Sekyere Afram Plains District is the largest in terms of land size and the most deprived district in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The district is roughly the size of Rhode Island in the United States and is covered by 9 Community Health and Planning Services (CHPS) compounds in 135 sparsely dispersed communities with poor road network. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has reached out through Latter-Day Saint Charities to help this section of Ghana.
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The District has many challenges and needs, one of the greatest is the access to adequate medical facilities. CHPS compounds are constructed to serve the remote areas. These are small basic structures with minimal equipment and staffing. The struggle is to serve large populations with little support. This is not enough to meet the needs of the growing population of this area. The small and remote medical facilities lack access to clean water in close proximity to the facilities. The staff are required to walk long distances to fetch water which then takes them away from their duties at the compound. The lack of clean water is also a problem in safely treating the patients from the community who come there seeking medical attention.
While preparing to start this project, the Humanitarian missionaries found that half of the ultrasound machines weren't working. And when questioned, the resident staff said some of the compounds did not have electricity. This makes delivering babies at night rather difficult.
For this district, there were muliple projects at the multiple locations. The list of improvements included mechanized boreholes, solar panels for lighting, toilets, and rain harvesting systems. Also all facilities received new Ultrasound machines.
Providing water, sanitation and equipment to the Community Health and Planning Services is vital to saving lives in this remote area as well as providing support to the medical staff that are sacrificing a great deal to be posted in these deprived and remote areas.