For over a decade now, Vodafone Ghana’s flagship CSR programme, Vodafone Healthline has continued to hold sway as the country’s most influential, educative and impactful platform on health and wellness.

The multiple award-winning TV show is designed with a view towards educating the Ghanaian public on pertinent Health-related issues and encouraging healthy lifestyle practices among the populace.

Vodafone Healthline provides relevant information on medical issues to the Ghanaian public in an easy and engaging format through a serialised Television show that is aired on major TV networks and across social media.

The show is jam-packed with enlightening discussions with medical experts as well as a variety of educational segments designed to empower Ghanaians with insightful and practical information on health and wellness. The highlight of the programme is the fully sponsored series of surgeries and medical interventions offered to financially challenged patients with various medical conditions.

Each season of the show comprises 13 episodes, each edited to run for one hour on TV and comprising a number of segments fashioned to touch comprehensively on pressing and relevant public health issues while highlighting stories of beneficiaries of Vodafone’s fully sponsored surgical interventions.

The 9th season of Vodafone Healthline has recently been concluded across various TV networks including TV3, UTV, GHOne, Adom TV, DGN, SBN, Family TV and Amansan TV.

The quality of production, flow of topics, choice of guest panelists and specialists, story-telling and overall performance of the programme host and her dedicated in-studio panelists were all top-notch. Similar to previous productions, Season 9 was an epitome of excellence in educational TV programming and emotive storytelling. No wonder, excerpts of the show consistently went viral on social media throughout the 13-week period of the show.

Outlined below is a summary of remarkable highlights and features of Vodafone Healthline Season 9, which showcase why the show continues to be a tour-de-force of public health education and top-notch TV content even after a decade:

Host and Regular Panel - nd top-notch TV content even after a decade:
Host and Regular Panel - the dynamic and charismatic Christiana Frema Asiedu, a Clinical and Public Health Nutritionist reprised her role as host of Healthline Season 9 with her trademark poise, good humor and incisive questioning and conversational skills.

Supporting her in the studio were her two regular in-studio panelists; Dr. Kwekuma Yalley – an experienced medical officer, and Dr. Aba Ankomaba Folson, a Senior Physician & Cardiologist. The trio combined an engaging and unique approach as well as erudite knowledge in health to place the topics in perspective, denounce medical myths and provide eye-opening medical education.

Engagement of Specialist Doctors and Experts – Season 9 featured fourteen specialist doctors from diverse medical fields. These specialists brought their expertise to bear on the in-studio discussions by shedding more light on specific conditions.

CEO of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai who was also engaged in one of the early episodes to outline the Telco’s various health and technological interventions that are providing accurate information, driving awareness and aiding medical personnel in the battle against COVID-19 .

Dynamic set design and flawless production – Healthline Season 9’s eye-catching, world-class set design wove together the various segments of the show seamlessly. The scenic backgrounds and subtle changes in lighting hues and tones provided a dose of dynamism to the studio set. Transitions between studio discussions, specialist discussions, myth-buster segments, keep-fit segments and surgery stories for each episode were also affected effortlessly.

Fitness and Exercise Segment – One of the most notable highlights of each episode was the exercise and fitness segment. Fitness anchor, Bernice Asiedu, lead coach at Fitvolution, took the regular studio panelists and the viewing public through a series of aerobic workouts and other fitness activities that could be easily replicated at home.

Initial focus on COVID-19 – This edition of Vodafone Healthline commenced at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and thus it was particularly commendable that the show kicked-off with a comprehensive deep-dive into the coronavirus pandemic.

An impressive array of medical experts including Dr. Joseph Oliver Commey, an infectious diseases specialist and Dr. Francis Addai, a family health specialist, were engaged to provide in-depth analysis, insights and advice to the general public on how to stay safe during the pandemic. The diverse perspectives, insights and education made this one of the most memorable episodes and an apt one indeed to commence the season.

Increased use of Local Dialects – It was heartwarming and impressive to note the increased use of local languages such as Akan, Ewe, Ga etc. interspersed with English by the host, her panelists and other guest discussants on the show.

It goes without saying that the programme is relevant to all and sundry and the approach heightens Vodafone’s commitment in ensuring that no one is left behind in the quest for optimum health. Kudos, Vodafone!

Mythbusters – The MythBusters segment remains one of the most critical innovations on the show and this season once again brought to the fore and dispelled lots of commonly held beliefs and medical myths that are not supported by medical or scientific research. As always, this segment proved to be a fan favourite and the source of many viral videos and heated public discussions.

Among the mythbusters that sparked the most public discourse this season were: ‘Eating lots of groundnuts causes pimples’, ‘You can’t have sexual intercourse after childbirth until your baby is 6months old’, ‘Sleeping under the fan consistently causes pneumonia’, ‘Make-up cause the skin to age quickly’, ‘Don’t swim right after eating.’ The host and her panelists assessed these popular notions from a medical standpoint and demystified them.

Life-changing Surgeries – Once again, Vodafone Healthline transformed the lives of 8 patients who were suffering from acute medical conditions and urgently needed surgeries. Beneficiaries of the fully sponsored surgeries commended Vodafone for the noble gesture as they narrated their touching stories.

The beneficiaries were diverse; they include 7-year old Saddat Gadaffi who underwent bowel surgery to correct an impediment that prevented him from passing regular stools, 9-year old Kweku Simon who received surgical support to fit his truncated limbs with prosthetic legs, Christabel Assifuah who was treated surgically to correct a life-threatening complication after she accidentally swallowed a calculator battery and a host of others with a variety of limb impediments, tumors, burns and other conditions that require urgent medical intervention.

Undoubtedly, beyond the critical education and public health and wellness tips, Vodafone Healthline season 9 literally touched and saved many lives as well. This is what makes the programme such an enduring and endearing exemplar of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and maintains Vodafone’s position as one of Ghana’s most loved brands.

With such an impactful and edifying initiative, it comes as no surprise that Vodafone Healthline reigns as Ghana’s most recognized and awarded CSR initiative, having won over 80 local and international awards, the most recent one being the CIMG TV Programme of the Year 2019.

Through this initiative, Vodafone has paid the full cost of surgeries for hundreds of Ghanaians across the country, brought respite and untold joy to many families and has also become an authoritative and reliable source of health information for Ghanaians.

The longevity and continued evolution of the programme lends credence to Vodafone’s status as a purpose-led brand that truly cares about the health and well-being of the people and communities it serves and is fully committed to championing sustainable initiatives that drive social change and improve lives significantly.