Kokrokroo Charities Foundation in collaboration with National Lottery Authority (NLA) has donated and installed an incubator at the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital at Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern region.
This is the fourth- fifth(45th) incubator the foundation has donated to a health facility in the country since the “project 100 incubator” initiative in 2014 aimed at improving neonatal healthcare.
The World Health Organization (WHO), estimates that there are 15 million preterm births annually, out of which about one million die due to complications.
More than 60 per cent of preterm births occur in Africa and South Asia.
In Ghana, an estimated 140,000 babies representing about 14% of all births are born preterm annually.
However, many hospitals in the country do not have adequate incubators to provide a safe, controlled space for these infants to live while their vital organs develop.
In some health facilities, three babies have to share a single incubator. It is estimated that 8,400 of these infants die annually before age five due to direct complications of prematurity.
The Kokrokoo Charities Foundation established by distinguished media personality Kwami Sefa Kayi has been striving over the years to fix this challenge in the healthcare system.
On Saturday, April 9, 2022, the Foundation in collaboration with National Lotteries Authority (NLA)donated the 45th incubator to Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Akuapem Mampong in Eastern Region.
Chairman General Kwami Sefa Kayi said the foundation’s aim is to reduce mortality among preterm babies.
“We thank the NLA and their good courses foundation for providing the funds for incubator number 45, we hit 45 today at Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Mampong- Akuapem. it’s been a long and hard hurdle in the last five and six years, but when you look at what we do and the lives we impact, It’s a driving force, the one that energizes us to continue, and it just tells you how much value an incubator is, it is not how much it cost, the cost is nothing compared to the value and so the fact that we are saving lives it means we are giving the preterm babies the opportunity to live, that one alone is a very heartwarming for us and it energizes us to continue what we’re doing” He said.
He said Kokrokroo Charities Foundation is looking forward to achieving its target of securing 100 Incubators for health facilities across the country hence calling on philanthropists and corporate Ghana to support this Worthy course.
The medical superintendent of Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, Dr Albert Benneh disclosed, the hospital had relied on only one incubator since its establishment in 1960 hence most preterm babies are referred to other health facilities for incubator services which come with a lot of risks because most the ambulances are not certified to have oxygen and warmer in them to keep these babies.
“We received our first incubator in September 2019 and at that time by the close of the year we were able to save five babies, in 2020 it increased to eleven, in last year we had 27 babies and then the first quarter of this year we also had five babies so in all that, the incubator was able to save 48 babies for us, unfortunately, others had to be referred because one was not enough for the babies and we have to refer 14 of such babies to other facilities”
The Director-General of the National Lottery Authority
( NLA) Sammy Awuku said as part of the corporate social responsibility of the authority, it decided to partner with Kokrokoo Foundation to save the lives of preterm infants.
” If you check Act 722 which establishes the National Lottery Authority, we are mandated by our Act to embark on good courses. It defines good courses to be assisting children, the poor, the vulnerable, the destitute, the physically and the mentally afflicted in our society. So the NLA during the Christmas festivities touched in excess of fifteen thousand lives from the aged to the poor, the widows, assisting orphanages and hospitals ” Said Sammy Awuku .
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
