The Health Teams visit with Ghana Health Services

Akwaaba,

My how times does fly once the teams arrive in Ghana. Our days start early and seem to go on late into the night—or at least my day seems that way.

Friday, we left early to drive to the Amasaman Health District for a meeting with Dr. Cynthia Kawakye Maclean, the director of Health Services. Dr. Kawakye wanted to review our Breast Cancer Awareness Program. The program is being sponsored in part by St. Margaret’s Church, Annapolis, Maryland, and will target 70 women in four different villages. Each woman will be given a silicone aid to help maneuver their fingers when checking the breast. This is the first program of its kind to be present in this area of Ghana.

Thanks to Beth Hester, RN, and the Carroll Hospital Center, Westminster, aids like a torso of a women’s body with lumps in the breast, will be left in Ghana to help them present programs in the future. Dr. Kawakye expressed her deepest gratitude to Ghanaian Mothers’ Hope for helping to educate women in the villages.

We sat with wonder as she described one family deep in the bush with five children who wore no clothes, attended not school, were not immunized or even had a shelter. The four year old girl, named Lady, suffered from a Buruli Ulcer and was paralyzed, lying in her own filth on the dirt. When the Health Services rescued her she had been given liquor and snuff for the pain. They had to go a buy clothes for her to keep her in the hospital. Treatment for a Buruli Ulcer is extensive, including a course of TB drugs as the bacteria are related. Following months of treatment she was given a skin graft. After six months, she is still in the hospital. She still cannot stand on her leg and it will be another six months before she is able to leave. Lady and her siblings will be relocated to an Orphanage.

We visited with Lady, who was surprisingly not afraid of our presence. She loved having her photo taken. Buruli Ulcer is an epidemic here in the Ga West region. It would be wonderful to have a Rotary Club help us to treat and eliminate it. Calling Rotary—can you help us?

The rest of the day was spent at the Cultural Arts market. It is a place for feasting your eyes and challenging your barginning skills. This is the place to buy drums, carvings, and other items to take home. I hope you are ready to bid on the new drum or table that will be coming back for our silent auction. Nicole and Beth make a real team for bartering.

Thanks to Tana Younger and woveneye for photos. Check her blog http://www.woveneye.com  Blessings, Debi