The Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has provided a health facility to Santaso, a healthcare-challenged cocoa farming community in the Ayinase North area of Ellembelle in the Western Region.
The health facility, worth over GHS700,000, is expected to serve more than a thousand residents. It is the first health facility in the cocoa farming community, which has recorded many preventable deaths from accidents and maternal mortalities.
Speaking to Citi News at the handing over of the health facility to the District Health Directorate on Sunday, Buah said he could not watch the Santaso community residents continue to die from preventable deaths due to the absence of a health facility because the government was not ready.
He said he, therefore, with the support of the Chief and people of Santaso, completed the well-furnished health facility within nine months.
“The nearest clinics from Santaso are Edusuazo and Asomase, which are very long distances from here. So this clinic will serve this community and all the scattered small communities in this area, and it is really going to change their lives for the better. We have had incidents of people falling sick and getting involved in accidents, and despite time being critical in health delivery, they don’t get healthcare in time.
“So it was important we did this intervention, and I’m happy that I had the support of the community and the Health Directorate. It is going to transform lives here, especially for women and children, and it is a step further in the development effort we have been doing in this area, whether in health, roads, electricity, skill development, or education,” he said.
Buah also donated 10 motorcycles worth GHS167,000 to the Ellembelle Health Directorate for its health outreach campaigns, as well as GHS650,000 to rehabilitate a broken-down ambulance for emergency health services.
The Ellembelle District Health Director, Dr. Augustine Amoakoh, who received the well-furnished health facility on behalf of the people, in addition to the other support, commended the MP.
“The Anyinase North, where Santaso is located, is one of the most hard-to-reach areas within the Ellembelle District when it comes to health delivery. In this area, we are unable to offer any form of comprehensive obstetric emergency care. What it means is that, for instance, any pregnant woman who may require a blood transfusion or surgery during delivery would have to be moved from here to the District Hospitals, and the only means from here is now by motorcycle. The National Ambulance, which has to do that, cannot do it because of the bad road to the area that has spoiled.
“We contacted the MP, who has donated GHS650,000 to rehabilitate the broken-down ambulance for emergency health services. Now, what makes the CHPS compound the MP has given us more critical is that the World Health Organisation is talking about Universal Health Coverage. Here we are looking at sending healthcare to the doorstep of everyone in every community. So within this huge population we have here, before this facility, if you wanted to get healthcare, you would have to travel for about two solid hours to access just primary healthcare. That has been a challenge, so this Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) facility will serve the purpose. Thus, all the minor health issues can be taken care of here, and we thank the MP for this intervention,” he acknowledged.
Dr. Amoakoh further expressed much appreciation to the MP for the 10 motorcycles for the District Health Directorate’s outreach programmes.
The Odikro of Santaso, Nana Simone Marfoe, and some residents who have had bitter experiences with accessing healthcare delivery, especially childbirth, spoke to Citi News on the MP’s intervention.
“We thank the MP for this beautiful health facility. Some of our mothers have died from delivering in the house and even on the road because we didn’t have a health facility in this community. We thank him for giving us this health facility.”
“We are happy and appreciate what Hon. Kofi Buah has done for us. We will continue to vote for him so he can also keep working for us. We thank him for this clinic because previously we had a lot of delivery complications since we had to travel over long distances, but now we have a clinic here,” Isha Razak, a Santaso resident, said.
“We thank the MP and ask for God’s blessing over him for the health facility because when we didn’t have a hospital at Santoso, it was difficult transporting sick and pregnant persons. Sometimes we have to transport them on motorcycles in the rain to Anyinase, and at times, some even die prematurely. Now with the health facility he has provided, our burden would be eased, and we don’t even know how to thank him,” Yaw Samuel, an Asomase resident, said.
Also at the event, Buah presented GHS20,000 to support the logistical needs of first-year students from the area, as well as distributed 200 sewing machines and hairdryers to beneficiaries of the MP’s free skill training apprenticeship programme.
Two of the beneficiaries told Citi News how the sewing machines would enhance their careers.
“I stopped schooling, but the MP came to write our names and put us through skills training. However, I didn’t have my own sewing machine, but today he has given me my own machine, so God bless him,” Rufaw Adams, a Santo resident and sewing machine beneficiary, said.
“When I didn’t have my own machine, I struggled at the workplace to sew, but now that he has given us our own machine, I wouldn’t have that challenge again. We appreciate him so much,” Sadia Suleh, a Santo resident and sewing machine beneficiary, said.
