To ensure midwives acquire effective and efficient training to improve maternal healthcare delivery in Ghana, UNFPA donated midwifery training and tools to the Nursing Department of Midwifery at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST). Estimated at a cost of US$30,000, the donated equipment included: dilation curettage instruments, tenaculum uterine forceps, delivery trolley, uterine sound, suction machines, adult, baby weighing scales, birth stimulators, digital thermometers, cervical cerclage models, sims vaginal speculum, surgical scissors, examination screens, uterine dilators, among others.
Addressing the media following the presentation of the items, UNFPA Deputy Representative, Dr Emmily Naphambo, stated that UNFPA and KNUST has had a long relationship with the aim of ensuring quality education. ‘Improving the quality of maternal healthcare forms part of UNFPA’s 8th Country Programme with the Government of Ghana. Though Ghana is making strides, there are still alarming levels of maternal deaths, currently at about 308 deaths per 100,000 live births. That is why we must support the advancement of midwifery studies’, she explained. This donation, she said would go a long way as the KNUST was training staff and skilled personnel to be attending to pregnant women.
UNFPA Deputy Representative, Dr. Emmily Naphambo (right) and the Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson.
The Deputy Representative of UNFPA used the opportunity to pay a courtesy call on the Vice-Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Prof. Rita Akosua Dickson, who said: 'We welcome this support and wish to encourage you to continue this collaboration for top-notch training and professional training for our midwives and staff, so that our mothers who give life do not end up losing their lives while giving life.'
The Deputy Representative pledged the support of UNFPA to institutions to help reduce maternal mortality. Dr Daniel Norris Bekoe, the University Relations Officer, KNUST, who received the items, commended UNFPA for the assistance and said they would supplement the skills and training of the students for Ghana. He said the working relationship that existed between the University and the UNFPA would continue, adding that, the two institutions were working on curriculum development for Master’s and Doctor of Philosophy Programmes in midwifery.
Dr. Bekoe urged other donors to resource the KNUST to acquire state-of-the-art skills laboratories for the training of health personnel. These skills laboratories, according to him, must essentially be stocked with equipment to help hands-on training before students go out to various health facilities for attachments. UNFPA has been working with the KNUST for more than 10 years in the provision of quality education for the improvement of midwifery in Ghana.
