The Catholic Diocese of Damongo in the savannah region has commissioned a polyclinic facility at Tinga in the Bole District.
The parish priest for Tinga, Mossegnor Augustine Dery Towoni in a short welcome address explained that in their concern for health needs, education, women development, pastoral services and social needs, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary offered themselves to serve in diverse ways.
Since July 2016, the Rev Sisters have served the area with true passion. And after getting settled in Tinga, they quickly noticed and observe that the health and education needs of the people weren't the best. The church started putting up measures to uplift education, health, women development, social services among others to help open up the area.
Fortunately, amongst these Rev Sisters were some nurses, and these nurses offered their services to the Tinga government health facility at that time.
Rev Sister Sabastian Bekyane, Provincial Superior, Ghana-Liberia, and others provided health services to the people of the area. She also assisted in equipping the health facility to improve health delivery system in Tinga and its environs.
Augustine Towoni revealed that the Rev Sisters realized there was the need to get another health facility in the area because the Tinga clinic was too small. And with support obtained from donors, the dream to establish another health center (Polyclinic), has come to reality.
He commended all stakeholders for their support in getting such a beautiful polyclinic for the chiefs and people of the area.
The Bishop of the Diocese, Most Rev. Peter Paul Angkyier in a short address to bless and commission the newly built health facility ( Blessed Maria Assunta polyclinic ) at Tinga in the Bole District of the savannah region on Saturday, 4th June, 2022 explained that Arch Bishop Phillip Naamey then Bishop of the Damongo Diocese together with his team paid a courtesy visit to the then Tinga chief, Tingawura Abdulai (the current Bolewura's father), and the chief appealed to Bishop Philip to get some Rev Sisters to serve in the Tinga-Benyukon area.
The major reason the late Tingawura sited was that, many of the young girls were not getting the right education and moral upbringing. The situation was terrible as many young girls in the area were pigs with foetuses ( the unborn offspring that develops from an embryo) and that, there were no clear cut futures for the young girls in the area hence, his request for the Rev. Sisters was for them to model and train the younger ones to adopt to the good moral values that will better their lives.
Most Rev. Peter Paul further explained that, Arch Bishop Phillip started the process of getting the Catholic Rev. Sisters to the area at which time the current Bishop Peter Paul was the Vicar General for the Damongo Diocese and as the church started the processes, areas such as health care, education, women and development, social services among others were key in convincing authorities to get the Rev Sisters to this area.
The Bishop of the Diocese, Most Rev. Peter Paul A. Yelezuome expressed gratitude to the Provincial Sisters - Franciscan Missionary Mission (FMM), the Provincial Lucion Central Franciscana of Germany (development office of the FMM in Germany), the chiefs and people of Tinga for helping to build such a beautiful polyclinic for the area and appealed to the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary to continue making impact in the area to help young ones become responsible adults and urged them to take good care of the facility.
Rhyval Ghana ltd, consultant of the project and a member of 'design and build Ghana', put up the beautiful facility. The polyclinic has OPD, ANC, Pregnancy ward, general ward among others.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole/Bamboi Constituency, Hon. Alhaji Yusif Sulemana at the ceremony at Tinga-Benyukon, expressed gratitude to sponsors of the health facility, the Catholic church, Rev. Sisters, the chiefs and people of the area for the support to the stakeholders.
The MP, as part of processes to assist the up keep of the facility, made a pledged of an amount of five thousand Ghana cedis (GHC5,000) to the facility and donated cash amount of one thousand Ghana cedis (GHC1,000), 5 high quality street lights, a box of Mackerel and a box of cooking oil to support the facility and assured the Rev Sisters that he is ready to do anything to help promote health delivery in the constituency.
The Damongo Catholic Diocesan Health Director, Mr. Aiden Ngmenban admonished those who have been employed by the health facility to handle issues with utmost good care to ensure the major purpose putting up the polyclinic is achieved.
"I want to entreat the people that will be brought on board to manage this facility to treat it as if it was your personal property. So everything inside the facility must be treated as though is your personal property. So that at end of the day, the outcome will be better for the people it serves".
He appealed to the staff to take the game to the next level by improving their services and serve the people without discrimination and assured that the Diocesan health directorate will continue to work closely with the regional health directorate, traditional authorities, youth groups, NGOs and all other important stakeholders to improve health delivery in the area.
Mr. Aiden explained further that the Diocese is working tirelessly to enroll fully, the National Health Insurance Scheme. He said because the polyclinic is a new facility, clients will be parting with cash to receive treatment whilst the authorities work harder to get health insurance services for the Tinga-Benyukon polyclinic.
Dr Chrisantus Kuubio, the Savannah regional health director, appealed to the staff to take good care of the facility and take proper records so as to improve health delivery in the area, saying "documentation of clients is very crucial in modern day health delivery".
Taking good records of patients will help the health authorities embark on accurate tracing if there was any outbreak of any disease in the area.
Documentation of the services rendered will help more institutions to come in and support the facility.
He urged them not to only be interested in the number of clients received at the facility but with the quality of services rendered to the clients. This will attract more clients to visit the facility for treatment.
Dr Chris thanked the stakeholders and donors for putting up such a wonderful facility to assist in health care delivery for the area and Savannah region as whole.
Rev Sister Sabastian Bekyane, Provincial Superior, Ghana-Liberia, in her address expressed gratitude to all stakeholders for the support.
The Franciscan Missionary Mission Sisters is an international congregation drawn from many different nations or countries with inter cultural background to service God, she enlightened audience.
The Sisters work to make the world more just and more human. We approach everyone with open heart to serve communities and the children of God, she added.
She thanked God and all stakeholders for the support since the FMM inception at Tinga and said the corpoarated well with other stakeholders and community members to get this far.
The Rev Sisters helped the people with prayers and materials things and the people also helped by accepting us, as their own. We learned from the people and they learned from us.
She disclosed that as part of efforts to improve health delivery, the FMM helped equipped the only government clinic at Tinga with motorbikes, beds, ambulance and many other valuable equipment.
Rev Sister Bekyane believes that together with the chiefs and people of the area, the FMM will improve on whatever they are doing positively in the area to expand their life changing activities.
As Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, founded and inspired by Mother Kevin, our Mission is to spread the Good News of Jesus.
We strive to do this by the joyful and generous, prophetic witness of our vowed lives, which challenge today’s negative influences, replacing them with meaning, simplicity, joy, and hope. Sustained by a reflective, prayerful lifestyle in an intercultural community, we commit ourselves to respectful service of others in ministries that empower, transform, and heal.
We journey with others as ‘instruments of peace’, promoting friendship with all creation, leading to the fullness of Life that Jesus promised.
The polyclinic is expected to serve over 26 communities with about 21,000 population around the area.
Nuhu Zulka/ padfm News