The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) has organized its second quarter performance review meeting on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) in the Upper East Region.

The MNCH intervention programme launched by the GRCS in the Region in September last year, is being implemented by the GRCS and its partners in four districts in the Region.

The beneficiary districts include the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, Bongo, Binduri and Nabdam districts.

It is aimed at complementing the efforts of the Ghana Health Service to fast-track the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals Four and Five, which border on maternal and child health.

The Stakeholders, who participated in the review meeting in Bolgatanga on Monday, included the District Organizers, Mothers’ Club Facilitators of the GRCS, as well as Health Promotion Officers from the Ghana Health Service, and selected NAMDO staff drawn from the beneficiary districts.

Addressing the participants at the two-day review meeting, the Programme Coordinator of Swiss Red Cross in charge of Social Development, Mr. Evans Kevi, said the meeting was to provide a platform for his outfit and the implementers to monitor and assess the progress of work made so far, and to chart a way forward.

The meeting, he noted, was to also afford the stakeholders the opportunity to also plan for the third quarter activities of the intervention.

According to Mr. Kevi, his outfit which is the main financier of the MNCH intervention, would consider the problems encountered at the implementing stages in the four beneficiary districts, and find solutions and best practices.

Mrs. Olivia Fatchu, the Upper East Regional Red Cross Health Coordinator, in her report, explained that essential newborn care which was an integral component of the MNCH intervention, was a comprehensive strategy designed to improve the health of newborns, right from conception through pregnancy to delivery, as well as, soon after birth.

Mrs. Fatchu stated that by the middle of this year, the trained Red Cross Mothers were able to refer a total number of 209 pregnant mothers, 76 newborns and 116 postnatal mothers to health facilities in the implementing districts for proper medical care.

“The Red Cross Mothers have been trained to help pregnant mothers identify danger signs during pregnancies and do prompt referrals to the nearest health facilities, and mobilize women for child welfare clinics, educate and persuade pregnant women to attend antenatal care regularly among other duties,” she said.

Mr. Joseph Abarike, the Regional Manager of the GRCS, reiterated the need for the Red Cross District Organizers and the Mothers’ Club Facilitators, to regularly monitor the Mothers’ Clubs, to ensure that they conformed to the tenets and aspirations of the Ghana Red Cross Society.

He further charged them to register all pregnant mothers and new borns who got referred to health facilities by the Red Cross Mothers, in order to track their conditions of health.