Regional News of Thursday, 19 June 2014

Source: AKILU SAYIBU

Chiefs and people of Tolon appeals to government

The chiefs and people of the Tolon Traditional area of Northern Ghana have appealed to the Ministry of Health and the government of Ghana to intervene to ensure that some medical equipment which were donated to the Tolon Clinic through the Hogfe Foundation- A non profit public charitable organisation operating in Ghana and Germany are released to help effective health delivery in the area.

The items which consist of 41 hospital beds, 41 hospital mattresses, 15 maternity beds and 15 maternity mattresses arrived in Ghana on the 25th January 2013 but still locked up at the Tema Harbour as a result of clearing challenges. The Tolon Community Clinic is a major hospital serving over 100 communities in and around the Tolon community. The Hospital is saddled with basic problems including the absence of adequate hospital beds.

Most pregnant women sleep on bare floods when in labour and in most times the elderly and vulnerable children also sleep on the floor which thus aggravates their ailments.

Speaking to the media in Tolon, the Regent of Tolon, Maj. Rtd Sulemana Abubakari indicated that the equipment when released to the people will help a lot in health delivery and has therefore appealed to His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama to personally intervene to get these medical equipment released to the Tolon Community Clinic to save lives and facilitate smooth health care delivery.

In another development the youth in Tolon have also called on government to treat this call with the urgency that it deserves. In a statement signed by a youth leader by name Abdul-latif Yakubu, The youth stated that if donations of humanitarian equipment to Tolon are left at the ports rather than allow to reaching the beneficiary communities and organisations, it will de-motivate donors from helping communities within the Tolon traditional area in future. When contacted the Country Director of Hogfe Foundation in Ghana, Alhaji Abdallah Yakubu confirmed the arrival of the items in Ghana since January 2013.