There was a mad rush for the childhood immunization vaccines against Polio, Measles, tuberculosis, yellow fever at Dome in Greater Accra Region when Kabaka Foundation sponsored a special health promotion, child health and mothers screening program in collaboration with Ga East municipal Health Directorate.
Hundreds of mothers thronged the Auntie Mary CHPs Compound where the exercise was held to vaccinate their children and take part in the health screening services.
“We thank them for bringing us the vaccines .my child missed out many of the vaccines because of the shortage. The temperature of my child always goes high.so we are appealing to government to ensure that the vaccines are always available” a mother said.
Months of nationwide shortage of childhood immunization vaccines against Polio, Measles, tuberculosis, yellow fever left many parents and pediatricians worried.
The subsequent outbreak of measles which affected over 120 children made it more troubling to stakeholders in the health sector.
The Ministry of Health on March 11, 2023, announced procurement of the first batch of measles, BCG and oral vaccines for distribution to various health centers to be administered to qualified Children.
According to statistics, 31 children in Ghana out of every 1000 live births die before age five, though a marginal reduction from previous years the rate is still high.
Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically obliges all states to take appropriate measures to reduce the rate of death among children.
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This has been reinforced by SDG target 3.2 which enjoins countries to end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age.
Henry Larbi, Executive Director of Kabaka foundation, a non for profit organization founded by Nana Owiredu Wadie, Nkosuohene of Kwahu Nkwatia said it is with this regard that the foundation collaborated with Ga East Municipal Health Directorate to organize the exercise for mothers and their newborn babies in Dome and its environs.
“In line with Kabaka foundation’s health program that is, we intend to achieve SDG 3 – improving health and wellbeing had a request from Auntie Mary’s CHPs Compound to support them implement this exercise. Kabaka Foundation is located in Dome Pillar 2 in Accra, so we thought it wise that charity begins at home, so this time we want to support people in Dome in Accra here. It is good the mothers take this program serious because recently we even heard of shortage of vaccines, and we thank God now the Government has been able to procure these vaccines for the mothers to bring their kids to take the vaccination they need for their children”.
A public health nurse at Dome RCH, Florence Ansah Kobina said in an interview that a mop up exercise will be done in the municipality to cover all children who missed out the immunization due to the shortage.
“God being so good today, we have all the vaccines here. We have polio, we have measles, we have yellow fever, we have everything in stock, so we are advising all mothers to come onboard to have vaccination for their children for better health. This exercise is serving as a mob up exercise so from here, God willing next week, we are embarking on a mop up exercise to reach out to the people who missed their turn. So, we are doing a catch-up exercise. This is the first exercise to bring all mothers onboard”
Addressing issues of Infant feeding challenges during complementary feeding by newborn mothers, Florence Ansah Kobina observed that poor complementary feeding results stunted growth of many children in the Ga East Municipality, hence advised mothers to serve their children with a balanced diet for healthy growth.
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