The government of South-Korea, through its development agency, on Friday presented varied pre and post-natal diagnostic wares and other healthcare hardware, to three districts of the Volta Region at a ceremony at Denu.

The districts beneficiary are Keta, Ketu-South, and Ketu-North.

The three local governing areas are beneficiaries of a Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) project dubbed: “Improving Maternal and Child Healthcare in Volta Region.”

The objectives of the programme include strengthening the capacity of maternal and child health staff, strengthening the roles of CHPS compounds, and increasing awareness of local residents on Maternal and Child Health.

The others are the construction of a post basic midwifery training school at Keta, the provision of educational materials, supporting health facilities with medical equipment and management skills.

The items are to overhaul maternal and child health delivery at the primary level, and also make referral case movement quicker.

Madam Kim Heunghee, Project Manager of KOICA, disclosed at the presentation ceremony that the two-year project (2014-16), “is a comprehensive package from the Korean government to the people of Ghana.”

She stated that the project has an “overarching goal of reducing maternal and infant mortality rates in the target areas, which were selected after commissioned diligent inquiries.”

Madam Heunghee said the project was against the backdrop of the Volta Regional Health Directorate figures of 72 dead during child birth in the region in 2013, and in Ketu-South in 2014, seven maternal deaths, 85 still births and 11 infant deaths out of a total of 4,425 deliveries.

She said the project was also seeking to actualize the functions of CHPS Compounds as vital in “providing maternal health care, especially among the rural folks, through the building and strengthening of their capacity, to enable them provide Ante-natal Care (ANC), Emergency Delivery and Post Natal Care (PNC) services.”

Equipment donated included hospital beds, examination couches, sterilizers, doppler heart tone monitors, delivery sets, and refrigerators, among others.

Among the list were two motor-ambulances for Ketu North and Keta Municipal.

Beneficiary facilities are CHPS Compounds at Dekpor and Ehie in the Ketu-North District; Anoenu, Glidzi, Kpoglu, Lotakor, Atoklokope; Ketu-South and Tregui Health Centre; Keta Municipal.

Dr Joseph Kwami Degley, Ketu-South Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), who received the items on behalf of the recipients, observed that the absence of tools was a big bother to health workers in the area.

He lauded the comprehensive training schedule under the project, which was bringing along nurses, midwives, community health workers, physician assistants and health volunteers.

Mr Degley urged community leaders to devise means of protecting the tools at the CHPS Compounds.