General News of Tuesday, 16 September 2003

Source: GNA

UN to organise free medical care for Nima residents

Accra, Sept. 16 GNA - Nima, a deprived community in Accra, is to benefit from free medical care under a pilot project of the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan's Global Compact Initiative (GCI).

Over 1,500 people in the predominantly Muslim community would benefit from free medical care to be organised by the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Programme in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and Kinapharma, a local pharmaceutical company.

Mr Joe Oji, UNV National Programme Officer, told the Ghana News Agency in Accra that the programme was aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality rate, combating HIV-AIDS, malaria and other communicable diseases.

"The GCI is part of a corporate social responsibility programme being encouraged by the UN to let successful business entities plough back their profits to help humanitarian causes.

"This underscores the willingness of Kinapharma to support the health campaign. We have a number of medical personnel, who will also volunteer their services." 16 Sept. 03