Agona Otsenkorang (C/R), July 11, GNA - Dr Kojo Sekyi-Appiah, Agona District Director of Health Services, has expressed concern about the poor reproductive health indicators in the Central region. He identified the indicators as high maternal mortality, teenage pregnancy, abortions, sexual transmitted infection and HIV/AIDS rates. Speaking at the launching of the Reproductive Health Advocacy and Community Health Planning Services (CHPS) at Otenskorang, Dr Sekiy-Appiah said the project was a community and health workers partnership to ensure access to basic health services, curative, prevention and promotion.

He said Otsenskorang was first community to benefit from the Reproductive Health Advocacy project in the Central Region and the first in the Agona District to benefit form the CHPS, adding that, ten other areas had been identified to benefit from the programme The European Union (EU), United Nations Family and Population Activities (UNFPA) and the government are sponsoring the project. He said the success of the CHPS depended on how the community would own and ensure its sustainability since money, materials, energy and time had gone in the project and urged the people of Otsenkorang to stand up to the challenge.

Dr Sekiy-Appiah stated that a nurse had been posted to the clinic in the town to provide basic curative services and to refer complicated ones to the Agona Swedru Government Hospital. He said the government and its partners had done their best and expected other stakeholders to play their roles to raise health status of the people in the area.

The Director of Health Services appealed to Plan International Ghana and other Non-governmental organizations (NGO) to donate bicycles and motorbikes for Community Health Officers (CHO). He asked the donors to stock the advocacy centre with reading materials, a video deck, television (TV) set and a generator to enhance education.

Ms Cynthia Obbu, Coordinator of the Agona District Health Management Team, said 21 volunteers and seven Health Committee members selected from the various communities at Otenskorang to ensure the success of the project.

She said the volunteers had been trained to provide counseling, advocacy, health education, community mobilization, surveillance agents, family planning promoters and distributors of condoms. Ms Obbu stated that they would organise health promotion activities such as clean-up campaigns and health durbars, adding that, they would team up with the nurse in-charge of the center to identify priority health needs and to device a means of solving them.

Mrs. Bertha Agyemang, Central Regional Director of Nursing Services, assured the Agona District Health Directorate that the region would do everything possible to ensure that adequate logistics were provided at the Advocacy Centre. She called on the Chiefs, Assembly members and other stakeholders to support health personnel in the District to enable them provide quality health care for the people. 11 July 05