Aide á la vulnèrabillitè, a health-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), operating in the Upper East Region, has organised a medical screening for inmates of the Navrongo Central Prison as part of its mandate to serve the vulnerable.
The screening was also to ensure healthy living among the inmates.
The NGO, made up of health professionals of various categories, checked the Blood Pressure (BP), pulse, temperature and weight, the Body Mass Index (BMI), visual acuity and examined the external auditory canal of the inmates for abnormalities.
The group also examined their chests and abdomen, checked their serum glucose level and schooled them on the need to maintain personal and environmental hygiene.
Mr James Tobiga, the Builsa South District Director of Health Services, and a lead member of the group, said it had professionals who were willing to impact on society their expertise and skills.
“If this exercise is done successfully, we are going to encourage most of the professionals to join us,” he added.
Mr Togbiga said the group solicited for support from members of the public and conducted the exercise free of charge; “as the name suggests Aide á la vulnèrabillitè, we want to help the vulnerable, and that is what we are doing.”
He called on other professionals to join the NGO in “giving back to society what society has given us.”
He expressed the hope that the group would continue to render its services to the Prison annually.
Mr Williams Aduum, the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), in a message delivered on his behalf, commended the group for the initiative and said it would improve on the health needs of the inmates.
Health was one of the core mandates of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he said, and pledged to support the NGO to improve the quality of health in the Municipality.
Reverend Father Paul Kapochina, the Diocesan Administrator at Our Lady of Seven Sorrow Minor Basilica in Navrongo, pledged to donate Gh¢1,000.00 on behalf of the Church to support activities of the NGO.
The NGO, as part of the exercise, presented assorted items including soft drinks, bags of rice, biscuits, toiletries, and cooking oil to the Prison.
Superintendent Francis Adzaklo Yao, the Deputy Regional Commander of Prisons, expressed gratitude to the NGO for the gesture and appealed to other organisations to support the Prisons as government’s support was not enough for the upkeep of the inmates.
He disclosed that each inmate was fed on Ghc1.80 per day, which was too little to feed such adults, and called on government to better the conditions of the Prisons.
He urged the government to engage inmates to make furniture to beef up the stock in basic and second cycle institutions.
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Source: GNA
