ACCRA, (IRIN) – A bill before Ghana’s parliament aims to improve mental health care and encourage more health professionals to enter the sector by tackling one of the greatest impediments to both – stigma. “Stigma is the top issue affecting the level of care and service,” said Peter Yaro, programme manager at Basic Needs, a mental health NGO in Ghana. “Stigma means people don’t attach importance to mental health. There is very little prestige in being a psychiatrist or working with people with mental illness.” Ghana has 12 practising psychiatrists for a population of nearly 24 million, and three psychiatric... Continue Reading
By: Augustine N. Myers – The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Reporters & Editors Network of Liberia, has completed an intensive evaluation of access to safe drinking water and adequate & improved latrine facilities of Ivorian Refugees and host Communities in Nimba County. The evaluation of the water and latrine facilities by the WASH R&E Network was carried out in 15 large and populated communities in Gbelay-Geh District, close to the Liberian-Ivorian boarder. A release from the WASH R&E Network says the evaluation discovered a huge gap in the provision of safe drinking water and the need for the construction... Continue Reading
By FRANCIS ODUPUTE – Indeed the future is here, and its both amazing and terrifying altogether. Have you heard? Very soon, women all over the world may not need to breastfeed their newborn babies with human milks from their own breasts. Even men who used to “loan” their wives’ breasts to their new burns and infants for say, one year of exclusive “baby friendly” before they come back to continue ravishing their wives breasts will not need to wait for all that hell of a time to get human break milk to feed on. Have I got news for you?... Continue Reading
By Correspondent Chinyere Ogbonna – ECOWAS Chairman President, Goodluck Jonathan has expressed concern at the famine in Somalia. He pledged that Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS], would make appropriate responses at the forthcoming pledging conference to be held in Addis Ababa,the Ethiopian capital on the 25th of this month. President Jonathan was speaking when former Ghanaian President, Jerry John Rawlings, African Union High Representative for Somalia, came to brief him on the situation in Somalia, and seek a response to the conference. He described as worrisome the famine in the Horn of Africa. President Jonathan... Continue Reading
15 August, 2011. Last week, Médecins Sans Frontières sent medical teams and four charter planes carrying 55 tons of medical equipment, medicines and therapeutic food to Mogadishu in response to the crisis in Somalia. An estimated 100,000 people have fled from south and central Somalia to the capital to seek assistance in recent weeks. They are settling in numerous camps in and around Mogadishu, with little or no access to health care. MSF has started measles vaccination campaigns in dozens of makeshift camps where thousands of people have gathered after fleeing the exceptional drought and the violence in other parts... Continue Reading
