Accra, Aug.3, GNA - The Management of the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation, nongovernmental organisation, on Tuesday presented drugs and medical equipment worth about 900 million cedis to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for distribution to health institutions. They were made up of 44 hospital beds, 40 wheel chairs, 50 walking aids on wheels, five recovery beds, 16 bedside tables, 34 walking sticks and frames, two theatre operating lights, 14 monitors and an X-ray machine. The rest were, 10 boxes of miscellaneous medicines, 20 boxes of wound dressing items, two drip stands, 10 infusion pumps and doctor's overalls.

Mrs Theresa Kufuor, the First Lady and Chief Patron of the Foundation, who presented the items at the office of the Foundation in Accra, said it was their contribution to improve health care delivery services especially in the rural areas.

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director-General of the GHS, who received the items, thanked the Foundation for their continued support to the GHS. "We need a lot of these drugs and equipment, such a gesture would help alleviate the numerous problems of the GHS", he said. Professor Akosa said one of the theatre operating lights would be sent to the Bawku Hospital that had not changed its equipment since it was installed in 1977. He said the drugs and equipment would be fairly distributed and mentioned Zabzugu-Tatale District in the Northern Region and Ejisu-Juaben District in the Ashanti Region as some of the beneficiary institutions.

The Foundation is engaged in community development and self-help projects targeted at young mothers in deprived areas, their offspring and those most exposed to the HIV/AIDS patients and their dependents. Three Philanthropists, Mr Walter Gottardello from Italy, Mr Mike Nissel from Holland and the Reverend Dr Rosa Mills, a Ghanaian based in the United States of America (USA) donated the items to the Foundation.