Asanko Gold Ghana is partnering Canada-based Health Partners International (HPIC) to halt the alarming trend of maternal and infant mortality in the Amansie West and South Districts.

The intervention is born out of the mining firm’s flagship program “Obaatanpa Maternal and Child Health Programme” for the benefit of the people of the Amansie West and Amansie South districts.

The three-year intervention programme is expected to benefit over 20,000 mothers and their babies in the districts during the first year of implementation, with medicines and medical supplies worth over $300,000.

The medical supplies will be provided to the mothers free-of-charge.

The intervention has been necessitated by the fact that health authorities in the two districts have been reporting increasing rate of maternal and infant mortality.

Even though Ghana has seen improvement in recent years, maternal and infant mortality remain a serious issue.

The national mortality ratio in 2017 was 144.6 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, which means that out of every 100,000 women who conceived, 114.6 of them die from pregnancy-related complications.

For instance, in 2016 statistics from the districts Health Directorate showed that eight maternal deaths and 60 infant deaths were recorded. From 51 out of 100,000 live births in 2017, the figure rose to 74 in 2018 for women who died from birth-related conditions.

Last year’s figures for babies are unavailable though they averaged 9.4 per cent out of 1,000 live births in 2017 for the two districts.

Meanwhile, stakeholders are optimistic the partnership between Asanko HPIC will halt the trend in the two districts.

At the official launch of the Maternal and Child Health Program of the Asanko-HPIC Obaatanpa Project, Director for Medical services at Asanko God Ghana, Dr Kwasi Safo, outlined the overview of the partnership and benefits for residents of communities where the mine operates.

“To appreciate the full spectrum of the situation in Amansie West and South districts; which form the enclave of our operations, Asanko Gold in November 2017 commissioned a health-needs assessment. 

"The maternal mortality ratio in the district in 2017 was 51 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births while the infant mortality rate was 9.4 per 1,000 live births,” he said.

Dr Kwasi Safo explained further that “there were other significant findings from the needs assessment, among the findings was the deplorable state of medical dispensaries and medical item management system across the facilities in the districts.”

With such alarming figures on the needless deaths of mothers and babies in the area, health experts warn further that the figures could surge unless intervention efforts are intensified.

Executive General Manager of Asanko Gold Ghana, Charles Amoah, said the free medical supplies will go a long way to save lives of mothers and babies in the catchment area.

“Asanko is really proud to enter into this partnership with HPIC as we deliver what we are calling the ‘Obaatanpa Maternal and Child Health Project’ to benefit our people. This is in line with the Asanko Opportunity Cycle which offers that proposition that mining can be leveraged to create opportunities and beneficial outcomes for associated communities," he said.

“Under the Obaatanpa Programme HPIC in close collaboration of with the District Health Directorate, will provide training to midwives and nurses on current trends in providing care to mothers and infants, supply basic tools and equipment to midwives pharmaceutical management capacity with the establishment of an upgraded District Pharmaceutical Supply Chain system with other essential medications and medical supply kits.”

He is hopeful that the collective efforts of all stakeholders will yield positive results to reduce the increasing rate of mothers and infants mortality.

During the launch of the Obaatanpa Programme at Manso Nkwanta Health Center in the Amansie West District, the drugs and other medical supplies were unveiled at a storage facility allocated at the health directorate.

District Health Director, Bernard Bediako, who describes the intervention as timely explains that “the free medical supplies will reduce patience stress of travelling all the way to nearby Hospital at Agroyesum in the same district.”

Citing a typical example the said, “ in extreme cases, patients are referred to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital on the basis of inadequate medical supplies which forces pregnant women to travel all the way on our poor roads to Kumasi just for medical supplies and other petty supplies which in this case far beyond our reach”