of healthcare delivery, especially on the refusal by some communities in the area to allow their relatives who were pregnant to attend clinics or deliver at hospitals by organizing durbars and sensitization programmes for them.

She stated that when she was the District Director for Bawku West where similar problems existed, she was able, through community durbars and sensitization programmes to solve them, which made the district to have the highest supervisory pregnant women delivery at health centres. Mr. Emmanuel Kob-puo, Technical Officer in-charge of disease control for the Datuku area urged the community members to maintain hygiene and to construct good drainage systems to curb malaria and also to boil their water before drinking to avoid contracting any water related diseases.

Mr. James Awuni, the capacity building Officer of Grass Root Africa explained that LCC was initiated by his outfit in five districts in the region, including Bolgatanga, Talensi-Nabdam, Kassena Nankana, Kassena Nankana West and Bongo Districts was aimed at building the capacity of communities to be able to work as an effective team.

Mr. Awuni indicated that the capacity building would also educate community members to know their duties and responsibilities and to see how they could render effective services to the state. He indicated that the programme was having a positive impact in the communities as many people who previously did not know many government policies and how to channel their demands through the right quarters now know better.

Participants at the meeting in the Datuku community expressed grave concern about the lack of drinking water as they have few boreholes which constantly break down.

The participants also expressed concern about the poor attitudes of some health personnel at the health post, saying that they did not treat patients well when they fall sick. During their discussions it was revealed that majority of the community members were unaware of the existence of the Free Medical Treatment for Pregnant women.

The Capacity Building Officer of Grass Roots Africa urged members of the LCC to consult the assemblyman for the area to consult the Community Water and Sanitation subs-committee of the Assembly so that they could come together to help find a solution to the water problem. On the poor attitude of the health workers, the District Director of Health Services said she would institute measures to deal with the situation and appealed to pregnant women who were not aware of the existence of the Free Medical Treatment for Pregnant women to take advantage of the opportunity.

The LCC programme initiated by Grass Roots Africa is a five year project, after which it is expected that the people would be effectively empowered to be able to address their needs in their respective communities without encountering much problems. The Department for International Development (DFID) is sponsoring the programme and the collaborators are the Ghana Refugee Welfare Group (GHARWEG) and the Community Partnership for Health and Development (CPHD). 05 Dec. 08