More than 350 residents at the Kutito number 2, a farming community in the West Gonja Municipal, in the Savannah Region, have benefited from free health screening provided by Grateful Givers, an Accra-based NGO.
Some of the health conditions screened and cared for included malaria, diabetes, typhoid, cervical and breast cancers, blood pressure, and dental care, among others.
In an interview with the Ghanaian Times, a nurse philanthropist and founder of the Grateful Giver, Maame Akosua Serwaa Gyening, urged women to take their healthcare seriously, especially with the issues of cervical and breast cancers.
She noted that Kutito number 2 was one of the most deprived communities in the West Gonja Municipality, indicating that the community lacked many social amenities, which undoubtedly impacted negatively on their lives.
“Kutito number 2 has no health facility, it has no pipe-borne water and other social amenities. This makes them very vulnerable, hence the intervention,” she added.
She said she would like to urge all women to take their health matters as seriously as anything else in life.
She commended the West Gonja Municipal Health Directorate for the support given to her and her team, and urged the government to prioritise health care for women and children.
“I think the government need to put the health care of the citizenry, especially women and children, at the top of its priorities,” she noted
On his part, the West Gonja Municipal Disease Control Officer, Mr Emmanuel Kwarteng, said the gesture came at the right time, as it would help prevent the mortalities in the community.
He noted that due to lack of pipe-borne water and other social amenities, the community had been battling with thyroid and other communicable diseases, and commended the Grateful Givers for the gesture.
He appealed to other organisations to come to the aid of the community.
“Kutito number 2 is hard-to-reach area, that was one of the reasons why we chose this community for this particular screening when we were contacted in a sense that they don’t have any social amenity, water, electricity, so their health care behaviour is kind of dicey, they have to move to number 1 or number 3, which are all far from them,” Mr Kwarteng said.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to Ghanaian Times, expressed gratitude to the Grateful Givers, and appealed to other institutions to come to their aid.