A memorial foundation has been set up in honour of the late Rev. Emile Doe Dogbe-Gakpetor of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church. The foundation, which will focus on four key areas—education, youth empowerment, livelihoods and religious tolerance—aims to continue the vision of Rev. Dogbe-Gakpetor. Rev. Dogbe-Gakpetor, who died on November 6, 2012, pastored the Trinity AME Zion Church, Ho; Bishop Speaks AME Zion Church, Accra Newtown; the Big Zion AME Zion Church at South La; and the Bishop Alleyne AME Zion Church at Kaneshie. Launching the foundation, the Presiding Prelate of the Western West Africa Episcopal Area of the AME Zion Church, Bishop Seth Lartey, praised the Rev. Dogbe-Gakpetor for the able manner in which he fostered religious tolerance between Christians and Muslims. “I am extremely delighted to be associated with this event for several reasons. The one that stands out tall is inter-religious tolerance,” he said. He also lauded the contribution of Rev. Dogbe-Gakpetor to religious tolerance between Muslims and Christians at Nima.  

  The IFS Financial Services on Friday, January 3, 2014, auctioned a house belonging to a 70-year-old woman to defray a loan for which the house was used as collateral. Ms Margaret Mensah, a retiree, had used her house, located at Mataheko in Accra, as collateral for the loan which a friend of her son had secured from the financial institution some eight years ago. However, due to the inability of the borrower, the Managing Director of Farmers Alliance Company Limited, Mr David Siale, to pay for the loan, the house was sold to settle his indebtedness. Mr Siale was introduced to the 70-year-old woman by her son, Ibrahim Laryea Conney, now deceased. Appeal  I am appealing to government officials, pastors, the Chief Imam, philanthropists, women advocates and all other concerned bodies to come to my aid,” Mrs Mensah said, amidst tears. The auction  The auctioning was done by an auctioneer, a court official and a representative of the IFS Financial Services after the case had been heard by the Accra Fast Track High Court about eight times. In an interview, Mrs Mensah explained that she agreed to give out her house to the managing director because she trusted him. The retiree said her late son informed her that his friend was the managing director of a company which was into cocoa business in the country.  She said in the morning on Friday, January 3, 2014, she was in the room when she saw a group of people standing at the entrance of her house apparently to sell the house. She immediately decided to stop them, but on the prowl, she felt dizzy, almost falling to the ground, but a family member held her up and took her indoors. “It was really disturbing to have seen a house I had shed blood, sweat and tears to build sold out to a complete stranger, I felt I had wasted 70 years of my lifetime on earth. I wished I were that strong to stop them and I don’t even know the amount for which it was auctioned.  The court had told us that the house would be sold out, but it never informed us it would be done today and this soon,” Ms Mensah bemoaned. Collateral  According to her, that was not the first time she was using her house as collateral for the manager to secure a loan. She said she had benefited from the earlier assistance but she said she signed some documents for the failed transaction without reading the fine print. “I was told that if the loan was paid up in time, I will get some money. As a helpless woman at my age, I obliged and gave out my house. But for the past eight years, I did not get anything. All I got was a notice that the debt had not been paid and that my house would be sold,” she said. In the meantime, the old woman said she was counting her luck, as she waited for the final ejection notice.  “I have nowhere to go with my children and grandchildren. My dead son was taken ill when this issue came up and in the course of the court processes he died. I had to plan my son’s funeral while I thought of losing my house.” Borrower Declined Comment When the Daily Graphic contacted the Managing Director, Mr Siale, he declined to speak, with the explanation that the issue was in court and any comment he made would be in contempt. New developments In a phone interview with the Daily Graphic on Thursday January, 16, 2014, Mrs Mensah explained that she, together with her nephew and Mr Siale went to the IFS Financial Services on Monday, January 13, 2014 to meet officials of the service. She said the purpose of the meeting was to plead with the service to give them some time to enable them to raise funds to settle the debt owed them but the service “turned a deaf ear” to their pleadings. “The officials told us that they had already given us a 21 day ultimatum to pay the money so that they could transfer the ownership back to us. Failure to do so, they said, would prompt them to eject us from the house and give way to the new owner,” she stressed. After all the efforts to come to a compromise with the bank failed, Mrs Mensah said she had since “combed” all sources she thought could help her  raise funds but all her efforts had proved futile. With five days left of the 21days eviction notice, the 70-year-old is still counting her luck to find help from somewhere to relieve her plight.  

  The  Grand Cross of the Sovereign Order Hospitality of St John of Jerusalem of the Knight of Malta has decided to establish diplomatic ties with some West African countries. The countries are Togo, Liberia,  Burkina Faso, Angola, Federal Republic of Nigeria,  Benin and  Sierra Leone. The Ambassador of the Knight of Malta, Mr Lorenzo Dore, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic last Wednesday when he paid a courtesy call on the  Burkina Faso Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Mime Traore Some Clemence, in Accra. He was accompanied by Dr Luigi Coppola as charge d’ affaire of the Knight of Malta Mission in Ghana. He said the assistance  his mission had been offering to the needy institutions in Ghana from 2002 would be extended to the new countries they had established the ties with. Ambassador Lorenzo  said  some of the needy institutions they had been assisting are orphanages, leprosariums, hospitals,  and primary schools. He further stated that his outfit had  plans to undertake a plastic reconstructive surgery project in the country to improve the health delivery system in the country.  

  An epidemic is looming in the Ada West District in the Greater Accra Region where some residents in many of the communities have resorted to indiscriminate defaecation because the public toilets are not usable. Whereas some of them engage in ‘free range’ (defaecating in open spaces), especially around the public toilets, others parcel their faeces in black plastic bags at home and deposit them anywhere in their communities. At Akplabanya, the largest town in the district, the residents have refused to use a water closet public toilet since it was inaugurated about seven years ago for various reasons. For instance, they say they were not involved in its planning and execution. Rather, they prefer to defaecate in the open spaces near the rejected public toilet. Many of the public toilets are located within the communities, raising fears among environmental health officials that the situation might lead to an epidemic. “The situation is very serious and something has to be done about it before we experience any disaster,” Mr Divine Kpo, an environmental health officer in the Ada West District, said when the Daily Graphic visited the district last Saturday to assess the environmental situation there. But the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Anthony Yao Klokpa, later told the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview that “we are dealing with the issue”. Public toilets The public toilet at Sege, the district capital, has been closed since March 2013 because the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) had cut water supply to the facility due to its indebtedness of about GH¢5,800. Under the circumstance, some of the residents are using the environs of the public toilet and even the backyard of the district assembly offices nearby as alternative places of convenience via ‘free range’, which comes at no cost, compared with the GHp20 charged for using the public toilet. The DCE confirmed the indebtedness to the CWSA but he pointed out that the person who was managing the toilet had been able to raise money to settle the indebtedness. He said the district assembly was talking to the CWSA to restore the water supply, adding, “As we speak now, there is headway.”  At Lolonya and Goi, although the Kumasi Ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP) public toilets are full, the human waste has not been dislodged for a long time, rendering the toilets unusable. According to Mr Kpo, the two KVIPs were built many years ago and because for a long time they had not been dislodged and the gas emanating from the human waste in the pit could cause an explosion. Already, some cracks have developed in the walls of the 10-seater public toilet buildings, and Mr Kpo advised this reporter against going inside to take pictures of the cracks because he believed the quality of the buildings had been seriously compromised. Nevertheless, he said, some people still risked their lives by using the facility, especially in the night, while others littered the environment with faeces in their raw state or ‘parcelled’. As we went round examining the situation, he kept cautioning me to be wary of the ‘landmines’ (toilet on the ground), a caution I heeded with a gliding movement. Mr Klokpa admitted that the KVIP public toilets in the two communities were old, saying, “Actually, we are concerned about the situation”. Demolish toilets Mr Kpo advised that the public toilets should be demolished immediately in order to avert disaster, adding that there was the need for new toilets to be built for the communities. The DCE said the district assembly was considering the demolition of the old toilet facilities and the building of new ones for the communities. He added that the construction of KVIPs in communities was being discouraged but given the challenges of water supply in the communities, the district assembly would make a case for the construction of new KVIPs, instead of water closets. An elderly woman at Goi, whose house is close to the public toilet, was so disheartened about the situation that she could not help making her case as she stepped out of the bathhouse. “I am tired of sweeping toilet every morning,” she said in Ga Dangme. Asked where she attends to the call of nature, given the bad state of the public toilet now, she pointed at the beach, about 50 metres away. What is more worrying to Mr Kpo is that during the bumper fishing season, some of the women dry fish near the public toilets, on the very grounds that they defaecate on. Toilet close to clinic Mr Kpo also called for the demolition of another public toilet at Anyamam because, apart from being full, its structural integrity was weak. Moreover, he said, whenever it rained, the rain water collected faecal materials from the public toilet onto the immediate surroundings, and considering that there was a clinic close by, the existence of that public toilet was not good for health reasons. He also noted that there were two other toilet facilities on the same premises (one for the local basic school) which were better managed to serve the needs of the community. White elephant  Unlike Lolonya and Goi which have KVIP public toilets, Akplabanya may be considered more fortunate for having a water closet public toilet. Interestingly, since the CWSA-sponsored public toilet was inaugurated about seven years ago, the residents have refused to use it because, according to Mr Kpo, they were not involved in the execution of the project. They are also sceptical about the safety of the effluent storage facility, expressing the fear that it might explode one day. Furthermore, the residents are not happy that no community member was trained to repair the machine that pumps the toilet into the effluent storage facility. Their decision not to use the public toilet is also informed by the fact that the facility was sited in a low-lying area and so whenever it rains, the premises get flooded, making access difficult. When the Daily Graphic visited the premises last Saturday, the beautiful public toilet edifice looked deserted. The caretaker confirmed that the residents did not patronise the toilet facility, but when asked the reason for that attitude, he said, “I don’t know”. Mr Klokpa told this reporter that the contractor did not consider the water level, adding, “The whole thing out there is a flop”. He, however, said the district assembly had taken steps to address the situation with the construction of a new toilet facility nearby, which would be inaugurated soon. According to Mr Kpo, this problem could have been averted or could be resolved with education but that had not been done yet. Rubbish problem Another troubling sanitation problem in the district is the indiscriminate dumping of refuse. In some places such as Lolonya, some of the residents said the rubbish containers provided by the district assembly were not emptied regularly, hence the indiscriminate dumping of refuse. In other places, there are no rubbish containers and so indiscriminate dumping of refuse has become the norm. Lack of resources Mr Kpo indicated that doing regular supervisory work and educating the people was difficult because his office did not have the requisite tools and means of transportation to do so “and so we go round once every week”. He also said there was the need for the district assembly to allocate part of its share of the District Assembly Common Fund to finding solution to the sanitation challenges. Efforts to contact the District Chief Executive to find out how the district assembly is dealing with the situation were not successful, as his mobile phone number was said to be “out of coverage area”. Writer’s Email: [email protected]  

President John Dramani Mahama has appointed former BBC presenter, Ben Dotse Malor as Senior Communications Adviser and Head of Communications at the Presidency, a statement from the Ministry of Information has said. Mr  Malor  joins  the Presidency with a wealth of experience, expertise and accomplishments from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the  United Nations (UN), where he has  been serving as the Chief Executive Producer of UN Radio. Mr. Malor was  also Communications Adviser to the President of the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly.        Among other duties at the UN, he served for two years from September 2006 with  the UN Mission in Liberia, as Spokesperson and Deputy Chief of Public Information. He also served for a year as an Associate Spokesperson for UN Secretary-­‐General Ban Ki-­‐moon. Before joining the UN in January 2003, Mr Dotse Malor distinguished himself as a vibrant and popular voice across many programmes at the BBC World service, where he rose to the position of Deputy Editor of Focus  On Africa.

  Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur, the wife of the Vice-President, has cut the sod for work to begin on a hospice  at Osabene, near Adweso, in the Akuapem North municipality in the Eastern Region. The GH¢1.5-million facility, which will cater for terminally ill persons until they eventually pass away, is the brainchild of Monsignor Bobby Benson of the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua. Currently, the diocese is catering for a number of persons living with HIV and AIDS in a specially constructed edifice named Mathew Chapter 25. Fourth in Africa When completed, the hospice will be the fourth of its kind in Africa after South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In her remarks, Mrs Amissah-Arthur expressed the hope that the facility would help lessen the burden on women who normally took care of family members whose medical conditions had been declared hopeless. She advised relatives of terminally ill persons who would use the facility when completed not to just dump the sick at the hospice but continue to visit  and show them love until the ultimate happened. She was full of praise for the Koforidua Diocese of the Catholic Church for its initiative which, she said, would ensure care and comfort for the terminally ill before they passed on to glory. Afrifah-Agyekum The Most Rev Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum, the Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese of the Catholic Church, said the concerns of the church towards terminally ill persons were meant to provide them with love, devotion and quality health care in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ. That, to him, had become necessary because life on earth had always been associated with challenges such as sickness, pain and eventual death. “We should not neglect the terminally ill because their end should not be in pain or loneliness, and this is why we are putting up this facility to cater for such persons,” he stated. Earlier, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Mavis Ama Frempong, had praised Mrs Amissah-Arthur for her love for the sick and the underprivileged.  

  Four landfill sites in the Ga South municipality, near Accra, have been capped and prepared for recreational and business activities. They are the Oblogo, Mallam SCC, Mallam Number One and Mallam Number Two landfill sites. Until they were reclaimed, the sites, which served as dumping sites for refuse from all parts of Accra for 10 years, emitted overpowering stench which became a nuisance and posed health challenges to adjoining communities.  The rehabilitation of the landfill sites was carried out as part of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s (AMA’s) solid waste management component of the Government of Ghana and the World Bank urban environmental sanitation project, phase two. The World Bank released $1.4 million to Ghana for the capping of the four landfill sites, which cover 158 acres. Two local waste management companies, Zoomlion and Malson Company Limited, did the capping of the four landfill sites.  WasteCare Associates, a local firm, was the consulting company for the projects. All the four sites have clay barriers, laterite layers, peripheral drains, chain link fencing and planted local shrubs to check erosion. Capped sites An engineer and consultant on the project, Mr Lukman Salifu, told the Daily Graphic that the sites were now environmentally friendly. He said the sites could be used for recreational, commercial and agricultural purposes.  However, he said structures such as offices or schools could not be built on the reclaimed sites because of site differentials. A site differential means that some areas on the capped sites could go down faster than other areas and so any structure put up on the sites could collapse within a short period of time. Mr Lukman said because of the circulation of methane gas around the capped sites, activities involving the use of fire would not be encouraged. Handing over The Chief Executive Officer of the AMA, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, handed over the landfill sites to the Ga South Municipal Assembly last Friday. In his remarks, Mr Vanderpuije said the hitherto mountainous dump sites containing more than five million metric tonnes of refuse posed health challenges to residents, a situation which forced them to make incessant complaints to the AMA. He said the government sought the assistance of the World Bank to reclaim the landfill sites and save residents from continuous health challenges. Mr Vanderpuije challenged the Ga South Municipal Assembly to protect the sites against encroachment. The Ga South Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Jerry Thompson, warned encroachers against putting up any structures on the sites, since they belonged to the assembly. He said the assembly would develop the sites for recreational and development activities to generate revenue to support its operations. Residents’ reaction Some residents of Oblogo, Gbawe and McCarthy Down, who lived around the capped sites, told the Daily Graphic that they were generally happy about the capping of the landfill sites. They said hitherto the sites made the surroundings very dirty, besides the poignant stench, especially after heavy downpours. Mr Prince Odahe, a resident of Oblogo, said prior to the capping of the landfill site in the area, flies hovered around the area, which caused discomfort to residents. His worry concerned the gas extraction that he learnt would be done on the site and asked the authorities to put in place safety measures to save residents from any harmful effects. Another resident, Mr Sackey Addo of McCarthy Down, said residents still suffered from the stench of the dirty water coming out from the Mallam SCC landfill capped site. He explained that the situation became worse whenever the managers of the capped site released the dirty water collected from the site into a nearby gutter. He, therefore, appealed to the authorities to take steps to manage the flow of dirty water from the site.  

  Officials of the Pamela Bridgewater Project interacting with some ‘kayayei’ in Accra after donating food items and baby diapers to them. This was at a get-together organised by the organisation for the kayayei at the Nima Frankies and Mallam Atta markets.  The Communication Director of the project, Mr Bawa Bulmuo, thanked STL Ghana Ltd for supporting the programme and appealed to other institutions to emulate their example. Mr Larbi Amoah, a legal practitioner, educated the ‘kayayei’ on their rights and advised them to be weary of unscrupulous men who would want to take advantage them. He advised them to report any abuse against them to the police.  

  Tomato farmers at Akomadan in the Offinso North District have appealed to the government to stop the importation of tomatoes from Burkina Faso. That, they said, would ensure that Ghanaian tomato farmers got ready markets for their produce all year round and also save them from incurring losses. According to them, when tomatoes were in season in  Burkina Faso, the market women hardly patronised their produce as they preferred buying from the neighbouring country. The farmers, however, admitted that the Burkina Faso tomatoes were of higher quality with lower water content which made it less perishable. Protection from Government That notwithstanding, they believed that if they enjoyed some protection from the government, they could also grow their business and improve on their varieties to match that of Burkina Faso. The Secretary to the Akomadan Tomato Farmers Co-operative, Kingsford Baffoe, told the Daily Graphic that aside the non-guaranteed price for their produce and the cost of fertiliser and other chemicals used for the cultivation of the crop, they were also faced with the high cost of electricity, particularly those of them farming at the irrigation dam site. Increase in utility tarrifs According to him, as a result of the increase in utility tariffs, members of the co-operative now paid GH¢700 instead of GH¢400 to cultivate an acre of land for three months, by which time they would have harvested their produce. The amount includes the use of the land, water from the dam and the maintenance fee for the dam. Mr Baffoe, who has been farming for the past 20 years, said the business was lucrative and could get better if the government could stop the importation of tomatoes from Burkina Faso. He said even though the government had helped with the provision of the dam to help them cultivate the produce even during the dry season, “the Ouaga (Burkina Faso) issue is really worrying us.” “Although we are in the dry season in which tomato is a bit scarce, some of the farmers still have some of the produce but there are no buyers and these days, they don’t stop here. They bypass us to Ouaga to go bring tomatoes when we have some here,” he lamented. Breaking even He said even though the market women paid very little for their produce, particularly when there was a glut, most of them managed to break even and remain in business, and believed that if they could be assured of ready markets all year round, “it will be good for our business.” Currently, he said, a box of tomato is being sold between GH¢15 and GH¢20 “but this could go as high as GH¢200 during the lean season.” Another issue hampering their business is the deplorable state of roads to their farms which prevents traders from coming to their farms, especially during the rainy season.  

  Thirty-two illegal lotto operators, including a woman, have been arrested in Sekondi-Takoradi for engaging in lottery fraud. They have been placed in custody at the Sekondi Central Prisons and would be arraigned. The swoop, which led to their arrest, was undertaken jointly by the Takoradi Rapid Deployment Force of the Ghana Police Service and the National Lottery Authority (NLA) offices in Sekondi,Takoradi and Kwesimintsim. Lieutenant-Colonel Dzotefe Mensah (retd), Security Manager of the NLA, read a statement on behalf of Brigadier-General Martin Ahiaglo, acting Director-General of the Authority, to confirm the arrest to the media in Takoradi. The statement said those arrested had contravened the National Lotto Act 23006, (Act 722), which makes illegal lotto operations a criminal offence under the law. It said the law mandated only the NLA to operate lottery in the country; therefore any person or group of persons who operated lottery had committed a criminal offence. Th statement said upon conviction, the offender was liable to a fine,or a custodian sentence or both. It cautioned the public to desist from staking lotto from illegal lotto operators, since those who staked illegal lotto, as well as the operators, faced various jail terms when convicted. The statement also warned landlords and homeowners who rented their houses to illegal lotto operators to desist from that as they would have their properties confiscated to the state and made to pay fines as well. It entreated the public to stake lotto at approved NLA kiosks, since proceeds from the lottery were used to provide various social amenities, including hospitals, schools, boreholes, standpipes and many others to the benefit of the entire society. The statement charged lotto stakers to insist on their receipts after staking lotto with the NLA, since the authority had furnished its kiosks with portable data processing machines that issued receipts to their clients to ensure transparency and accountability.  

A multi-million-dollar sea defence project to protect the Aboadze Thermal Plant and surrounding communities has started. The contractors undertaking the $30-million project, Xara Developers Limited, have started putting up boulders on the two-kilometre sea defence wall and the work is expected to be completed in June this year. Apart from protecting the thermal generation units, residents in the Aboadze and Abuesi communities will also be protected from the perennial tidal waves which destroy their property.  Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the District Chief Executive for Shama, Mr Enoch K. Appiah, said the project was dear to the people of Shama. He said the project had started with the support of the Ministry of  Water Resources, Works and Housing as it acted on a report on perennial tidal waves that affected the people. Mr Appiah said with the quantum of rock deposit in the area, the contractor would not have any problem getting the needed rocks for the early completion of the project. He said the government was committed to the project and would ensure that the coast was protected

  Four persons died last Saturday when a truck they were travelling on burst a tyre and somersaulted near Jukwa on the Twifo Praso-Cape Coast road. The bodies of the deceased, including the driver of the truck, Sherif Ibrahim, 27, have been deposited at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital. Four others are said to be receiving treatment at the same hospital. The Regional Officer of the National Road Safety Commission, Mr Stephen Anokye, said the truck, with registration number CR 124-10, was loaded with logs from Jukwa and was travelling towards Cape Coast. He said the truck burst a tyre which made the driver lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle was said to have somersaulted, throwing out the people in the bucket of the vehicle.  Mr Anokye urged drivers to ensure regular maintenance of their vehicles to help avoid such accidents. He indicated that it was obvious the vehicle was not regularly maintained and appealed to drivers to be more cautious on the road.  

  A Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School, Dr Angela Ofori- Atta, has urged medical students to consider specialising in psychiatry to have a better appreciation of caring for mentally challenged persons. She said most students did not have interest in the field of psychiatry and psychology because of the myth surrounding mentally challenged persons.  Dr Ofori- Atta, who is also a clinical psychologist, was speaking at a conference organised by the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Ghana Medical School for final year students.  The conference, which formed part of the students’ research work, discussed four research works on topics related to mental health.  Dr Ofori- Atta added that the alarming rate of mental illness  called for more specialists and health professionals to be trained in the field of psychiatry and psychology to address the issues. Studies, she said, had shown that as of 2011, there were 19 psychiatrists and 17 psychologists in Ghana, which was not enough to cater for the mental health needs of Ghanaians. KBTH to establish psychiatric facility In his remarks, the Head of Psychiatry of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Samuel Ohene, said the management of the hospital had decided to establish a psychiatric facility to cater for the health needs of mentally challenged persons He said the management acknowledged the fact that mental health issues, like other health conditions, needed to be given the necessary attention.  The hospital has a department for academic work but it does not have a psychiatric facility to manage, treat and care for patients with mental illness, hence the need for the facility.  

Sharp differences in opinions emerged among participants in a workshop in Accra last Friday on whether the capitation system of payment under the National Health Insurance Scheme should be withdrawn or implemented nationwide. While some participants were of the view that the system should be scrapped for now and better packaged before rolled out in all the regions, others thought that it should be maintained and implemented in phases. The workshop was attended by about 30 participants from the public, private and quasi-government institutions in the health sector.  The capitation is a payment mechanism under the scheme. It was piloted in the Ashanti Region for two years. However, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) in the region has kicked against that system of payment. The workshop became necessary after a report on the pilot project highlighted challenges that had to be addressed to ensure the successful adoption of the capitation payment method nationwide.  Some of the stakeholders present at the workshop were the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Kwabena Opoku Adusei; the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Dr Yileh Kyereh; and a ranking member of the Parliamentary Select Committee, Dr Richard Anane, as well as the Executive Director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana, Dr Gilbert Buckle. Country on track Addressing the workshop, the Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, said the capitation would be rolled out in the other regions gradually, adding that the pilot programme in the Ashanti Region provided useful lessons on how to improve the scheme in the other regions.  The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, said the pilot scheme in the Ashanti Region had provided some useful lessons which would guide the scheme in the implementation of capitation in other regions. He said the NHIS was currently going through some implementation reforms which would address some of the challenges.  Mr Mensah explained that the capitation had to be introduced to help streamline operational deficiencies detected in the implementation of the NHIS. Reports on capitation The Chairperson of the Technical Sub-Committee on the Capitation Payment Method, Professor Irene A. Agyepong, said the health system was beset with numerous challenges, including lack of access to service and poor quality data, particularly in the public sector. She said to scale up the capitation programme, there was the need to find resources to educate more service providers. A monitoring and evaluation report also called for strategies to be developed to help small facilities such as maternity homes and Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds to survive under the  capitation.  Writer's [email protected]

  Many Ghanaians, including President John Dramani Mahama and former President John Agyekum Kufuor, have paid tributes to the memory of ace Ghanaian broadcast journalist, Komla Dumor, who died last Saturday. While President Mahama described Dumor’s death as a great loss to Ghana, Africa and the entire world, former President Kufuor said it was “so shocking”. President Mahama’s tribute Referring to the ace BBC TV broadcaster as “a hard-working, dedicated and consummate professional”, President Mahama said Dumor “cared very deeply about Ghana and Africa and also about global leadership that serves people and improve lives”. The presenter of the BBC’s World News and Focus on Africa programme reportedly died from cardiac arrest last Saturday in London at the young age of 41. Ghana’s President, who described Komla as “a friend, brother and patriot”, issued a statement in his memory soon after the announcement of his demise. Kufuor’s tribute President Kufuor was reported by Accra-based Joy FM to have said he was “caught off guard” upon hearing the news of Dumor’s death. “He was only 41 and looked so fit. It is unbelievable that such a thing will happen to him now," he said. Asked if he listened to him on Joy FM, President Kufuor said, “I knew him and at a point I asked him to serve on a board for the youth.” “He was a social person, always with a smile and quite polite to society.  A bright broadcaster with great promise but who has been cut off midstream ,” President Kufuor stated. Kofi Annan’s tribute Former United Nation’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has described the death as “tragic”. Writing on his Facebook wall, Mr Annan described Dumor as an “inspirational journalist, always determined to find facts and report on the truth”. “With Dumor’s sudden and tragic death, Africa has lost one of its brightest young talents. Komla was an inspirational journalist, always determined to find the facts and report on the truth. I shall miss his smile and wonderful sense of humour. May his soul rest in peace," Mr Annan said.  

  The Breman Association, a London-based group of citizens from the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa (AOB) District in the Central Region, has donated medical items to the Breman Brakwa Health Centre to assist in healthcare delivery in the community. The items, which included orthopaedic mattresses, sanitisers, mops, disinfectants, a cabinet and special dresses for nurses, were presented on behalf of the association by its chairman, Mr Alexander Amaadzi. Mr Amaadzi commended the Rentokil Initial Memorial Hospital of the United Kingdom and its management for their support in the initiative. The Regional Operations Director, Mr Jonathan Green, and Angie Greene, General Manager, both of the hospital, paid 2,000 pound sterling for freight for the shipment of the items. Mr Amaadzi said 14 beds would be made available by the association to health facilities in the district early this year, and promised the continued support of the association to health facilities.  The District Chief Executive for AOB, Mr Samuel Adom Botchwey, tasked the hospital staff to put the equipment to good use to enhance healthcare delivery in the facility, and commended members of the association for their efforts to support the government in the health sector. The Medical Assistant in charge of the centre, Mr Justice Aubin-Nyarkoh, who represented the District Director of the Ghana Health Service, commended the association for its kind gesture.  

  The Lekpe Traditional Area in the Volta Region has launched its Lekoryi Festival in Accra. Lekoryi, which means ‘coming together of the people’, is celebrated every two years to foster unity among the people of the area. Apart from serving as a conduit for uniting the people, the festival is also used to mobilise resources from the people and empower them to take steps to improve their lives. Festival as medium of development The Chairman of the Planning Committee of the festival, Prof. Anthony Aboagye, said since its rejuvenation in 2008, the festival had been a medium of development, resulting in the establishment of schools and the provision of social amenities such as potable water and places of convenience in the area.  Prof. Aboagye of the University of Ghana Business School indicated that resources mobilised during the 2010 festival were used to develop some tourist sites in the area. He added that in 2012 electrical wiring was carried out in 30 kindergartens, primary and junior high schools in the various communities, with 50 per cent of the work being completed, while the remaining was scheduled for completion this year. He said an e-learning initiative would be implemented in primary schools to enhance information and communications technology (ICT) in schools in the area.  Plans were also underway to carry out the project at the other levels of education very soon, he stated. “We are  doing all these for people to see the need for the celebration of the festival and contribute their quota towards the development of education in the area,” he stressed. Lekpe chief’s appeal Launching the festival, the Paramount Chief of the Lekpe Traditional Area, Nana Soglo-Alloh IV, entreated the people to be concerned about the development of the area. He called on all indigenous people of Lekpe, both home and abroad, to make it a point to patronise this year’s festival. The flag bearer of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) in the last election, Dr Henry Lartey, who was a guest of honour at the launch, reiterated the call on the people of Lekpe to contribute to the development of their communities.  

  Anointed Electrical Engineering Service Limited (AEESL), dealers in generator sets, has donated a 10kva-Perking generator set and its accessories worth GH¢34,000 to the Weija Leprosarium in Accra. The equipment is meant to sustain the activities of the inmates and protect various facilities of the institution in case of power outage. Presenting the items, the Managing Director of AEESL, Mr Samuel Adjei Boateng, said the gesture, which formed part of the company’s corporate social responsibility, was meant to improve the living conditions of the inmates of the Weija Leprosarium. “You may need food, clothing, etc., but the provision of light, we believe, will go a long way to bring life to this community. Light is very important in all aspects of life, and that is why the first thing God created was light,” he said.  According to Mr Boateng, it has always been the desire of the company to touch the lives of many people. He added: “By so doing, we fulfill our mandate and obligations”. Receiving the equipment on behalf of the Weija Leprosarium, the caretaker of the home, Mr George Quansah, thanked the management of AEESL for the donation, and called on other corporate institutions to come to the aid of the inmates. He said since the institution was established 63 years ago, it had depended largely on the benevolence of corporate institutions and individuals. He added: “Currently, the 29 inmates are being catered for through the support of some individuals.”   Mr Quansah also appealed to the government to increase the daily feeding allowance allocated to the lepers at the leprosarium.    That, he said, had become necessary since the money given to them was no longer sufficient to cater for their upkeep.  Currently, the government provides each leper a feeding allowance of 80 pesewas a day. According to Mr Quansah, the leprosarium has many challenges, making it difficult for management to function effectively. “It is not the fault of the inmates that they are in the situation they find themselves, so they must not be made to suffer stigmatisation as well.”  

President John Dramani Mahama will be joining a select number of world and business leaders this week at the 2014 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. This year's gathering is under the theme "The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business”. President Mahama is scheduled to chair a key session and also participate in various discussions on sub-themes, including climate change, the post-2015 development goals, the future of health and healthcare, the pressing youth unemployment challenge, and economic prospects in major emerging economies. The President will also take the opportunity to hold a number of bilateral meetings with world leaders and business executives on the margins of the Davos gathering, which opens on Wednesday. Accompanying President Mahama will be the Minister for Finance, Seth Terkper and the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ambassador Thomas Kwesi Quartey.  Before arriving in Davos, President Mahama will participate in a high-level Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week programme - a large gathering focusing on tackling pressing issues such as renewable energy, water and the environment.

Another Ghanaian journalist has died hours after the nation received the shocking news of the death of BBC broadcster, Komla Dumor. Samuel Hesse, 35, a reporter at Metro TV, reportedly died Saturday night at about 10pm in a fit of asthmatic attack. He is said to have driven himself to a clinic where he later died. Sammy had been part of a small group of pals who were ruing the sudden demise of Dumor on Saturday shortly before he also passed away.  He had worked with Metro TV for about eight years and got married only about a month ago.