HEALTH INSTITUTIONS NEED INCUBATORS (SEPT 26, PAGE 17)

A Director of the Ghana Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Campaign Coalition Secretariat, Rev. Albert Kwabi, has stated that lack of incubators in most health institutions in the country posed a great challenge to the attainment of MDG 4, which relates to the reduction of child mortality.
Speaking at the launch of the 2009 Stand- up, End Poverty Now Campaign, he said a visit by the coalition to the two regions last year, as a follow-up to the release of United Nations and Christian Council Report on infant and maternal mortality situations in the country, indicated the non-availability of incubators.
He said for example all health institutions in the Volta Region had no incubators, while the situation was no different from those pertaining in the Dangbe West and East districts in the Greater Accra Region.
The coalition launched this year’s campaign to review the national processes towards the attainment of the MDGs and develop new strategies towards the attainment of the goals.
The campaign is also to remind the government and leaders of the country and development partners of their commitment to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
The initiative is being undertaken by Ghana’s MDGs Campaign Coalition aimed at supplementing the government’s efforts with the help of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in achieving the goals. It seeks to mobilise about 8 million people through a series of planned activities to be organised nation-wide to offer citizens the opportunity to engage in creative modules, which appeal to both the young and old.
The Secretary- General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), Mr Kofi Asamoah, said that despite the economic growth being recorded in the country, poverty persisted in the country.
Mr Asamoah whose speech was read on his behalf by Mr Seth Abloso, Head of Organisation of the TUC, said for growth to make a meaningful impact on poverty reduction, it ought directly to involve the poor by providing them with jobs.
The Secretary General of the TUC said the country’s growth process was unplanned based on the resources of the few rich, and relied heavily on the devices of free markets to distribute the benefits of growth.
The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Fred Degbe, and one of the six ambassadors of the Stand-Up Take Action Against Poverty Campaign, said it was wrong for people to assume that they were born to wallow in poverty.
He explained that the Bible commanded people to share freely, and to hold leaders and churches accountable for their actions towards the vulnerable in the world.
Madam Adwoa Kwateng Kluvitse, the Country Director of ActionAid, who launched the 2009 Stand-up Campaign read the Pledge of the Campaign which stated in part that “We are standing because we refuse to accept more excuses in a world where 50,000 people die every day as a result of extreme poverty and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider.’’
Other Ambassadors of the Coalition included the Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Dauda Toure, United Nations Representative in Ghana, National Chief Imam, Mrs Esther Aboagye of the Local Government Institute and Rev. Yaw Frimpong Manso of the Presbyterian Church.