YAWC Network Ghana Chapter holds outreach programme at Nsawam Female Prisons

The Ghana Chapter of the Young African Women Congress (YAWC) Network and the ExLA Group Health Programme (EGHP) have carried out an outreach programme at the female division of the Nsawam Minimum Security Prisons on Thursday 4th August 2022.

The exercise was in line with the objectives of the YAWC Network, that is carrying every woman along, and also in line with the objectives of the EGHP of prioritising the health needs of everyone including the vulnerable in our society. This was supported by Dannex Ayrton Starwin PLC, a pharmaceutical company in Accra.

The first part of the exercise was the donation of items including bedsheets, bags of clothing, boxes of sanitary towels, packs of toilet rolls, toothpaste, boxes of toothbrushes, black hair thread, bags of sachet water, washing powder and boxes of medication.

Presenting the items on behalf of the group, Ms. Evelyn Oye Lamptey, the Global Vice President of the YAWC Network stated that the Network is passionate about the progress of women and that, it is part of their mandate to look out for every woman including inmates.

“We are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the inmates in this prison. It is for this reason that the members of the Ghana Chapter of this noble network put their resources together to donate to them today”, she remarked.

Receiving the items on behalf of the female division of the prison, the Officer-in-Charge, ADP Christiana Asiedu, expressed her profound gratitude to the YAWC Network and the EGHP. She stated that, gestures like these bring joy to the inmates and make them feel that society has not ostracised them even though they are in prison.

During the counselling session, Daniel Osei Tuffuor, the Chairperson of the YAWC Network Council and the Executive Director of ExLA Group, the holding organisation for both YAWC and EGHP, shared some encouraging words with the inmates. He told them not to give up on life because of their current situation. He assured them of YAWC Network and EGHP’s continuous support at all times.

On her part, the Director for the ExLA Group Health Programme (EGHP), Dr Catherine Opoku Fordjour admonished the inmates to take their health issues seriously. She told them to report to the clinic at the prison facility whenever they feel any form of discomfort within their bodies.

The third part of the outreach was a health screening exercise for all the inmates and it was led by Dr Catherine Opoku Fordjour and her team from the ExLA Group Health Programme. They examined their breasts, carried out random blood sugar test and checked their blood pressure.

When the inmates and the officers thought it was all over, the group set up their buffet table and served everyone including the officers with delicious delicacy which they carried along for the outreach programme.

In her vote of thanks, ADP Christiana Asiedu, the officer-in-charge at the female prison was full of excitement. She praised the YAWC Network and the ExLA Group Health Programme for their kindness and asked them to continue to support them.

The Young African Women Congress (YAWC) Network is a fraternity of young women of African descent living in Africa and the diaspora who seek to be empowered and be themselves, changemakers for leadership and development on the continent.

Membership of the Network is segmented by Chapters based on country demarcations. However, there is a common goal which involves grassroots mobilisation of women for leadership and development through advocacy, training, projects and outreach. Presently, the network has chapters in ten African countries and one in the United States.

ExLA Group Health Programme (EGHP) on the other hand is an agency under ExLA Group committed to a better health system in Ghana and Africa. Its focuses, as part of its initial efforts, is to fight some of the most destructive diseases in Ghana and on the African continent on specific health concerns to achieve substantive results that would be worthy of consideration for future policies formulations and implementations.

It recognizes that the urgency of the health need of the citizenry is beyond the careful drafting and mapping of policies and roadmaps of obliged institutions within confined frameworks. The pillar of its operation is therefore centred on providing the needed support just when it is relevant and creating room enough to prevent and also accommodate future occurrences.