Funsi (U/W), May 7, GNA - The Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is to provide food storage facilities for eight communities in four districts of the Upper West Region at a cost of 400 million cedis to help reduce child malnutrition and mortality.

The facilities would also be used for safe child delivery, immunization and post antenatal services for pregnant mothers as well as other integrated healthcare services to promote quality healthcare for children and their mothers.

Mr. Ali Mohammed, Programme Officer of CRS in charge of Health responsible for the region, announced this at the Wa East District launch of the "Child Health Promotion Week" celebration at Funsi on Monday, which was on the theme: "Care for the new born - Start right". He said one of the key strategies that the CRS was working on in its 50 years of operations in the country had been child health promotion.

Mr. Mohammed said the CRS would continue to collaborate with district assemblies, district health directorate and other partners to support the country to achieve the Millennium Development Goal four, which seeks to reduce under-five mortality rate by two thirds by 2015. Mr. Joe Bolibie, the Wa East District Director of Health Service, said the Ghana Health Service (GHS) started the implementation of the Child Health Promotion Week.

He said the purpose of it was for service providers to use the week as one step opportunity for advocacy for child health services and providing key services and facts on preventive health care. Activities programmed for the week are immunization against the childhood killer diseases, Vitamin A supplementation, growth monitoring and distribution of child health record cards and re-treatment of bed nets.

Others the use of iodated salt, birth and deaths registration and the education of care givers and mothers on home management of fevers. Mr. Bolibie called on CRS to continue to support maternal and child health development in the area as well as improve the health status of all people in the district.