GHANA: UNICEF RECORDS SUCCESS IN THE UPPER EAST

UNICEF RECORDS SUCCESS IN THE UPPER EAST

Edward Adeti’s Report, Upper East, Ghana

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has chalked up a wave of successes in seven key areas that affect the wellbeing of children in Ghana's Upper East Region. The areas include health, nutrition, education, child protection, water, sanitation and hygiene.

Speaking in turn at a sensitisation seminar organised in Bolgatanga by UNICEF in collaboration with the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) for Municipal and District Chief Executives, Presiding Members and Coordinating Directors, a number of health and sanitation experts showcased some of the best practices and success stories recorded by UNICEF over the years in the region.

Announcing the purpose of the seminar in her welcome remarks, Mrs. Habib Amama Kaleem, UNICEF’s Child Development Specialist at the Tamale Field Office, said it was organised to highlight some of the success stories that the assemblies had in a number of programmes that they had supported in collaboration with development partners.

The seminar was also aimed at orienting participants on the social issues that affect the wellbeing of children and soliciting the support of the participants for the implementation of UNICEF-supported programmes and services in the various assemblies. Mrs. Habib Amama Kaleem expressed the hope that the assemblies, as the direct link between government and the people, would continue to collaborate with UNICEF to achieve results for the children.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Owen Woyongo, who recalled the fruitful partnership that UNICEF had formed with assemblies, ministries, departments and agencies in the region over the years, hailed UNICEF’s positive impact in the region and gave the assurance that government would sustain its collaboration with such child-centred bodies to ensure better life for its people.

“I am aware UNICEF is supporting the MDAs and MMDAs in the region in implementing the Integrated Community Case Management and the Kangaroo Mother Care among others. I am aware it has also entered into a partnership with the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit and Community Water and Sanitation Agency to ensure that there is increased access to potable water in deprived communities. It is also making efforts to ensure that there is increased coverage and improved access to sanitation, improved hygiene and behaviour change especially in the area of hand washing with soap,” Mr. Woyongo said.

The Regional Minister also applauded UNICEF for teaming up with the Departments of Social Welfare and Community Development to establish the Regional Child Protection Networks and Community-Based Child Protection Teams. Mr. Woyongo was, however, depressed as records revealed by the teams indicated that child rights abuses such as defilement, child trafficking, elopement of girls, forced marriages and female genital mutilation were on the increase in the region. Whilst describing the development as a worrying situation that must be addressed immediately, Mr. Woyongo directed the Municipal and District Chief Executives to take steps to reverse the trend.

Mr. Cletus Asamani, Acting Upper East Regional Environmental Health Officer, said as a result of the Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) concept which UNICEF had supported in implementing in the selected districts, proper disposal of faeces had become popular in communities where open defecation had been the order of the day. The same communities, he added, had also accepted hand washing as a basic measure against cholera and diarrhoea among other sanitation-related diseases.

On Community-Based Child Protection Programme, UNICEF is also said to have facilitated the return to school of female students who have dropped out of school as a result of teenage pregnancy. According to Madam Vinolia Osei, Upper East Regional Director of Community Development, sixteen pregnant girls, who dropped out of school at Yikene and Zaare in the Bolgatanga Municipality, have been assisted through the programme to return to school. Besides, the programme has been advocating and facilitating the enrolment and acceptance of children with disabilities in the appropriate schools. Through the at programme, a crippled boy at Nyariga in Bolgatanga, whose name was only given as Adamu, happily returned to school after he had stopped schooling as a result of humiliation from school mates.

Mrs. Agnes Zizinga, Director of Health for Bongo, said the Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) with support from UNICEF, had reduced incidence of diarrhoea, malaria and ARI cases in the under fives with increased awareness of causes and prevention of malaria and diarrhoea amongst mothers and community members.

The Bawku West District Director of Health, Mrs. Mary Stella Adapesa, in her presentation on Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition and CIMCI Programmes, said a lot had been achieved with support from UNICEF but, like the other presenters, solicited more support from the assemblies to renovate and expand health infrastructure to improve quality of care. She entreated the assemblies to formulate and enact bye-laws that will band the killing of severely malnourished children where the people held the cultural conviction that such children were evil.   

“There is also the need for the assembly to support with fuel to facilitate referral of needy clients. The assembly should also support to regulate the activities of prayer camps and herbalists who delay sick people at their centres until it is too late for the health centres to save them,” she concluded.