Yaale community benefits from health screening(THE MIRROR, Saturday, December 15, 2012. Page 32)

Story & Pix: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Yaale Yaale community is one of the most deprived in the Talensi district is of the Upper East Region. Social amenities such as clinics, schools, water, and electricity are lacking or inadequate. The road network is poor. The major occupation of the people is small scale mining and subsistence farming and this is characterized by low yields mainly due to low soil fertility erratic rainfall pattern and small farm sizes. The community has no clinic or health post. The alternative facility is the Presbyterian Primary Health Care Centre at Namolgo, which is about eight kilometers away Yaale. There is also a health post at Datoku however the nature of the settlement pattern and poor road network has made patronage of these health facilities by the people of Yaale is rather poor, thereby causing high incidences of disease and illness. High poverty levels of the people of the area are manifested in their inability to register for the National Health Insurance Scheme that will also help them access health care. Touched by their plight, Eastwood Anaba Ministries under its social transformation wing organized a medical outreach in the community. A team of medical doctors, nurses and pharmacists screened the people for various ail-ments and administered drugs. Those with critical cases were referred to the Regional Hospital for further attention. Apart from the medical screening, the medical team also gave out gifts, including clothing for adults. shoes, baby clothing to the people. A total of 160 people made up of 86 adults and 74 children were registered onto the National Health Insurance Scheme to enable people use their cards to access health care in nearby communities. An associate member of the E.A.M, Mrs. Ruth Wallace said the programme was birthed by Rev Eastwood and Mrs. Rosemond Anaba to primarily to extend the God’s love to the community and to propagate the gospel of Christ. She explained that the medical outreach was designed to see to the economic, social, as well as the spiritual development of the deprived in the society adding that aside the medical outreach, E.A.M has also embarked on an educational support programme where children are assisted from pre-school to tertiary levels. She added that it was the objective of organization to in the future provide, funds permitting to provide social amenities such as water to deprived communities, support agriculture which is the main occupation of the people and well as enhance skill acquisition by the youth, stressing that “our aim is to ensure that more people are empowered”. Mrs. Wallace said through that they hope to storm the tide of migration to urban areas and also help the youth to put a stop social to vices. The Coordinator of the Medical Outreach programme, Dr. Hornametor Afake said the aim of the programme was to reach out to the people in the community who in one way or another did not have access health facility in the community. He said some of the conditions examined were malaria, high blood pressure, respiratory tract infections, wound dressing, ophthalmology cases and anemia in children amongst others. The Assembly man for the Garri-Gbane Electoral Area, Mr. Bismark Yumah was grateful to the medical team and Eastwood Anaba Ministries for the gesture and expressed the hope that it would be sustained. He appealed to philanthropists and corporate bodies to help build a Junior High school in the area to save the children who have completed their primary school from walking long distances to attend JHS School in neighboring communities. Mr. Yumah said the district assembly has not been able to meet all their development needs of the community to lift them out of their socio-economic status. He said it was through the self-help of the people and the support of some non-governmental organizations that saw the construction of a primary school and the provision of a borehole for the area. He appealed the Eastwood Anaba Ministries to provide the community with a clinic for the area since health care was paramount to the people. -End- Writer’s email: benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh