Ghana Rural News

24/10/2020

As the world observes Breast Cancer Awareness month this month, women above 40 years in the five regions in the north may not have their breasts adequately screened of cancer as there is no mammography machine in this part of the country.
In the circumstance, they may not know their status or undergo proper treatment, a situation, which poses grave danger to their well-being.
The lack of mammography machine is not only affecting treatment for women above age 40 diagnosed with cancer, but also a challenge to health care workers as it puts them in a dilemma in terms of how to screen women above that age.
The GNA gathered that the nearest place to the north where a mammography machine is available is the Holy Family Hospital at Techiman.
Mammography machine is used to screen women who are above the age of 40 and it is the standard diagnostic test to confirm lumps in breasts.
The Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) had this machine, however, it broke down several years ago leaving patients, who require such services, to either travel to Techiman or abandon treatment.
The month of October is observed as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is an annual campaign to increase awareness on breast cancer to ensure, amongst others, that every woman has access to education, screening, treatment, and support of the disease.
According to the American Cancer Society, there are more than 270,000 new cases of breast cancer and nearly 42,000 breast cancer deaths annually, and breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second most fatal cancer in women.
As part of the month-long event, the TTH has been screening women free of charge of breast cancer and counselling them on the disease.
Since the beginning of the month, the hospital (TTH) has screened about 1,000 women of the disease, where about 10 per cent of them were identified as positive cases, some of the cases at advanced stages.
Madam Evelyn Osei-Amoah, Oncology Nurse Specialist at the TTH, who spoke to the GNA in Tamale on Wednesday about the effects of non-availability of the mammography machine at the facility and the entire five regions in the north, said “You will write the request for the patients and it can take a patient about three months to bring the results.”
Madam Osei-Amoah said “You can’t blame the patient because she is now going to look for lorry fare to travel to Techiman and go and pay for the test also. So, there are some of them, we write for them and they won’t even do it, and that is a huge challenge.”
She added that “When it comes to us screening our women, when we get there, we are a bit stuck and even at the breast clinic, when a woman comes above that age complaining of pain, complaining of uneasiness in the breast, what at all are you going to do? Are you just going to use a needle to prick trying to find out where?
She expressed the urgent need for the machine to be provided at least at the TTH, adding « If we have the mammography machine, a patient could have done that test and it would have been of help to us. So that is a huge challenge to us.”
She, appealed to well-meaning organisations and individuals to support, by purchasing the machine for the TTH to help in providing quality care for cancer patients above the age of 40 years.

GNA

17/01/2020

About half of the student population have refused to return to the school....
https://ghananewsagency.org/education/nkwanta-shs-students-refuse-to-report-after-christmas-holidays-162650

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16/11/2019

“Numerous democraticians and good governance worshippers believe strongly that the interference of politicians in local level elections is a curse that has already started diluting the gains of decentralization in Ghana”, a Local Government Consultant has stated.
https://ghananewsagency.org/politics/-politicising-district-level-elections-is-a-curse-consultant-159883

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02/08/2019

AG-CARE donates story books to Pusuga Community Library
AG- CARE, an NGO, has donated over 400 story books to the Pusuga Community Library in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern Region as part of efforts to enhance reading and learning amongst pupils in the area.
The library was established by the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada, an international NGO, in 2018, following a report by a Community Journalist, Mr Mohammed Hashim Yakubu, which suggested that most pupils of Pusuga Junior High and Primary Schools could not read leading to poor standard of education in the area.
AG-CARE, therefore, donated the books to help improve the standard of education in the area.
In a related development, earlier last year, AG-CARE organized remedial classes for class three pupils of Pusuga Primary School.
The initiative was facilitated by Mr Mohammed Hashim and Mr Abass Osman, who voluntarily helped to teach the pupils after school and also during holidays.
After a year of the initiative, an evaluation proved that the intervention helped a lot as most pupils now read fluently.
This development had made the AG- CARE to extend the initiative to all their partner communities across the Nanumba North Municipality.

01/07/2019

Residents had been depending on a nearby dam after their water facility broke down three years ago hence the MP’s intervention.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/mion-mp-undertakes-water-road-projects-152352?utm_source=gna&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=sitesearch&utm_term=keywords&utm_content=

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01/07/2019

It was said that s*xual in*******se amongst teenagers was on the rise in the country resulting in high rate of teenage pregnancy as statistics showed that about 17.8 per cent of women between the ages of 15 – 19 were pregnant in the country in 2016.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/demanding-gifts-from-unemployed-daughters-fuels-teenage-pregnancy-152353?utm_source=gna&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=sitesearch&utm_term=keywords&utm_content=

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30/06/2019

Those, whose hypertensive status required attention, were given medicines whilst those with refractive problems were given subsidised spectacles, and were advised to seek further treatment at health facilities.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/health/uds-embarks-on-medical-outreach-152367

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27/06/2019

An ongoing construction of a bus terminal at a residential area at Tishigu, a suburb of Tamale, has become a source of discomfort for the residents, who want the project to be stopped immediately.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/tishigu-residents-want-bus-terminal-project-stopped-152172

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24/04/2019

Do you know the only second cycle institution in Ghana where hearing impaired students combine with those without hearing impairment for classes together and for the same exams? How do you think the hearing impaired students will cope in the class, and what can we do to improve their learning outcomes? Read the article below for details.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/features/promoting-quality-inclusive-education-need-for-sign-language-interpreters-148255

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01/03/2019

Members of Parliament (MPs) from Konkomba and Chokosi ethnic communities have interacted with their indigenes expressing the need for them to coexist peacefully to promote development.
The MPs, who represent Saboba, Chereponi, Yunyoo, and Wulensi Constituencies in the Northern and North East Regions, visited various communities within their jurisdictions with the peace message in a bid to avert conflicts amongst their people.
The MPs undertook this initiative to avert what they said was intelligence they picked pointing to a possible eruption of conflicts between Konkombas and Chokosis on March 06, this year.
It will be recalled that in June 2018, conflicts erupted between the two ethnic groups at Naaduni leading to the death of two people and burning of about 10 houses.
In January, 2019, there was another conflict between the two ethnic groups where a number of houses were burnt with government consequently imposing a curfew on Chereponi.
Mr Charles Bintin, MP for Saboba, who spoke during the interactions at the Konkomba and Chokosi communities at Chereponi and Saboba, said both ethnic groups were one people appealing to them to avoid conflicts.

12/02/2019

Jail men who impregnate school girls – Kpandai SMC Networks
School Management Committee (SMC) Networks in the Kpandai District of the Northern Region have appealed to the Assembly to pass a by-law to jail any man who impregnates a basic school girl in the area.
The Kpandai SMC Networks have also proposed that as part of the by-law any parent who, would decline to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies to prosecute men, who impregnated their basic school girls, should face sanctions.
This move, according to Kpandai SMC Networks, was aimed at punishing men in the area, who made it a hobby to impregnate young school girls, knowing very well that the girls’ parents would opt for out of court settlement to avoid embarrassment.
This formed part of decisions taken at a district education forum held at Kpandai by the Kpandai SMC Networks in partnership with Choice Ghana, a non-governmental organization.
The forum attended by stakeholders in education in the district was to share, discuss and come out with innovative strategies to improve learning outcomes amongst children in the area and to ensure that no child of school going age was left behind.
It was also to share findings of a survey conducted in 2018 by the Kpandai SMC Networks in partnership with Choice Ghana on factors affecting children’s learning outcomes in the district.
According to the survey, socio-cultural factors such as poverty, early marriages, engagement of children in s*xual in*******se, children attending funerals, engagement of children in economic activities, children attending music shows amongst others were responsible for low learning outcomes amongst them.
A 2016 and 2017 citizen led assessments on children’s learning competencies in literacy and numeracy in the district conducted by the Kpandai SMC Networks in partnership with Choice Ghana with support from Oxfam revealed low learning outcomes amongst children as the overall competency levels of children stood at 11 per cent and 31% respectively.
Mr Emmanuel Kofi Issifa, Chairman of Kpandai SMC Networks, who summarized the position of stakeholders at the forum, said many girls were getting pregnant and dropping out of school but there was no sanction for the men, who impregnated the girls hence the proposal to the Assembly to pass such a by-law.

31/01/2019

Since the launch of School Health Education Programme (SHEP) policy implementation guidelines by Ghana Education Service, not much has been done to implement them in schools across the country due to lack of resources and the commitment to support SHEP activities. This has resulted amongst others in inadequate access to water, poor environmental sanitation and personal hygiene and generally poor health of school children, which were a threat to the country’s quest to achieving universal access to education and Sustainable Development Goals three, four and six. The Tamale Archdiocesan Development Office, therefore, has launched a project to ensure that pupils have access to and practise proper personal hygiene and sound environmental sanitation. The project titled: “Building Resilience for Improved Development and Growth of Pupils’ Education” (BRIDGE), also seeks to ensure that retention and academic performance of children increase by 70 per cent by the year 2021. BRIDGE is being implemented in 20 selected basic schools spread across seven Assemblies in the Northern Region namely Tamale Metro, Sagnarigu, Savelugu, and East Gonja Municipalities, Kpandai, Kumbungu and Tolon Districts. Very Reverend Matthew Yitiereh, Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Tamale, who launched the project in Tamale, said it was in line with the strategic objective of the church to improve the health of all.

16/01/2019

Towards population control......
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/rural-dwellers-need-free-family-planning-methods-population-council-144099

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18/12/2018

Majority of the people in the Municipality are farmers. Most of them cultivate yam. Yam, therefore, features prominently in the economy of the area. Yam farmers in the area can gain more from their labour if the teething challenges affecting yam production in the area are addressed. The government through the Municipal Assembly needs to prioritize revamping of the yam industry in the area by improving the road network in the area.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/features/addressing-yam-harvest-losses-in-nanumba-north-need-for-improved-storage-technologies-143372

A GNA Feature by Albert Futukpor Zibaga (N/R), Dec. 17, GNA - Pastor David Kulma is the Focal Person of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana at Bimbilla in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern Region. Last year, he harvested two acres of yam from his farm at Zibaga, about 15 minutes-drive....

14/12/2018

Statistics from the Ghana Education Service has shown consistent poor performance by pupils at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) level at the Sagnarigu Municipality despite the area being blessed with most of the best schools in the Northern Region. The poor performance at the BECE level has seen the Municipality being rated poor amongst other Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the region as it placed ninth out of the 26 MMDAs in the region and 125th out of the 216 MMDAs in the country during the 2017 BECE.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/education/sagnarigu-poor-in-bece-despite-good-schools-143264

By Albert Futukpor, GNA Tamale, Dec. 14, GNA - Statistics from the Ghana Education Service has shown consistent poor performance by pupils at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) level at the Sagnarigu Municipality despite the area being blessed with most of the best schools in the No...

29/11/2018

Water and decent toilet facilities are a requirement for every human settlement. They promote hygienic practices, which ensure a healthy living. For academic institutions, the availability of water and decent toilet facilities or what is known as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities presents a conducive opportunity for students to concentrate on their academic activities. However, some senior high schools (SHSs) in the Northern Region cannot boast of water and decent toilet facilities. Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister for Education stated at a meet-the-press in Accra in November, 2017 that there were 23 SHSs without toilet facilities in the country. The situation of SHSs’ without water and toilet facilities in the Northern Region can be categorized into three: those that do not have water and toilet facilities at all, those that have but they are not enough to cater for the high number of students, and those that have some water but their toilets are water-closet facilities where there is no running water to flush them after use. In all these situations, students queue especially in the mornings and evenings to go to toilet, and those that cannot withstand the pressure either defaecate in polythene bags and dump them in nearby bushes or openly defaecate in the bush. In the case of water, students walk long distances in search of the commodity.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/features/lack-of-toilets-at-shss-a-major-concern-for-girls-in-the-northern-region-142374

A GNA Feature by Albert Futukpor Tamale, Nov. 28, GNA - Water and decent toilet facilities are a requirement for every human settlement. They promote hygienic practices, which ensure a healthy living. For academic institutions, the availability of water and decent toilet facilities or what is known....

21/11/2018

Some clients have complained that staff of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) demand unauthorized payments from them, which tend to increase the cost of health care delivery. Clients said “Even though there is proper payment system for services at TTH, certain health workers have gone behind the system and extort clients.” They complained of paying GH₵400.00 at the theater for caesarean section to deliver babies without being issued official receipts while others said “Some nurses demand money before clients are allowed to see their babies.” Some men at Dohanayili complained of paying GH₵20.00 to health workers without receipts provided before they were told the s*x of their babies and others also disclosed that an amount of GH₵1,000.00 was demanded before dead bodies of their relatives were released from the mortuary to them and this payment did not come with receipts.
http://www.ghananewsagency.org/health/tth-staff-accused-of-unprofessional-acts-141854

By Albert Futukpor, GNA Tamale, Nov. 18, GNA - Some clients have complained that staff of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) demand unauthorized payments from them, which tend to increase the cost of health care delivery. The clients, who raised the allegations on five broad themes including effecti...