AngloGold constructs health centre for three communities

By Erica Apeatu Addo, GNA

Wangarakrom (W/R), March 20, GNA - The AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem (AAI) Community Trust Fund has constructed a GH¢677,000.00 health centre for three communities in its operational area to meet the healthcare needs of the people.

The facility will benefit people in Wangarakrom, Badukrom and Nkyemia and reduce the long distances they travel to Tarkwa to access health care.

Mr Jasper Musadaidzwa, Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem Gold Mine, speaking at the commissioning ceremony at Wangarakrom, said the company was committed to achieving 95 percent access to basic healthcare facilities in the communities in which it operated.

He said in that pursuit, the construction and operation of the Wangarakrom health facility was one of the interventions under the Integrated Health Project of AAI Gold Mine, that was aimed at increasing access to healthcare delivery in and around the mine’s community and the Tarkwa Nsueam Municipal as a whole.

Mr Musadaidzwa emphasised that good health was a fundamental human right and a key indicator of sustainable development.

Poor health, he noted, threatened the rights of children to education, limited economic opportunities for both men and women and increased poverty within communities; hence the company’s resolve to provide healthcare facilities in its operational areas.

The Managing Director expressed appreciation to the chairman of the Iduapriem Community Trust Fund, Professor Newton Amegbey, under whose leadership numerous community projects had been completed and handed over to beneficiaries. 

Mr Musadaidzwa appealed to the chiefs and leadership of the three beneficiary communities to help run the facility successfully.

Prof. Amegbey said a base line study financed by the Trust Fund in 2015 on healthcare facilities within the Mine’s catchment area indicated that 36.8 percent of community members travelled more than five kilometres to access health care.

He said under the circumstances, community members resorted to patronising services of unlicensed drug vendors with its associated risks.

Pregnant women in labour seek assistance from elderly women in the communities for delivery.

These challenges, among others, necessitated the beneficiary communities to present a proposal to the trust fund for funding and establishment of the health centre.

Mr Emmanuel Afelkum, the Municipal Health Director, who presented a citation to the Trust Fund, congratulated the management of the Gold Mine for their immense contribution to health infrastructure development in the municipality. 

He pledged to manage the facility effectively to ensure that community members attained optimum benefit from it.

Mr George Meriku Duker, the Member of Parliament of Tarkwa Nsueam Constituency, together with the Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Glibert Kennedy Asmah, and the Gyasehene of Apinto Divisional Stool, Nana Adarkwa Bediako III, who graced the occasion, thanked AAI Gold Mine for the gesture.

GNA

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