ASSEMBLY SETS ASIDE GH¢16,258 FOR MALARIA CONTROL (PAGE 40)

Story: Vincent Adedze, Kasuliyili

THE Tolon-Kumbungu District Assembly in the Northern Region has set aside GH¢16,258 to support malaria control, environmental health and sanitation programmes in the district this year.
The measure is to reduce malaria and other environmentally related diseases in the area to the barest minimum.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Wahab Suhiyini Wumbei, made this known in a speech read on his behalf at a durbar at Kasuliyili to mark this year’s World Malaria Day celebration.
The event was on the theme: “Creating a malaria free home” and was aimed, among other objectives, at engaging communities as active partners in the fight against malaria.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) organised the event, in collaboration with Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) and the Baptist Child Development Programme (BCDP), both non-governmental organisations.
Mr Wumbei announced that the assembly was also collaborating with the CCFC and other development partners to put up a health facility in the area under the government’s health for all programme.
“The district assembly, under its District-Wide Assistance Programme, will construct a 10-seater KVIP toilet for the area; it is my hope that all these projects and programmes will be successfully implemented before the close of the year,” he stated.
According to the DCE, the assembly and its development partners would soon embark on a “district-wide mosquito spraying exercise in order to control prevalence of malaria in the communities”.
The Country Director of CCFC, Mrs Sanatu Nangtoma, said a number of activities had been outlined in the seven-year strategic plan of the CCFC.
According to her, the plan would focus more on children in the years ahead and empower communities through sensitisation programmes to help control malaria and other diseases in the beneficiary communities.
Mrs Nangtoma further indicated that over the years, her outfit had embarked on residual spraying, distribution of treated nets to vulnerable children, anti-malaria drug therapy, and community clean-up campaigns, to ensure environmental cleanliness and prevention of malaria.
The Programme Co-ordinator of BCDP, Mr James Amadu Kinyakib, stated that with support from CCFC, his outfit had over the years been complementing the efforts of the GHS to help fight diseases, especially malaria, in the communities.