The First Lady and President of the Lordina Foundation, H.E.Lordina Dramani Mahama , on Saturday inaugurated a newly built maternity and child health facility at Asukawkaw in the Krachi East District of the Oti region.
The handing over of the facility, financed by the Foundation with support from donors and partners, fulfills Mrs Mahama’s positive response to a request from the Chief of Akroso-Asukawkaw a year ago.
This brings to four, the number of Maternity and Children’s Wards built and handed over to communities and the Ghana Health Service by the Lordina Foundation.
This is in fulfillment of Mrs Mahama’s personal commitment and the objective of her Foundation to reduce Maternal, Infant and Child Mortality cases in Ghana’s hospitals.
The first three were commissioned for the Bole District Hospital, the Nkoranza Health Centre and the Abodom community.
The foundation has also renovated and expanded the Hohoe Adabraka Health Centre, and continue to donate medical equipment to health centres across the country.
According to Mrs Mahama, while planning the next phase of his support programmes, her office received an email from Nana Odamu Gyamfi III, Paramount Chief of the Akroso-Asukawkaw Traditional Area, describing the risk pregnant women in his community go through to reach distant clinics, often too late to save them and their newborns.
"This is no coincidence, it was a call to action," Mrs. Mahama told a crowd of happy community members, health officials, workers, community elders and chiefs.
Designed for dignity and excellence, the facility includes a reception area, doctors' and nurses' offices, maternity and children's wards, a fully equipped operating theatre, a delivery room, a sterilisation room, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), storage, and data rooms.
Key equipment installed in the facility include the electric beds, operating tables, infant incubators, ultrasound machines, C-section and delivery kits, ECG machines, phototherapy units, patient monitors, oxygen systems, television sets, and more.
Also installed is a hybrid power system, that combines the national grid with solar to ensure reliable emergency lighting and efficiency.
"No woman should die while giving life, and no child should start without proper care just because of where they were born," Mrs Mahama said.
She noted that nearly one in ten Ghanaian women face pregnancy-related death risks.
She urged health authorities, facility managers, and the Akroso-Asukawkaw community under the Akroso Traditional Council to maintain the facility to benefit more generations.
"Let this be more than a building but a reminder that with government, leaders, and partners, we can protect every vulnerable Ghanaian."
Minister for Health, Kwabena Akandoh, praised the project as "a practical step towards safe, timely, and dignified care for mothers, newborns, and children."
He thanked Mrs Mahama for her "unparalleled contributions" to women, girls and children's health.
The facility, the First Lady, stated reflects the Foundation’s commitment to life at its most vulnerable stages and shows what credible partnerships can achieve.
The Board Chair of the Lordina Foundation, Pastor Kwame Boateng Sarpong hailed the project as emblematic of the foundation's mission to support rural women and children, pledging continued aid to deprived communities.
The paramount chief, Nana Odamu Gyamfi III expressed profound gratitude, calling the project a "life-saving initiative" that will ease prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care for Asukawkaw and surrounding areas.
The Chief and his elders enstooled Mrs Mahama as the Development Queen Mother of the Akroso-Asukawkaw Traditional Area, with the title Nana Oseadeayo Odamwaa II.
