The African Foundation for Women Empowerment (AFWE) on Saturday 18 December 2021 held its maiden annual health outreach programme in Saforo, a suburb of the Akwapim South Municipality of the Eastern Region.
In partnership with private health service provider Aegis healthcare, the Non-Profit Organization brought together widows, children and the less privileged in the deprived community for free medical screening.
Reports indicate that many residents in the linear settlement consisting mainly of women and children have difficulties accessing proper health facilities in the regional capital, Koforidua or even in the national capital Accra.
In fact, in the last decade, no active health screening has been carried out in the community which will afford the opportunity to the aged to access primary health care.
The problem has been compounded by the low economic activities in the community as many are left with the option of either subsistence farming or trading within the community and its environs.
In a bid to extend a helping hand the African Foundation for Women Empowerment put together a team of health experts to provide free medical screening for the aged and women at Saforo.
Marcia Mprah, executive director for the foundation told the media that the choice for a community health outreach stems from the desire to avail health services for the women who may have been denied or have been unable to access health facilities due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which was accompanied by prolonged lockdowns and its associated restriction to health facilities.
She added that many individuals are also reported to have shied away from general OPD services due to the scare of contracting the deadly virus. “December, being a festive season for us is as an opportune moment to rally more young girls and women for health screening purposes which would in turn help tear down the barriers for most women who have been unable to access quality health care throughout the year and that’s why we intend to commence this exercise at Saforo.”
Also, Christmas came early at AFWE’S outreach last weekend as some bags of rice, mackerel, biscuits and souvenirs were donated. Some private sponsors such as Verna Natural Mineral water provided some souvenirs and water to beneficiaries of the screening exercise.
Some benevolent individuals including Abel Antonio Cárdenas Tuppia, the Ambassador of Peru to Ghana and director general for the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Samuel Kwabena Awuku also supported the good cause by partnering with the foundation to celebrate the women of Saforo.
The African Foundation for Women Empowerment which was launched less than a year ago says it is positioning itself as a Non-Profit Organizational tool and a platform that seeks to harness, refine and also develop the African woman to achieve desirable goals in society by extending assistance that will tear down the uneven social structures which limit the potentials of women on the continent in order to ensure they succeed in life through providing education, health care, livelihood skills and community development services. Child and gender development are fundamental to our work.
AFWE envisions an African society where women are given equal opportunities and empowered to explore their full potentials and capabilities in their environment through the creation of sustainable and institutionalized support mechanisms that promote their social, economic, cultural and moral development.
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