KIA Motors, in collaboration with World Vision, has handed over a medical facility, known as KIA Green Light Health Center, to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Akyem Saaman community in the Fanteakwa South District of the Eastern Region.
The KIA Green Light Health Center, which is funded by the KIA Automobile Company, Korea, is part of a five-year project, which was started in July 2018, and would be completed in September this year.
It is situated on four acres of land dedicated to the KIA Green Light Health project, and boasts of a number of consulting rooms, maternity with labour wards, a laboratory, dispensary, storerooms and other equipment, as well as a Mobile Clinic van.
The total cost of the two projects was $1,090,000 and is to contribute to the reduction of maternal and child mortality, and morbidity in the Osino sub-district of Fanteakwa South District through the improvement of access and quality of health care services provided by health staff and volunteers.
Addressing the gathering during the handing over ceremony over the weekend, the Head of KIA SM team, Eunjoo Lee, said the facility had become a seed for sustainable growth and catalyst for positive change towards the future.
According to him, the project aims to improve the health, nutrition and social well-being of the most vulnerable populations, including infants and young children within the district.
The KIA Green Light Health Center is expected to serve 14,363 beneficiaries (5,723 men, 5,855 women, 1,492 girls and 1,263 boys) in five communities, namely Saaman, Abompe, Dwenase, Gyampomani and Nsuapemso
From an original design for a Community Health Post, known in Ghana as “Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound, the facility has been upgraded to Health Centre status, with the relevant facilities and services in place.
The KIA Mobile Van supports the health outreach programme of the KIA Green Light Health Center to hard-to-reach communities.
In an effort to ensure the provision of 24-hour healthcare services, a staff accommodation facility has been provided, as well as the construction of a mini theater as part of efforts to upgrade the facility to deliver essential health care services to the project beneficiaries.
Joshua Baidoo, Integrated Programmes Director, World Vision, said the Health Center project had attached to it a poultry farm project with an initial 2,000 birds to shore up the internally generated fund, create jobs, and increase the nutritional needs of the people.
In a speech delivered by Dr. Banabas Kwame Yeboah on behalf of the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, who lauded the collaborative initiative, stated that it would significantly prevent avoidable deaths.
He assured the gatherings of the readiness of the GHS to augment logistics needed and protect the life span of the facility.
The District Chief Executive for Fanteakwa South, Mr. Ernest Ofosu, said the district had no hospital, therefore access to health care was a challenge to the people resulting to an incidence in maternal deaths.
He was convinced that with the provision of the Kia Green Light Health Center, and government efforts in building and equipping CHPS compounds in the district, the mortality and morbidity rates would significantly reduce.
