Saturday, May 23, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 47)
By Rebecca Kwei
Eight amateur fashion designers have been selected to feature in this year’s Ghana Fashion Weekend 2009.
They are Klekleli Dzidienyo, Elimens, Quami Wear, Rowena Adjivon, Salimi, Miriam Yentumi, Bern Mensah and Doreen Lartey.
The event, which is scheduled for July 1-4, 2009 at the Accra International Conference Centre, is a blend of modelling shows and fashion exhibition and it is aimed at promoting African fashion. “Harnessing Creative Talents within Africa” is the theme for the event.
According to Sima Ibrahim, the CEO of Exopa Model Agency, organisers of the event, the best up-coming fashion designer who will be selected through a contest will be sponsored by the French Embassy to France to develop his or her talent.
Additionally, the French Embassy will engage the services of a Cameroonian designer who will take the young designers through a workshop before the final event.
After the event, each of the young designers will also have the opportunity to understudy a local professional designer for about a year.
Twenty designers comprising 10 of Ghana’s most respected designers, 10 from the international scene, in addition to the eight young designers, would showcase their talent at the event.
About 100 Exopa models made of 40 foreign models and 60 from Ghana will feature on the runway and they are expected to treat the audience to unique catwalk experience.
Some of the designers are Joyce Ababio, Allan David, Royal Dennis, Menice Apparel and Nallem, all from Ghana, Alphadi, Niger, Modella, Nigeria, and Adebayor Jones, UK.
The exciting side attraction is that Boris Kodjoe, the German-Ghanaian actor and designer, who owns the Ziami Clothing lines, will be in Ghana to grace the occasion. He will be accompanied by his wife, Nicole Ari Parker, who is also an actress.
Boris, well known for his role as Damon Carter in show time drama ‘Soul Food’, will showcase his designs.
Mr Ibrahim said some of the Black Stars players such as Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Stephen Appiah, Arsenal player Emmanuel Adebayor and Gerald Asamoah, who plays for the German national team and Schalke 04, will model clothes from Boris Kodjoe.
Mr Ibrahim said he had been to the USA to meet with Boris, who is excited about coming to Ghana.
He said Black Entertainment Television (BET), an American cable network, is doing a documentary on Boris Kodjoe and will thus accompany him to Ghana to film his (Boris) background, as well as the event.
He noted that this would give the fashion industry in Ghana a boost, since the documentary would be shown to a wider audience.
Mr Ibrahim said there would also be a fashion exhibition that would run concurrently with the modelling shows and appealed to people engaged in fashion-related products and services to contact Exopa for space allocation.
He said the modelling events would not only feature slim ladies but l-sized ladies will also hit the runway.
“Most Ghanaian ladies are not slim and it is important that we do not always focus on the slim ones only but encourage designers to create outfits for l-sized ladies as well.”
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Gemann — From disgrace to grace
Saturday, May 23, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)
By Rebecca Kwei
From Fame to Shame, From Disgrace to Grace is the title of his book which will be out soon and perhaps the title clearly speaks about his life.
Nana Kwasi Agyemang popularly known as Gemann who shot to fame in the early 1980s but had to spend 14 years in prison for murder, says he has come a long way but very grateful to God for His love.
“I am doing very well by God’s grace. In fact I’m doing extremely well,” was what he said when The Mirror caught up with him at his office at Adabraka, a suburb of Accra, to find out how he was coping with life after prison.
New life
Now a pastor, Gemann celebrated his 46th birthday on Tuesday, May 19. He now sports a new-look an afro (Gemann used to have long wet curls) and is involved in a number of Christian activities.
He has started a church, New Life Christian Love Fellowship which operates at the O’reilly Secondary School at Adabraka. The church has about 35 members.
He said being a pastor was a vision the Lord gave him while he was in prison.
“I had wanted to become a preacher even before I went to prison. As a kid I always played the role of a pastor which earned me the name Osofo,” he recalled.
He explained that his intention then was to be rich and succeed in the entertainment industry before taking up pastoral duties so people would not think he went into it because of the money .
“But God had His own plans and it happened that I had to go through the training inside prison,” he said.
The New Life Christian Love Fellowship started while he was in prison. He says aside the church having a branch in Accra, there are three branches: one each in the Condemned Cell and the main yard at Nsawam Prison and one at Ankaful Prison Annex.
Gemann now also has permit to visit all police cells in the country to preach and educate on life and crime.
He said he had visited some police cells in Accra and Tema and was happy that anytime he visited a police cell, not less than five people gave their lives to Christ after hearing him.
“I believe God has preserved my life so that I may be light unto those who are still in darkness,” he noted.
Suspects in police cells, he indicated, related better to him because they knew he had gone through a similar situation.
Gemann has not shirked his love for the entertainment industry and has also started a Christian multi-media entertainment company called Godsbiz (God’s Business) that deals in gospel music, video production and artiste management.
According to him he has also developed a radio programme, Talent from the Biblical Perspective which airs on Channel R, where he tries to help the youth identify and develop their talent by bringing in guests who have made it in life to share their experiences.
He said he was developing a television version of the programme which will hit the screens soon.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, he is a panelist on the entertainment review programme, 205, on the same station where he brings his Christian perspective to bear on entertainment matters.
Despite having so much going for him already, Gemann, revealed that he is recording a new gospel album which he calls 14. The title represents the number of years he spent in prison. He said the album will probably have 14 tracks on it as well.
Gemann said he was also a motivational speaker since he got a lot of invitations from other churches to come and share his testimony.
January 9, 1995
January 9, 1995 was the day Gemann’s life changed. Although he was not too willing to be retrospect since the story had been told over and over again, he did summarise what happened that day.
According to Gemann, a lady friend called Nada had boarded a taxi to come and visit him at his then residence at Dome CFC.
He said apparently, Nada who did not have money on her to pay, had also not come to an agreement over the fare with the driver.
Thus when Nada got to his place and he decided to pay, there was a disagreement over the fare and the taxi driver left without taking any money.
He said the taxi driver came back an hour later, parked his car about 500 metres away from his (Gemann’s) house and then came to the house to collect sand into a plastic bag.
He said when he enquired what he (taxi driver) was going to do with the sand, he replied that he would kill each and every one in the house.
“This led to a heated argument and as a result, I fired a warning shot to calm the situation but this rather infuriated him (taxi driver),” he narrated.
According to Gemann, in the course of bringing the taxi driver back to the house from where he (taxi driver) had parked his car to reverse whatever curse he might have done, there was a struggle and the pistol went off killing the taxi driver.
“What happened was purely an accident. I was a novice at handling such weapons and because I had fired a warning shot earlier, the pistol went off easily, he said with sadness in his voice.
I felt terrible, devastated and broken. I immediately went to the police station to report myself.
Gemann was later sentenced to death by hanging on January 9, 1995. He was granted presidential pardon and coincidentally released from prison on January 9, 2009. He believes the dates are not a coincidence but a miracle.
Turning point
According to Gemann he was a Christian but did not have a personal relationship and commitment with Christ.
“But when the incident happened, I knew at that moment that the only person who could save me was Jesus and I made a personal commitment to Him that very day,” he recalled.
Asked why he had bought a pistol, Gemann said when he moved to his then residence, he was told that the area was armed robbery-prone so he bought the pistol for protection against armed robbers.
“But in the end I slept with armed robbers in the same prison. Now I know it is God who protects and not pistols,” he stated.
Good things
One good thing, Gemann notes, is that he is at peace with the family of the taxi driver, Kwasi Agyei, whom he accidentally killed.
“The good thing is that the family of the late Kwasi Agyei wrote a petition to former President J. A. Kufuor for my release”.
Quoting Proverbs 16:7 — When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him (King James Version) to support, he said: “I prayed to God always to heal the wounds I had created and God touched their hearts.”
He said when he was released from prison, the family of the late Kwasi Agyei received him warmly and he is now part of that family.
He said the late Agyei had a daughter who is 14 years now and is almost like a daughter to him. He promises to take full responsibility of her at the appropriate time.
Unfortunately, Nada died two years ago.
Family ties
Gemann said he was grateful to his family and many others for their support without whom he would not have survived in prison.
Gemann has three siblings; his older brother is also a pastor, while his other brother is in the United Kingdom and his little sister is in the United States.
His father, Amoo Agyemang passed on six years ago and he now lives with his 76-year-old mother, Augusta Asiedu Agyemang at Teshie Nungua, a suburb of Accra.
Gemann has a daughter, Tremina Gemann, who is 18 and lives in Holland.
“Tremina was only three years old when I went to prison and obviously a difficult time for her growing up. But the good thing is that now I can talk to her anytime I want,” he said.
Early life
Born at Kokomlemle in Accra, Gemann had his basic education in different parts of the country because both parents were teachers and they travelled extensively.
He went to West Africa Secondary School and indicated that the late Ola Williams was his classmate.
He continued his secondary education at the Tema Secondary School and left for the UK while in Form 3 to pursue his entertainment career in 1982.
“As a kid I was already in show business. I was dancing and performing at parties,” he recalled.
Prior to leaving for the UK, Gemann who was well- noted for his dancing skills, had won the national dance championship from 1980 to 1982.
While in the UK, he did the Michael Jackson look-like show by dancing and performing to Michael Jackson’s songs which took him to many places around the world such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
He released Highlife in G Major in 1987; Hiphop the Jungle in 1989, Danzing Mann in 1992 and a gospel album God is Love in 2003 while in prison.
When he returned from the UK to Ghana in 1992, Gemann set up a recording and production company, Gemann Productions, and a studio known as Studio G and at the time, he had about 35 young men and women he was training in music and dance.
In 1994, he was the side attraction for the Miss Ghana pageant and he travelled with the team to all the 10 regions.
According to Gemann, he was three days away from completing a musical movie when the shooting incident happened.
Great lessons
“If I knew the Lord then, what happened on January 9, 1995, would not have happened. God’s word has made me more patient.”
Asked if he misses the old days he said “No. Now the joy of the Lord is my strength. The ministration gives me so much joy.
Some people have accepted me but some still doubt that I have changed. What is happening to me is real. I have chosen to do God’s work because I know what He has done for me.”
He advised the youth “to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteoness and all other things shall be added to them.”
He said parents should be concerned about their children and help them to know Christ properly and not only taking them (children) to church on Sundays.
He noted that most of the youth are leading hypocritical lives as such it was necessary for them to have a firm foundation in Christ to prevent the ‘sakawa’ generation which is rearing its head of late.
Future plans
Gemann believes the future is very bright and he has plans of opening up more branches of his ministry. “Bigger things start with humble beginnings’, he said.
He said at the moment he is “single and unattached” but hopes to marry sometime.
Psalm 116 is very dear to Gemann’s heart and he says “this scripture sums up my life.”
By Rebecca Kwei
From Fame to Shame, From Disgrace to Grace is the title of his book which will be out soon and perhaps the title clearly speaks about his life.
Nana Kwasi Agyemang popularly known as Gemann who shot to fame in the early 1980s but had to spend 14 years in prison for murder, says he has come a long way but very grateful to God for His love.
“I am doing very well by God’s grace. In fact I’m doing extremely well,” was what he said when The Mirror caught up with him at his office at Adabraka, a suburb of Accra, to find out how he was coping with life after prison.
New life
Now a pastor, Gemann celebrated his 46th birthday on Tuesday, May 19. He now sports a new-look an afro (Gemann used to have long wet curls) and is involved in a number of Christian activities.
He has started a church, New Life Christian Love Fellowship which operates at the O’reilly Secondary School at Adabraka. The church has about 35 members.
He said being a pastor was a vision the Lord gave him while he was in prison.
“I had wanted to become a preacher even before I went to prison. As a kid I always played the role of a pastor which earned me the name Osofo,” he recalled.
He explained that his intention then was to be rich and succeed in the entertainment industry before taking up pastoral duties so people would not think he went into it because of the money .
“But God had His own plans and it happened that I had to go through the training inside prison,” he said.
The New Life Christian Love Fellowship started while he was in prison. He says aside the church having a branch in Accra, there are three branches: one each in the Condemned Cell and the main yard at Nsawam Prison and one at Ankaful Prison Annex.
Gemann now also has permit to visit all police cells in the country to preach and educate on life and crime.
He said he had visited some police cells in Accra and Tema and was happy that anytime he visited a police cell, not less than five people gave their lives to Christ after hearing him.
“I believe God has preserved my life so that I may be light unto those who are still in darkness,” he noted.
Suspects in police cells, he indicated, related better to him because they knew he had gone through a similar situation.
Gemann has not shirked his love for the entertainment industry and has also started a Christian multi-media entertainment company called Godsbiz (God’s Business) that deals in gospel music, video production and artiste management.
According to him he has also developed a radio programme, Talent from the Biblical Perspective which airs on Channel R, where he tries to help the youth identify and develop their talent by bringing in guests who have made it in life to share their experiences.
He said he was developing a television version of the programme which will hit the screens soon.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, he is a panelist on the entertainment review programme, 205, on the same station where he brings his Christian perspective to bear on entertainment matters.
Despite having so much going for him already, Gemann, revealed that he is recording a new gospel album which he calls 14. The title represents the number of years he spent in prison. He said the album will probably have 14 tracks on it as well.
Gemann said he was also a motivational speaker since he got a lot of invitations from other churches to come and share his testimony.
January 9, 1995
January 9, 1995 was the day Gemann’s life changed. Although he was not too willing to be retrospect since the story had been told over and over again, he did summarise what happened that day.
According to Gemann, a lady friend called Nada had boarded a taxi to come and visit him at his then residence at Dome CFC.
He said apparently, Nada who did not have money on her to pay, had also not come to an agreement over the fare with the driver.
Thus when Nada got to his place and he decided to pay, there was a disagreement over the fare and the taxi driver left without taking any money.
He said the taxi driver came back an hour later, parked his car about 500 metres away from his (Gemann’s) house and then came to the house to collect sand into a plastic bag.
He said when he enquired what he (taxi driver) was going to do with the sand, he replied that he would kill each and every one in the house.
“This led to a heated argument and as a result, I fired a warning shot to calm the situation but this rather infuriated him (taxi driver),” he narrated.
According to Gemann, in the course of bringing the taxi driver back to the house from where he (taxi driver) had parked his car to reverse whatever curse he might have done, there was a struggle and the pistol went off killing the taxi driver.
“What happened was purely an accident. I was a novice at handling such weapons and because I had fired a warning shot earlier, the pistol went off easily, he said with sadness in his voice.
I felt terrible, devastated and broken. I immediately went to the police station to report myself.
Gemann was later sentenced to death by hanging on January 9, 1995. He was granted presidential pardon and coincidentally released from prison on January 9, 2009. He believes the dates are not a coincidence but a miracle.
Turning point
According to Gemann he was a Christian but did not have a personal relationship and commitment with Christ.
“But when the incident happened, I knew at that moment that the only person who could save me was Jesus and I made a personal commitment to Him that very day,” he recalled.
Asked why he had bought a pistol, Gemann said when he moved to his then residence, he was told that the area was armed robbery-prone so he bought the pistol for protection against armed robbers.
“But in the end I slept with armed robbers in the same prison. Now I know it is God who protects and not pistols,” he stated.
Good things
One good thing, Gemann notes, is that he is at peace with the family of the taxi driver, Kwasi Agyei, whom he accidentally killed.
“The good thing is that the family of the late Kwasi Agyei wrote a petition to former President J. A. Kufuor for my release”.
Quoting Proverbs 16:7 — When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him (King James Version) to support, he said: “I prayed to God always to heal the wounds I had created and God touched their hearts.”
He said when he was released from prison, the family of the late Kwasi Agyei received him warmly and he is now part of that family.
He said the late Agyei had a daughter who is 14 years now and is almost like a daughter to him. He promises to take full responsibility of her at the appropriate time.
Unfortunately, Nada died two years ago.
Family ties
Gemann said he was grateful to his family and many others for their support without whom he would not have survived in prison.
Gemann has three siblings; his older brother is also a pastor, while his other brother is in the United Kingdom and his little sister is in the United States.
His father, Amoo Agyemang passed on six years ago and he now lives with his 76-year-old mother, Augusta Asiedu Agyemang at Teshie Nungua, a suburb of Accra.
Gemann has a daughter, Tremina Gemann, who is 18 and lives in Holland.
“Tremina was only three years old when I went to prison and obviously a difficult time for her growing up. But the good thing is that now I can talk to her anytime I want,” he said.
Early life
Born at Kokomlemle in Accra, Gemann had his basic education in different parts of the country because both parents were teachers and they travelled extensively.
He went to West Africa Secondary School and indicated that the late Ola Williams was his classmate.
He continued his secondary education at the Tema Secondary School and left for the UK while in Form 3 to pursue his entertainment career in 1982.
“As a kid I was already in show business. I was dancing and performing at parties,” he recalled.
Prior to leaving for the UK, Gemann who was well- noted for his dancing skills, had won the national dance championship from 1980 to 1982.
While in the UK, he did the Michael Jackson look-like show by dancing and performing to Michael Jackson’s songs which took him to many places around the world such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
He released Highlife in G Major in 1987; Hiphop the Jungle in 1989, Danzing Mann in 1992 and a gospel album God is Love in 2003 while in prison.
When he returned from the UK to Ghana in 1992, Gemann set up a recording and production company, Gemann Productions, and a studio known as Studio G and at the time, he had about 35 young men and women he was training in music and dance.
In 1994, he was the side attraction for the Miss Ghana pageant and he travelled with the team to all the 10 regions.
According to Gemann, he was three days away from completing a musical movie when the shooting incident happened.
Great lessons
“If I knew the Lord then, what happened on January 9, 1995, would not have happened. God’s word has made me more patient.”
Asked if he misses the old days he said “No. Now the joy of the Lord is my strength. The ministration gives me so much joy.
Some people have accepted me but some still doubt that I have changed. What is happening to me is real. I have chosen to do God’s work because I know what He has done for me.”
He advised the youth “to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteoness and all other things shall be added to them.”
He said parents should be concerned about their children and help them to know Christ properly and not only taking them (children) to church on Sundays.
He noted that most of the youth are leading hypocritical lives as such it was necessary for them to have a firm foundation in Christ to prevent the ‘sakawa’ generation which is rearing its head of late.
Future plans
Gemann believes the future is very bright and he has plans of opening up more branches of his ministry. “Bigger things start with humble beginnings’, he said.
He said at the moment he is “single and unattached” but hopes to marry sometime.
Psalm 116 is very dear to Gemann’s heart and he says “this scripture sums up my life.”
Monday, May 18, 2009
Esther Cobbah — CEO of Stratcomm Africa tells her story
Saturday, May 16, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)
By Rebecca Kwei
Very early in life, she knew she wanted to be in the communication industry because she believed communication was a tool that could be used effectively for national development.
For more than the two decades that she has been in communications with various organisations, Ms Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, CEO of Stratcomm Africa, a communications and public relations outfit, proudly says she has no regrets choosing that field, a profession she handles effortlessly and with passion. In fact communicating effectively comes to her naturally.
Strategic Communications Africa Limited or Stratcomm Africa, which Ms Cobbah founded, celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.
Speaking with The Mirror in a relaxed atmosphere at her office at Asylum Down, a suburb of Accra, Ms Cobbah said her basic education saw her through various schools such as Queen Elizabeth School at Komenda, Ekuasi Methodist Primary at Sekondi and then the Komenda L A Primary School because her father, William Edward Cobbah, a postmaster, was posted to various towns.
Mmofraturo School in Kumasi was her next destination from 1967 to 1969 before she went to Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast in 1969.
“I enjoyed my time at Mmofraturo and Wesley Girls and what I learnt there has impacted positively in my life,” she said.
She reminisces that while in Form One in Wesley Girls, she started the Evangels, a singing group comprising students from Wesley Girls and Adisadel College, and then another, Noise of Joy, comprising Wesley Girls and Mfanstipim students, and these groups later combined to become Joyful Way Singers now Joyful Way Incorporated.
Again in Sixth Form in Wesley Girls she was selected to be the Senior Prefect and she says “being selected by your peers is something to be proud of and as SP I tried to deepen relationship with students to understand them better but I was quite strict”.
Throughout the interview, Ms Cobbah spoke fondly of her late mum, Victoria Cobbah, who she described as very enterprising, remarkable and very generous.
“I was very close to my mum and I learnt a lot from her and grew up loving her deeply,” she said.
After Wesley Girls, Ms Cobbah entered the University of Ghana, Legon where she studied English, Religions and History and did a combined major in English and Religions. She did her national service at the Presec School where she taught Religious Studies.
Her burning desire to do communications saw her going back to the School of Communications for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism and Communication.
“I believe communication can be used to promote mutual understanding. Without understanding, we cannot live in harmony and influence the things people do,” she stated.
Fortunately, after graduating from the School of Communications, she was recommended by the late Prof. P. A. V. Ansah to the United States Information Service (USIS) to do her internship.
“Being at the USIS contributed immensely to my professional development. It was a holistic experience for me. I developed my photojournalism skills; I take pictures, go to the dark room to develop them, did media monitoring and wrote articles among others,” she narrated.
Due to the good work she did with the USIS, she was asked to stay for six months instead of the six weeks’ attachment.
Ms Cobbah got employment as the Public Relations Officer of the then Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) after her internship with the USIS where she continued to hone her communication skills from 1982 to 1984.
At GIHOC, Ms Cobbah’s experience together with the general environment in Ghana at the time apart from strengthening her convictions about using communication to achieve national development goals also fuelled the awareness of her need to further her education and expertise.
While at USIS, she had researched for universities and she later applied to the Cornell University in the USA and gained admission but without financial aid.
She, therefore, applied for a Rotary Foundation Scholarship and then went for an interview but did not hear from them again.
Weeks turned into months and there was no sign of her getting funds for her education until out of the blue an American benefactor she met while working with the USIS decided to fund her trip to the US, as well as her first year at Cornell University. Luck came her way again as she was later awarded the Rotary Foundation Scholarship she had applied for.
At Cornell she specialised in Public Relations, Communications for Developing Countries and Intercultural Communication, Extension Education as well as Organisational Communication.
She described her time at Cornell as a wonderful learning experience because “it was evident I was acquiring real world knowledge and skills”.
Ms Cobbah returned to Ghana in 1988 and was invited to work with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which had no public relations department and she set up that unit from scratch.
This afforded her a brilliant opportunity to implement and practise all she had studied about organisational and intercultural communication. She rose through the ranks to later head the public relations department.
Some of the high points while at GNPC were the opportunities to set up a workable internal communication system that worked for both engineering and non-engineering staff of the company in a developing environment.
When in 1991, the government decided to promote Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) beyond urban areas, Ms Cobbah developed LPG variants of the local mud stove, the ‘Chorkor’ smoker, and the pito stove after a survey among the target audience.
“The then management of GNPC was happy with the work I did with the LPG and the stoves and this culminated in the setting up of a subsidiary known as Energy Products. Today, the stoves are all over town,” she said with appreciation in her voice.
Additionally, she was responsible for co-ordinating the then GNPC annual international Oil and Gas Africa Conferences in Ghana, a responsibility that gave her invaluable experience.
As she expertly handled this conferences and other duties, her good works were noticed and in 1999 to 2001 she was seconded as the first External Public Affairs Manager for the West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGPP). The WAGPP was promoted by a consortium of Shell, Chevron, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, GNPC and the national gas companies of Togo and Benin.
Here again, she set up the public affairs office from scratch, working in a cross-cultural and multilingual environment.
Ms Cobbah became the Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa in 2001. She is also a director of the Centre for Development and Intercultural Communication (CEDIC), a non-governmental organisation, and has led the establishment of a network of youth drama troupes involved in community participatory theatre, an initiative she began with young people from impoverished communities.
As the Chief Executive of Stratcomm Africa, Ms Cobbah has led the team to develop and implement comprehensive communication strategies for various organisations. She has also evolved several approaches for using communication to achieve organisational harmony and effectiveness.
Stratcomm has “Work to the glory of God” as one of its cardinal principles and it is no wonder it won the Christian Company of the Year for 2008.
As Stratcomm Africa celebrates 15 years on the theme: “Raising the bar in the Communication Industry”, she says “there is the need to raise the standards of communication in the country by combining the science and art of communication to get to the higher levels where other countries have reached and beyond”.
“We in the industry also need to challenge ourselves by raising our professionalism and working with integrity and in an honest manner and not cut corners.”
Ms Cobbah said she was grateful to God, colleagues, employees, friends and family and all who had contributed to the success of Stratcomm.
“Everyone can make it. You just have to look at the opportunities around you and grab it. Look at what is in your hands and work with it. Don’t dwell on situations that come your way which are not pleasant but tell yourself ‘this too shall pass’,” she admonished.
She loves singing, gardening, playing with children and working with the youth. She is married to Tsatsu Tsikata, a man she describes as a “wonderful and supportive husband” and they have two children, Kwame and Kofi.
By Rebecca Kwei
Very early in life, she knew she wanted to be in the communication industry because she believed communication was a tool that could be used effectively for national development.
For more than the two decades that she has been in communications with various organisations, Ms Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, CEO of Stratcomm Africa, a communications and public relations outfit, proudly says she has no regrets choosing that field, a profession she handles effortlessly and with passion. In fact communicating effectively comes to her naturally.
Strategic Communications Africa Limited or Stratcomm Africa, which Ms Cobbah founded, celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.
Speaking with The Mirror in a relaxed atmosphere at her office at Asylum Down, a suburb of Accra, Ms Cobbah said her basic education saw her through various schools such as Queen Elizabeth School at Komenda, Ekuasi Methodist Primary at Sekondi and then the Komenda L A Primary School because her father, William Edward Cobbah, a postmaster, was posted to various towns.
Mmofraturo School in Kumasi was her next destination from 1967 to 1969 before she went to Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast in 1969.
“I enjoyed my time at Mmofraturo and Wesley Girls and what I learnt there has impacted positively in my life,” she said.
She reminisces that while in Form One in Wesley Girls, she started the Evangels, a singing group comprising students from Wesley Girls and Adisadel College, and then another, Noise of Joy, comprising Wesley Girls and Mfanstipim students, and these groups later combined to become Joyful Way Singers now Joyful Way Incorporated.
Again in Sixth Form in Wesley Girls she was selected to be the Senior Prefect and she says “being selected by your peers is something to be proud of and as SP I tried to deepen relationship with students to understand them better but I was quite strict”.
Throughout the interview, Ms Cobbah spoke fondly of her late mum, Victoria Cobbah, who she described as very enterprising, remarkable and very generous.
“I was very close to my mum and I learnt a lot from her and grew up loving her deeply,” she said.
After Wesley Girls, Ms Cobbah entered the University of Ghana, Legon where she studied English, Religions and History and did a combined major in English and Religions. She did her national service at the Presec School where she taught Religious Studies.
Her burning desire to do communications saw her going back to the School of Communications for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism and Communication.
“I believe communication can be used to promote mutual understanding. Without understanding, we cannot live in harmony and influence the things people do,” she stated.
Fortunately, after graduating from the School of Communications, she was recommended by the late Prof. P. A. V. Ansah to the United States Information Service (USIS) to do her internship.
“Being at the USIS contributed immensely to my professional development. It was a holistic experience for me. I developed my photojournalism skills; I take pictures, go to the dark room to develop them, did media monitoring and wrote articles among others,” she narrated.
Due to the good work she did with the USIS, she was asked to stay for six months instead of the six weeks’ attachment.
Ms Cobbah got employment as the Public Relations Officer of the then Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) after her internship with the USIS where she continued to hone her communication skills from 1982 to 1984.
At GIHOC, Ms Cobbah’s experience together with the general environment in Ghana at the time apart from strengthening her convictions about using communication to achieve national development goals also fuelled the awareness of her need to further her education and expertise.
While at USIS, she had researched for universities and she later applied to the Cornell University in the USA and gained admission but without financial aid.
She, therefore, applied for a Rotary Foundation Scholarship and then went for an interview but did not hear from them again.
Weeks turned into months and there was no sign of her getting funds for her education until out of the blue an American benefactor she met while working with the USIS decided to fund her trip to the US, as well as her first year at Cornell University. Luck came her way again as she was later awarded the Rotary Foundation Scholarship she had applied for.
At Cornell she specialised in Public Relations, Communications for Developing Countries and Intercultural Communication, Extension Education as well as Organisational Communication.
She described her time at Cornell as a wonderful learning experience because “it was evident I was acquiring real world knowledge and skills”.
Ms Cobbah returned to Ghana in 1988 and was invited to work with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), which had no public relations department and she set up that unit from scratch.
This afforded her a brilliant opportunity to implement and practise all she had studied about organisational and intercultural communication. She rose through the ranks to later head the public relations department.
Some of the high points while at GNPC were the opportunities to set up a workable internal communication system that worked for both engineering and non-engineering staff of the company in a developing environment.
When in 1991, the government decided to promote Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) beyond urban areas, Ms Cobbah developed LPG variants of the local mud stove, the ‘Chorkor’ smoker, and the pito stove after a survey among the target audience.
“The then management of GNPC was happy with the work I did with the LPG and the stoves and this culminated in the setting up of a subsidiary known as Energy Products. Today, the stoves are all over town,” she said with appreciation in her voice.
Additionally, she was responsible for co-ordinating the then GNPC annual international Oil and Gas Africa Conferences in Ghana, a responsibility that gave her invaluable experience.
As she expertly handled this conferences and other duties, her good works were noticed and in 1999 to 2001 she was seconded as the first External Public Affairs Manager for the West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGPP). The WAGPP was promoted by a consortium of Shell, Chevron, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, GNPC and the national gas companies of Togo and Benin.
Here again, she set up the public affairs office from scratch, working in a cross-cultural and multilingual environment.
Ms Cobbah became the Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm Africa in 2001. She is also a director of the Centre for Development and Intercultural Communication (CEDIC), a non-governmental organisation, and has led the establishment of a network of youth drama troupes involved in community participatory theatre, an initiative she began with young people from impoverished communities.
As the Chief Executive of Stratcomm Africa, Ms Cobbah has led the team to develop and implement comprehensive communication strategies for various organisations. She has also evolved several approaches for using communication to achieve organisational harmony and effectiveness.
Stratcomm has “Work to the glory of God” as one of its cardinal principles and it is no wonder it won the Christian Company of the Year for 2008.
As Stratcomm Africa celebrates 15 years on the theme: “Raising the bar in the Communication Industry”, she says “there is the need to raise the standards of communication in the country by combining the science and art of communication to get to the higher levels where other countries have reached and beyond”.
“We in the industry also need to challenge ourselves by raising our professionalism and working with integrity and in an honest manner and not cut corners.”
Ms Cobbah said she was grateful to God, colleagues, employees, friends and family and all who had contributed to the success of Stratcomm.
“Everyone can make it. You just have to look at the opportunities around you and grab it. Look at what is in your hands and work with it. Don’t dwell on situations that come your way which are not pleasant but tell yourself ‘this too shall pass’,” she admonished.
She loves singing, gardening, playing with children and working with the youth. She is married to Tsatsu Tsikata, a man she describes as a “wonderful and supportive husband” and they have two children, Kwame and Kofi.
Cosmocorp to revive beauty industry
Saturday, May 16, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 46)
By Rebecca Kwei
Cosmocorp Beauty Africa Event 2009, a series of activities to help the growth of the beauty industry in Africa and bring it up to date, will take place in Ghana in October this year.
The events are the Cosmocorp Beauty Fair, the Cosmocorp Beauty Workshop and Conference and the Cosmo-Prof Beauty Show.
According to the Local Organising Chair of Cosmocorp Beauty Africa, the event organisers, Mrs Nana-Achiaa Otu, upon careful analysis, it was discovered that the slow growth of the beauty industry in Africa was, among others, due to the lack of exposure, training expertise, merchandising and insufficient communication.
The event, she said, was thus to bring knowledge, passion and innovation to the service of beauty, new trends in the industry and celebrate skills and talents.
The Cosmocorp Beauty Fair scheduled for October 8 to 11, will take the form of an exhibition of cosmetic and hair products, equipment, perfumery and spa.
She said that was to afford those in the beauty industry, including distributors and manufacturers, the opportunity to showcase their products and the new trends in the Western world.
The Cosmocorp Beauty Workshop and Conference will seek to equip professionals in the beauty industry with the requisite skills and knowledge to excel in their business.
Mrs Otu said important topics such ‘Sterilisation’, ‘Business Management’, ‘How and when to use products and equipment’, ‘Hepatitis B’, among others, would be discussed.
“About 80 per cent of Ghana’s population find themselves in a salon or a barbering shop. So if the salon or barbering shop does not sterilise its equipment and there is any infection, you can imagine the number of people it will affect,” she stated.
The most exciting of the events is the Cosmo-Prof Beauty Show where competitions will be held for hair and beauty salons to demonstrate their skills and talents on stage.
The categories to be competed in are Best Hair Stylist, Best Make-up Artist, Best Nail Technician, Salon of the Year, Barbering Shop of the Year and Best Salon Worker.
Mrs Otu explained that competitions would be held in the regions and the winners in the various categories, except the Best Salon Worker, from each region would go to the finals.
For the Best Salon Worker, the public will register the contestants by means of sms votes which will be entered into a draw and 24 contestants selected.
The 24 contestants will then be housed to undertake various tasks and taken through eviction processes.
Mrs Otu, who is a cosmetologist, said registration for the various events would start in June and appealed to people in the beauty industry to look out for details in the dailies.
The Cosmocorp Beauty Africa Event 2009 is on the theme, “Where beauty meets trends to equal business”.
By Rebecca Kwei
Cosmocorp Beauty Africa Event 2009, a series of activities to help the growth of the beauty industry in Africa and bring it up to date, will take place in Ghana in October this year.
The events are the Cosmocorp Beauty Fair, the Cosmocorp Beauty Workshop and Conference and the Cosmo-Prof Beauty Show.
According to the Local Organising Chair of Cosmocorp Beauty Africa, the event organisers, Mrs Nana-Achiaa Otu, upon careful analysis, it was discovered that the slow growth of the beauty industry in Africa was, among others, due to the lack of exposure, training expertise, merchandising and insufficient communication.
The event, she said, was thus to bring knowledge, passion and innovation to the service of beauty, new trends in the industry and celebrate skills and talents.
The Cosmocorp Beauty Fair scheduled for October 8 to 11, will take the form of an exhibition of cosmetic and hair products, equipment, perfumery and spa.
She said that was to afford those in the beauty industry, including distributors and manufacturers, the opportunity to showcase their products and the new trends in the Western world.
The Cosmocorp Beauty Workshop and Conference will seek to equip professionals in the beauty industry with the requisite skills and knowledge to excel in their business.
Mrs Otu said important topics such ‘Sterilisation’, ‘Business Management’, ‘How and when to use products and equipment’, ‘Hepatitis B’, among others, would be discussed.
“About 80 per cent of Ghana’s population find themselves in a salon or a barbering shop. So if the salon or barbering shop does not sterilise its equipment and there is any infection, you can imagine the number of people it will affect,” she stated.
The most exciting of the events is the Cosmo-Prof Beauty Show where competitions will be held for hair and beauty salons to demonstrate their skills and talents on stage.
The categories to be competed in are Best Hair Stylist, Best Make-up Artist, Best Nail Technician, Salon of the Year, Barbering Shop of the Year and Best Salon Worker.
Mrs Otu explained that competitions would be held in the regions and the winners in the various categories, except the Best Salon Worker, from each region would go to the finals.
For the Best Salon Worker, the public will register the contestants by means of sms votes which will be entered into a draw and 24 contestants selected.
The 24 contestants will then be housed to undertake various tasks and taken through eviction processes.
Mrs Otu, who is a cosmetologist, said registration for the various events would start in June and appealed to people in the beauty industry to look out for details in the dailies.
The Cosmocorp Beauty Africa Event 2009 is on the theme, “Where beauty meets trends to equal business”.
Vitamin A does not reduce maternal mortality — Study
Saturday, May 9, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 31)
By Rebecca Kwei
A study conducted by the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) has shown that taking Vitamin A does not reduce the risk of death in pregnancy or childbirth.
The study has answered a very important question for the survival of women and their babies in Ghana and in many other developing countries.
Known as the ObaapaVitA study, it tested the potency of administering Vitamin A capsules weekly to pregnant women in preventing maternal mortality.
Although it is well-known that Vitamin A supplements are important for the health and survival of children, before the study there was no certainty if that was also true for women.
For eight years the KHRC and its partners — the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine — worked with local communities and over 200,000 women, supported by the UK Department for International Development.
The study was done by comparing women taking weekly capsules containing Vitamin A with those taking capsules without Vitamin A.
The Director of the KHRC, Dr Seth Owusu-Agyei, who announced this main finding, thanked the women, communities, local and national leaders, the KHRC field workers and the international funding agencies who were collectively responsible for the success of the study.
The Chairman of the Trial Steering Committee, Dr Moses Adibo, praised the team for its outstanding work and emphasised the significance of the finding for Ghana.
“Research does not just tell us what new things to do; it also tells us what not to do. Had Ghana implemented this policy all over the country to all women without knowing its benefits, we might have spent an estimated $20 million each year to no avail,” he said.
The international relevance of the ObaapaVitA study was acknowledged by all the experts present at the Kintampo meeting.
Professor Betty Kirkwood, the Principal Investigator of the study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said, “This is one of the biggest community trials ever conducted. The dedication and quality of the staff has been superb and we have a very definite answer that will be important for governments and policy makers all over the world.”
By Rebecca Kwei
A study conducted by the Kintampo Health Research Centre (KHRC) has shown that taking Vitamin A does not reduce the risk of death in pregnancy or childbirth.
The study has answered a very important question for the survival of women and their babies in Ghana and in many other developing countries.
Known as the ObaapaVitA study, it tested the potency of administering Vitamin A capsules weekly to pregnant women in preventing maternal mortality.
Although it is well-known that Vitamin A supplements are important for the health and survival of children, before the study there was no certainty if that was also true for women.
For eight years the KHRC and its partners — the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine — worked with local communities and over 200,000 women, supported by the UK Department for International Development.
The study was done by comparing women taking weekly capsules containing Vitamin A with those taking capsules without Vitamin A.
The Director of the KHRC, Dr Seth Owusu-Agyei, who announced this main finding, thanked the women, communities, local and national leaders, the KHRC field workers and the international funding agencies who were collectively responsible for the success of the study.
The Chairman of the Trial Steering Committee, Dr Moses Adibo, praised the team for its outstanding work and emphasised the significance of the finding for Ghana.
“Research does not just tell us what new things to do; it also tells us what not to do. Had Ghana implemented this policy all over the country to all women without knowing its benefits, we might have spent an estimated $20 million each year to no avail,” he said.
The international relevance of the ObaapaVitA study was acknowledged by all the experts present at the Kintampo meeting.
Professor Betty Kirkwood, the Principal Investigator of the study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said, “This is one of the biggest community trials ever conducted. The dedication and quality of the staff has been superb and we have a very definite answer that will be important for governments and policy makers all over the world.”
Counting malaria out — What our panellists say
Saturday, May 9, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 31)
Interviews by: Rebecca Kwei
EMMANUEL FIAGBEY, COUNTRY DIRECTOR, JOHN HOPKINS CENTRE FOR COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES — VOICES PROJECT
The malaria situation in the country is receiving a good level of attention and there is improvement in the prevention and management of the disease.
In my role as a promoter of advocacy for malaria, I will say that we need greater commitment of all people in leadership from the national to district levels, as well as the community and households, in order to achieve the level of prevention and treatment required.
In advocacy, we are concerned with mobilising government officials, politicians, heads of corporate organisations and the public and private sector leadership to ensure that the right resources in terms of funding and human resource are generated for promotion of programmes and activities directed at prevention and treatment of malaria.
The Global Fund, the President’s Malaria Initiative of the US government, DFID, UNICEF and others have been the source of malaria funding in Ghana but should that be the case all the time?
As a country we also have to contribute our own quota to what the foreign organisations are offering.
A groundswell of these resources will enable us to achieve the Roll Back Malaria target and therefore by 2010 help us count malaria out.
I think that the corporate sector could learn from work done by Anglogold Ashanti where they have their own integrated malaria control programme, which has enabled them to achieve a high level of prevention and treatment in their catchment areas.
Corporate organisations as part of their social responsibility could emulate this example and lend support to malaria control activities not only in their workplaces but in the communities in which they are sited.
The district assemblies are the primary level of policy implementation and decision-making in the country and it is necessary that they ensure the percentage of the common fund designated for malaria programmes be duly given out for that purpose. In that way, they will also be contributing to the fight against malaria.
I would also appeal to the government to revert to the one per cent of the common fund for malaria prevention activities instead of the present 0.5 per cent.
The media are very important instruments for prevention and treatment of malaria. Therefore, it is necessary that malaria specialists and programme operatives open their doors to journalists so that they can put out the right information and ensure that malaria remains in the media all the time.
SAMUEL ASIEDU AGYEI, RESEARCH, MONITORING & EVALUATION, NETS FOR LIFE
Counting out malaria will be more effective when we place emphasis on malaria prevention and adhere to prompt and effective treatment.
I advocate more on preventive measures but if prevention fails and one gets malaria, it is important to quickly seek treatment so that it does not develop into the severe stage that may lead to death.
Now people are very much aware about malaria. The malaria situation in Ghana has been bad but now due to the enormous efforts put in by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and its partners, the malaria cases are beginning to drop.
However, we expect the malaria cases to drop further as more efforts get into it.
The aim of the NMCP is to achieve the Abuja Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The target is to have 80 per cent of the community to have access to Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) and those who have access to LLINs ensure that 80 per cent are using it — sleeping consistently under the treated nets.
The organisation I work for — Nets for Life — at the moment is supplying free LLINs to hard to reach communities in the country.
So far we have supplied nets to districts in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions and we are currently expanding to districts in the Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions of Ghana.
As more people sleep under LLINs, we expect the incidence of malaria to reduce by 70 per cent and it should have an influence in the economic development of families in hard-to-reach communities in Ghana.
In as much as we encourage people to sleep under the nets, we would also encourage people to seek early treatment and adhere to full treatment. I would encourage every Ghanaian to consistently use the LLINs because 'Nets Saves Life'.
DR JOSEPH SOMUAH AKUAMOAH, PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, ST JOE’S CLINIC, KASOA
Everybody ought to get involved in the fight against malaria. Fighting the disease is multi-sectoral — key partners, politicians, government, the media, health professionals among others — all have different roles to play in order to count out malaria.
Politicians have to be committed and walk the talk as well as provide funding and resources.
Health professionals must make themselves available, talk about the preventive and treatment aspects of the disease.
The media will also have to ensure that they put out the right information on malaria.
In Ghana, one problem has to do with diagnosis of the disease. There is need for good diagnosis, since other diseases also present symptoms associated with malaria.
Proper diagnosis means good training of healthcare workers, refresher courses, equipment and the right tools should be available.
Fortunately, apart from using a microscope in the laboratory to check for the malaria parasite, there is a new tool known as Rapid Diagnostic Tool (RDT), which will add on to make proper diagnosis of malaria possible.
Health professionals in private practice must also be actively involved in the fight against malaria, since they also deal with malaria patients and their centres have been rolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
It is also important for patients to adhere to combination therapy they are given when they get malaria and avoid mono-therapy to reduce resistance. Effective treatment is also preventive because there would be no parasite for the malaria mosquito to pick up and transmit to someone else.
MS ABA BAFFOE-WILMOT, MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGIST, NATIONAL MALARIA CONTROL PROGRAMME
The malaria situation in Ghana is getting better because looking back, the number of children under five who died from malaria has reduced.
Malaria cases are seen to be moving up probably because every fever is diagnosed as malaria.
I am very much concerned about the fact that in Ghana, despite the number of education given on the disease, people still relate filth to malaria.
This is not so. Filth is not malaria because the malaria mosquito which the public presumes to breed on rubbish dumps and gutters are not malaria mosquitoes. There are other mosquitoes that will breed in such areas but not the malaria mosquito.
The malaria mosquito will not be attracted to filthy areas but in relatively clean water, potholes, ponds, poodles, excavations, rice fields, stagnant waters along rivers and streams.
One of the malaria mosquitoes, the anopheles gambiae, likes breeding in temporary fresh stagnant waters and that is why we see malaria cases going up after the rains.
It is important that people do not create ‘maternity homes’ for the malaria mosquito but ensure they avoid the conditions necessary for their breeding.
To count out malaria, there is the need for everyone who owns an insecticide treated net to start sleeping under it especially pregnant women and children under five. Quite a number of people who have the treated nets do not sleep under it creating a situation of high ownership and low usage.
Pregnant women should also attend antenatal clinic where they will be given the Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) medicine which will help protect the pregnant woman and the unborn baby against malaria.
For people who get malaria, it is important that they take the full course of their medicines and not stop after they take it for a day or two and feel that they are well.
Malaria is a killer disease and we should see it as such and make sure we do everything possible to count it out of Ghana.
DR FELICIA OWUSU-ANTWI, NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL OFFICER FOR MALARIA, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, GHANA
The theme for this year’s World Malaria Day celebration “Counting Malaria Out” is indeed timely and very appropriate.
The world has now come to a point in time when it has become so obvious that not only does malaria cause many deaths but in so doing also impacts much on the countries with the highest burden. Many of these countries are found in sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana.
The global Roll Back Malaria’s goal of reducing the burden of malaria by half by 2010 is just around the corner and many countries are still putting up all efforts to reach this goal or get close to it by next year; hence the theme.
To actually count malaria out and get to the stage of elimination, the country should reach a stage of universal coverage of all interventions. These interventions are for both prevention and treatment.
People should seek treatment promptly. They should be mindful of environment management including the creation of breeding sites for the mosquitoes.
The system should be well strengthened and many more partners including the media should be involved in all control efforts.
After achieving very good control, it should be sustained for some years backed by a very good information management system and research. This will help the country to achieve the aim of counting malaria out.
Interviews by: Rebecca Kwei
EMMANUEL FIAGBEY, COUNTRY DIRECTOR, JOHN HOPKINS CENTRE FOR COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES — VOICES PROJECT
The malaria situation in the country is receiving a good level of attention and there is improvement in the prevention and management of the disease.
In my role as a promoter of advocacy for malaria, I will say that we need greater commitment of all people in leadership from the national to district levels, as well as the community and households, in order to achieve the level of prevention and treatment required.
In advocacy, we are concerned with mobilising government officials, politicians, heads of corporate organisations and the public and private sector leadership to ensure that the right resources in terms of funding and human resource are generated for promotion of programmes and activities directed at prevention and treatment of malaria.
The Global Fund, the President’s Malaria Initiative of the US government, DFID, UNICEF and others have been the source of malaria funding in Ghana but should that be the case all the time?
As a country we also have to contribute our own quota to what the foreign organisations are offering.
A groundswell of these resources will enable us to achieve the Roll Back Malaria target and therefore by 2010 help us count malaria out.
I think that the corporate sector could learn from work done by Anglogold Ashanti where they have their own integrated malaria control programme, which has enabled them to achieve a high level of prevention and treatment in their catchment areas.
Corporate organisations as part of their social responsibility could emulate this example and lend support to malaria control activities not only in their workplaces but in the communities in which they are sited.
The district assemblies are the primary level of policy implementation and decision-making in the country and it is necessary that they ensure the percentage of the common fund designated for malaria programmes be duly given out for that purpose. In that way, they will also be contributing to the fight against malaria.
I would also appeal to the government to revert to the one per cent of the common fund for malaria prevention activities instead of the present 0.5 per cent.
The media are very important instruments for prevention and treatment of malaria. Therefore, it is necessary that malaria specialists and programme operatives open their doors to journalists so that they can put out the right information and ensure that malaria remains in the media all the time.
SAMUEL ASIEDU AGYEI, RESEARCH, MONITORING & EVALUATION, NETS FOR LIFE
Counting out malaria will be more effective when we place emphasis on malaria prevention and adhere to prompt and effective treatment.
I advocate more on preventive measures but if prevention fails and one gets malaria, it is important to quickly seek treatment so that it does not develop into the severe stage that may lead to death.
Now people are very much aware about malaria. The malaria situation in Ghana has been bad but now due to the enormous efforts put in by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and its partners, the malaria cases are beginning to drop.
However, we expect the malaria cases to drop further as more efforts get into it.
The aim of the NMCP is to achieve the Abuja Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The target is to have 80 per cent of the community to have access to Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) and those who have access to LLINs ensure that 80 per cent are using it — sleeping consistently under the treated nets.
The organisation I work for — Nets for Life — at the moment is supplying free LLINs to hard to reach communities in the country.
So far we have supplied nets to districts in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions and we are currently expanding to districts in the Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions of Ghana.
As more people sleep under LLINs, we expect the incidence of malaria to reduce by 70 per cent and it should have an influence in the economic development of families in hard-to-reach communities in Ghana.
In as much as we encourage people to sleep under the nets, we would also encourage people to seek early treatment and adhere to full treatment. I would encourage every Ghanaian to consistently use the LLINs because 'Nets Saves Life'.
DR JOSEPH SOMUAH AKUAMOAH, PRIVATE MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, ST JOE’S CLINIC, KASOA
Everybody ought to get involved in the fight against malaria. Fighting the disease is multi-sectoral — key partners, politicians, government, the media, health professionals among others — all have different roles to play in order to count out malaria.
Politicians have to be committed and walk the talk as well as provide funding and resources.
Health professionals must make themselves available, talk about the preventive and treatment aspects of the disease.
The media will also have to ensure that they put out the right information on malaria.
In Ghana, one problem has to do with diagnosis of the disease. There is need for good diagnosis, since other diseases also present symptoms associated with malaria.
Proper diagnosis means good training of healthcare workers, refresher courses, equipment and the right tools should be available.
Fortunately, apart from using a microscope in the laboratory to check for the malaria parasite, there is a new tool known as Rapid Diagnostic Tool (RDT), which will add on to make proper diagnosis of malaria possible.
Health professionals in private practice must also be actively involved in the fight against malaria, since they also deal with malaria patients and their centres have been rolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
It is also important for patients to adhere to combination therapy they are given when they get malaria and avoid mono-therapy to reduce resistance. Effective treatment is also preventive because there would be no parasite for the malaria mosquito to pick up and transmit to someone else.
MS ABA BAFFOE-WILMOT, MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGIST, NATIONAL MALARIA CONTROL PROGRAMME
The malaria situation in Ghana is getting better because looking back, the number of children under five who died from malaria has reduced.
Malaria cases are seen to be moving up probably because every fever is diagnosed as malaria.
I am very much concerned about the fact that in Ghana, despite the number of education given on the disease, people still relate filth to malaria.
This is not so. Filth is not malaria because the malaria mosquito which the public presumes to breed on rubbish dumps and gutters are not malaria mosquitoes. There are other mosquitoes that will breed in such areas but not the malaria mosquito.
The malaria mosquito will not be attracted to filthy areas but in relatively clean water, potholes, ponds, poodles, excavations, rice fields, stagnant waters along rivers and streams.
One of the malaria mosquitoes, the anopheles gambiae, likes breeding in temporary fresh stagnant waters and that is why we see malaria cases going up after the rains.
It is important that people do not create ‘maternity homes’ for the malaria mosquito but ensure they avoid the conditions necessary for their breeding.
To count out malaria, there is the need for everyone who owns an insecticide treated net to start sleeping under it especially pregnant women and children under five. Quite a number of people who have the treated nets do not sleep under it creating a situation of high ownership and low usage.
Pregnant women should also attend antenatal clinic where they will be given the Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) medicine which will help protect the pregnant woman and the unborn baby against malaria.
For people who get malaria, it is important that they take the full course of their medicines and not stop after they take it for a day or two and feel that they are well.
Malaria is a killer disease and we should see it as such and make sure we do everything possible to count it out of Ghana.
DR FELICIA OWUSU-ANTWI, NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL OFFICER FOR MALARIA, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, GHANA
The theme for this year’s World Malaria Day celebration “Counting Malaria Out” is indeed timely and very appropriate.
The world has now come to a point in time when it has become so obvious that not only does malaria cause many deaths but in so doing also impacts much on the countries with the highest burden. Many of these countries are found in sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana.
The global Roll Back Malaria’s goal of reducing the burden of malaria by half by 2010 is just around the corner and many countries are still putting up all efforts to reach this goal or get close to it by next year; hence the theme.
To actually count malaria out and get to the stage of elimination, the country should reach a stage of universal coverage of all interventions. These interventions are for both prevention and treatment.
People should seek treatment promptly. They should be mindful of environment management including the creation of breeding sites for the mosquitoes.
The system should be well strengthened and many more partners including the media should be involved in all control efforts.
After achieving very good control, it should be sustained for some years backed by a very good information management system and research. This will help the country to achieve the aim of counting malaria out.
'Koko' goes hitech
Saturday, May 9, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)
By Rebecca Kwei
‘Hausa koko’ or ‘oblayo’ may be your favourite breakfast, but how long can you wait in a queue to get a cup of your favourite porridge?
A food purveyor, Koko King, has hit the market with a variety of innovative, convenient and hygienic porridge that are catching on fast with many workers and other clients in Accra.
Koko King currently has on its product line, ‘Hausa koko’, ‘oblayo’, ‘eko egbeemii’, wheat, oats and tom brown. Other breakfast meals in the offing include plain koko and rice water.
All these dishes come with milk and a variety of bread, beef loaf, croissant and ‘kose’ to choose from at affordable prices.
According to the Managing Director of the Koko King Limited, Mr Albert Osei, he realised that many people enjoyed the various kinds of porridge sold in the country, but the way they were presented to patrons was not attractive enough.
“Increasingly, customers are looking for more hygienic, tasteful and convenient food,” he told The Mirror in an interview.
Thus, he devised ways and means of delivering the products (as breakfast) to his customers, rather than they (customers) queuing up for them.
Koko King started operations in March, last year, by providing breakfast set for the table to his customers.
He explains that the food is prepared in the local way, but presented in a more hygienic and convenient pack for easy consumption.
The products come in very attractive and hygienic sealed cups. A distribution channel has been developed with cars delivering the product to such locations as banks, media houses, telecommunication organisations, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), among others, every morning. In every organisation, there is a sales assistant who takes care of the sales.
Mr Osei said the company started with only ‘Hausa koko’ with a workforce of only three, but as time went on, his customers started asking for other breakfast options, and this resulted in the company building its capacity by including different kinds of porridge available on the local cuisine. Now, the workforce has increased to almost 40.
Mr Osei indicates that there is a bakery that supplies his company with fresh bread every morning, but that his company also prepares its own sandwich, beaf loaf and kose.
On how customers responded to the innovation so far, he said “it’s been a tough road. A lot of people were sceptical of the innovation, but once they tasted the food, they liked it and appreciated our efforts.”
He said the customer base kept increasing on a daily basis.
However, the major challenge facing the company, Mr Osei indicated, was “consistently delivering good quality food daily. Trying to give customers the same standard they are used to everyday. One day, if the standard falls, that’s the end because food is very delicate.”
He said there are plans to establish an office in Tema and also franchise in other regions across the country.
Additionally, the company is looking at other ways of developing standard lunch meals to deliver to customers.
Mr Osei, who is an ex-banker, said most local foods could be presented in a better way, but that “the country has a long way to go.”
He said since he started operations, he had realised that most caterers presented their foods to their customers in a decent manner, and he believed that this was one of the contributions of Koko King to the food industry in Ghana.
By Rebecca Kwei
‘Hausa koko’ or ‘oblayo’ may be your favourite breakfast, but how long can you wait in a queue to get a cup of your favourite porridge?
A food purveyor, Koko King, has hit the market with a variety of innovative, convenient and hygienic porridge that are catching on fast with many workers and other clients in Accra.
Koko King currently has on its product line, ‘Hausa koko’, ‘oblayo’, ‘eko egbeemii’, wheat, oats and tom brown. Other breakfast meals in the offing include plain koko and rice water.
All these dishes come with milk and a variety of bread, beef loaf, croissant and ‘kose’ to choose from at affordable prices.
According to the Managing Director of the Koko King Limited, Mr Albert Osei, he realised that many people enjoyed the various kinds of porridge sold in the country, but the way they were presented to patrons was not attractive enough.
“Increasingly, customers are looking for more hygienic, tasteful and convenient food,” he told The Mirror in an interview.
Thus, he devised ways and means of delivering the products (as breakfast) to his customers, rather than they (customers) queuing up for them.
Koko King started operations in March, last year, by providing breakfast set for the table to his customers.
He explains that the food is prepared in the local way, but presented in a more hygienic and convenient pack for easy consumption.
The products come in very attractive and hygienic sealed cups. A distribution channel has been developed with cars delivering the product to such locations as banks, media houses, telecommunication organisations, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), among others, every morning. In every organisation, there is a sales assistant who takes care of the sales.
Mr Osei said the company started with only ‘Hausa koko’ with a workforce of only three, but as time went on, his customers started asking for other breakfast options, and this resulted in the company building its capacity by including different kinds of porridge available on the local cuisine. Now, the workforce has increased to almost 40.
Mr Osei indicates that there is a bakery that supplies his company with fresh bread every morning, but that his company also prepares its own sandwich, beaf loaf and kose.
On how customers responded to the innovation so far, he said “it’s been a tough road. A lot of people were sceptical of the innovation, but once they tasted the food, they liked it and appreciated our efforts.”
He said the customer base kept increasing on a daily basis.
However, the major challenge facing the company, Mr Osei indicated, was “consistently delivering good quality food daily. Trying to give customers the same standard they are used to everyday. One day, if the standard falls, that’s the end because food is very delicate.”
He said there are plans to establish an office in Tema and also franchise in other regions across the country.
Additionally, the company is looking at other ways of developing standard lunch meals to deliver to customers.
Mr Osei, who is an ex-banker, said most local foods could be presented in a better way, but that “the country has a long way to go.”
He said since he started operations, he had realised that most caterers presented their foods to their customers in a decent manner, and he believed that this was one of the contributions of Koko King to the food industry in Ghana.
Monday, May 4, 2009
No vasectomy say C/R men
Saturday, May 2, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)
No vasectomy - say C/R Men
From Shirley Aseidu-Addo, Cape Coast.
Men in the Central Region say they will not patronise vasectomy and will not risk opting for it even if it is the only family planning method available.
And, indeed, there is no record of vasectomy in the region, indicating that the men are, indeed, not patronising it. Vasectomy is a surgical procedure that makes a man sterile.
It is generally considered by health experts to be at least as effective as female sterilisation and is simple to perform, safer and less costly. It is done by blocking the tube through which sperms normally pass from each testicle on the way to the seminal vesicle to form semen.
The surgery usually takes no more than 30 minutes, after which time almost all men go home the same day.
In an interview conducted by The Mirror randomly in Cape Coast, the regional capital, not even one man said he would opt for the method.
They said the issue of vasectomy was one that touched on socio-cultural sensitivities and advised advocates of family planning methods to go slow on it.
“Madam, this vasectomy thing is castration given a nice name and no man would want to be castrated, I tell you,” Kofi, a student, said with all seriousness.
Others said they believed it would take a long time and extensive education for Ghanaian men to decide to opt for vasectomy.
“We don’t joke with such things, madam. I will not even think about opting for it; not even the old men will,” one gentleman said.
“I know a man whose children died and he wanted to have more children. If he had done vasectomy, what would he have done? It is a serious matter and I think it must not be encouraged,” said another gentleman, Eshun, a father of two.
It was not so surprising what the interviewees said. Indeed, the Regional Population Advisory Committee (RPAC) was seriously divided on the issue.
The male members of the committee vehemently opposed a suggestion that they should promote the method by opting for it and serve as role models for other men.
No male member of the RPAC supported the idea, saying promoting vasectomy in our culture and environment would not be an easy task.
They, however, thought it should be encouraged, as it was a very effective way of checking unwanted pregnancies.
“Even the wives would not want their husbands to go in for this, I assure you,” one member said.
But the women The Mirror interviewed said if they had had the required number of children, they would not mind if their husbands underwent vasectomy.
“Why not?” one woman queried, “we are all human beings and what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. If I am able to take pills and others which also have side effects, why can’t he undergo the vasectomy?”
Ms Joyce Amedoe of the Central Regional Office of the National Population Council confirmed that there were no records of vasectomy in the region.
She noted in an address at the RPAC meeting that 2,282 abortions were recorded in the region in 2008, which she said indicated that people were having unwanted pregnancies.
She said only 33.6 per cent of the targeted population were receiving family planning services in 2008, a reduction from 37.3 per cent in 2006.
She said people were also preferred short-term contraceptive methods to long and more permanent methods, while the use of condoms was also very low.
Ms Amedoe said that called for concern, since the quality of life of the people was essential for development.
She noted that problems such as streetism, teenage pregnancy, prostitution and drug abuse were increasing, adding that Ghanaians must work to help reduce the rate of population growth to meet the level of economic growth.
A Deputy Director at the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council, Mr Emmanuel Nortey, who chaired the meeting, said it was important for institutions to collaborate to help deal effectively with population issues.
The members called for clear messages to enable the populace to understand and adopt more responsible reproductive health lifestyles.
Meanwhile, figures available at the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for 2006 show that the Central, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Volta regions did not record any man undergoing vasectomy, reports Rebecca Kwei.
These five regions, with the exception of Brong Ahafo, which had one vasectomy, again recorded zero in 2007. The Upper East, Western and Eastern regions also recorded zero in 2007.
However, in 2006 the Western Region recorded four, while the Eastern Region had one and Upper East had three vasectomy cases.
The Ashanti Region recorded a high of 53 in 2006, but the figure dropped to 37 in 2007, while Greater Accra, which recorded 27 in 2006, had its vasectomy cases increasing to 85 in 2007.
According to the Data Manager of the Family Health Division of the GHS, Mr Henry Safori, the 2008 figures for vasectomy were not ready since they were still in the process of cross-checking figures made available to the division.
On why men did not patronise vasectomy, a maternal health programme officer of the division, Mrs Gladys Brew, said it had to do with culture and religion.
She explained that some men would not undergo vasectomy because they feared it would interfere with sexual function or they thought it was castration.
She, however, dismissed those thoughts as untrue.
Additionally, she said most men felt that contraception was solely a woman’s responsibility, since she was the one who would get pregnant and carry a baby.
Mrs Brew was, however, quick to add that undergoing vasectomy was a personal choice and not something to be forced on men, adding that there was a range of family planning options and one would have to choose the one which he or she would be comfortable with.
No vasectomy - say C/R Men
From Shirley Aseidu-Addo, Cape Coast.
Men in the Central Region say they will not patronise vasectomy and will not risk opting for it even if it is the only family planning method available.
And, indeed, there is no record of vasectomy in the region, indicating that the men are, indeed, not patronising it. Vasectomy is a surgical procedure that makes a man sterile.
It is generally considered by health experts to be at least as effective as female sterilisation and is simple to perform, safer and less costly. It is done by blocking the tube through which sperms normally pass from each testicle on the way to the seminal vesicle to form semen.
The surgery usually takes no more than 30 minutes, after which time almost all men go home the same day.
In an interview conducted by The Mirror randomly in Cape Coast, the regional capital, not even one man said he would opt for the method.
They said the issue of vasectomy was one that touched on socio-cultural sensitivities and advised advocates of family planning methods to go slow on it.
“Madam, this vasectomy thing is castration given a nice name and no man would want to be castrated, I tell you,” Kofi, a student, said with all seriousness.
Others said they believed it would take a long time and extensive education for Ghanaian men to decide to opt for vasectomy.
“We don’t joke with such things, madam. I will not even think about opting for it; not even the old men will,” one gentleman said.
“I know a man whose children died and he wanted to have more children. If he had done vasectomy, what would he have done? It is a serious matter and I think it must not be encouraged,” said another gentleman, Eshun, a father of two.
It was not so surprising what the interviewees said. Indeed, the Regional Population Advisory Committee (RPAC) was seriously divided on the issue.
The male members of the committee vehemently opposed a suggestion that they should promote the method by opting for it and serve as role models for other men.
No male member of the RPAC supported the idea, saying promoting vasectomy in our culture and environment would not be an easy task.
They, however, thought it should be encouraged, as it was a very effective way of checking unwanted pregnancies.
“Even the wives would not want their husbands to go in for this, I assure you,” one member said.
But the women The Mirror interviewed said if they had had the required number of children, they would not mind if their husbands underwent vasectomy.
“Why not?” one woman queried, “we are all human beings and what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. If I am able to take pills and others which also have side effects, why can’t he undergo the vasectomy?”
Ms Joyce Amedoe of the Central Regional Office of the National Population Council confirmed that there were no records of vasectomy in the region.
She noted in an address at the RPAC meeting that 2,282 abortions were recorded in the region in 2008, which she said indicated that people were having unwanted pregnancies.
She said only 33.6 per cent of the targeted population were receiving family planning services in 2008, a reduction from 37.3 per cent in 2006.
She said people were also preferred short-term contraceptive methods to long and more permanent methods, while the use of condoms was also very low.
Ms Amedoe said that called for concern, since the quality of life of the people was essential for development.
She noted that problems such as streetism, teenage pregnancy, prostitution and drug abuse were increasing, adding that Ghanaians must work to help reduce the rate of population growth to meet the level of economic growth.
A Deputy Director at the Central Regional Co-ordinating Council, Mr Emmanuel Nortey, who chaired the meeting, said it was important for institutions to collaborate to help deal effectively with population issues.
The members called for clear messages to enable the populace to understand and adopt more responsible reproductive health lifestyles.
Meanwhile, figures available at the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for 2006 show that the Central, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Volta regions did not record any man undergoing vasectomy, reports Rebecca Kwei.
These five regions, with the exception of Brong Ahafo, which had one vasectomy, again recorded zero in 2007. The Upper East, Western and Eastern regions also recorded zero in 2007.
However, in 2006 the Western Region recorded four, while the Eastern Region had one and Upper East had three vasectomy cases.
The Ashanti Region recorded a high of 53 in 2006, but the figure dropped to 37 in 2007, while Greater Accra, which recorded 27 in 2006, had its vasectomy cases increasing to 85 in 2007.
According to the Data Manager of the Family Health Division of the GHS, Mr Henry Safori, the 2008 figures for vasectomy were not ready since they were still in the process of cross-checking figures made available to the division.
On why men did not patronise vasectomy, a maternal health programme officer of the division, Mrs Gladys Brew, said it had to do with culture and religion.
She explained that some men would not undergo vasectomy because they feared it would interfere with sexual function or they thought it was castration.
She, however, dismissed those thoughts as untrue.
Additionally, she said most men felt that contraception was solely a woman’s responsibility, since she was the one who would get pregnant and carry a baby.
Mrs Brew was, however, quick to add that undergoing vasectomy was a personal choice and not something to be forced on men, adding that there was a range of family planning options and one would have to choose the one which he or she would be comfortable with.
Word Malaria Day launched
Saturday, May 2, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 34)
By Rebecca Kwei
The Ministry of Health will launch a Malaria Elimination Programme later this year to bring all stakeholders on board to help fight the disease.
The Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, who announced this at the launch of World Malaria Day last weekend in Accra, said he was serious about the fight against malaria.
It was on the theme, “Counting malaria out”.
Although he did not give details of how the programme would run, he said once the programme had been launched after the rains this year, all available interventions would be used to wage war on the disease.
Dr Yankey said there would also be a reintroduction of aerial spraying in the country, while indoor residual spraying would take place in all senior high schools.
He said malaria endemic countries had been categorised into three zones, namely, control, elimination and eradication, and that Ghana was in the control zone.
He said the cost of the malaria burden to the economy was so huge, making it necessary to pool resources to eliminate it.
He expressed concern over the use of monotherapies, which are single drugs such chloroquine, for the treatment of malaria and said it was important to comply with the new policy of treating malaria with the Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), Artesunate-Amodiaquine, or the second-line drug, Arthemeter-Lumefantrine.
To that effect, he said, the ministry had decided to ban the importation of unapproved malarial drugs into the country.
In order to make ACTs affordable, he said, there were discussions with donor partners to build consensus to make the drugs cheaper, adding that at the same time measures would be put in place so that it did not affect local drug manufacturers.
A malaria elimination song which will be reproduced in the various languages was also launched.
Dr Yankey called on all to come together to defeat mosquitoes and malaria, adding, “Malaria, now we know you very well and we shall not give you another chance.”
The Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr Constance Bart-Plange, said now was the time to challenge ourselves by using every available tool to stop malaria in its tracks.
She said Zambia, whose death rate from malaria had fallen by 66 per cent since 2000 by using insecticide-treated nets, among others, had shown the way that it was possible to eliminate malaria.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Daniel Kertesz, said the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) aimed at preventing 4.2 million deaths from malaria by 2015 by providing an array of interventions, including insecticide-treated nets, indoor insecticide spraying and effective malaria drugs.
He said malaria control was possible and cost effective, adding that the tools to do that were currently available and so there was the need to scale up intervention and improve on healthcare systems.
A former Dean of the School of Public Health, Prof Isabella Quakyi, who chaired the launch, said more research needed to be conducted in order to overcome the malaria parasite.
In a related development, Zoomlion, a waste management company, undertook a spraying exercise at the Accra International Conference Centre to rid the place of mosquitoes and their larvae.
The Head of the Vector Control Unit of Zoomlion, Mr Abibu Mohammed Ziblim, said the chemical used in the spraying, Vectobac 12AS, was biological and thus was environmentally friendly.
By Rebecca Kwei
The Ministry of Health will launch a Malaria Elimination Programme later this year to bring all stakeholders on board to help fight the disease.
The Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, who announced this at the launch of World Malaria Day last weekend in Accra, said he was serious about the fight against malaria.
It was on the theme, “Counting malaria out”.
Although he did not give details of how the programme would run, he said once the programme had been launched after the rains this year, all available interventions would be used to wage war on the disease.
Dr Yankey said there would also be a reintroduction of aerial spraying in the country, while indoor residual spraying would take place in all senior high schools.
He said malaria endemic countries had been categorised into three zones, namely, control, elimination and eradication, and that Ghana was in the control zone.
He said the cost of the malaria burden to the economy was so huge, making it necessary to pool resources to eliminate it.
He expressed concern over the use of monotherapies, which are single drugs such chloroquine, for the treatment of malaria and said it was important to comply with the new policy of treating malaria with the Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), Artesunate-Amodiaquine, or the second-line drug, Arthemeter-Lumefantrine.
To that effect, he said, the ministry had decided to ban the importation of unapproved malarial drugs into the country.
In order to make ACTs affordable, he said, there were discussions with donor partners to build consensus to make the drugs cheaper, adding that at the same time measures would be put in place so that it did not affect local drug manufacturers.
A malaria elimination song which will be reproduced in the various languages was also launched.
Dr Yankey called on all to come together to defeat mosquitoes and malaria, adding, “Malaria, now we know you very well and we shall not give you another chance.”
The Programme Manager of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Dr Constance Bart-Plange, said now was the time to challenge ourselves by using every available tool to stop malaria in its tracks.
She said Zambia, whose death rate from malaria had fallen by 66 per cent since 2000 by using insecticide-treated nets, among others, had shown the way that it was possible to eliminate malaria.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr Daniel Kertesz, said the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP) aimed at preventing 4.2 million deaths from malaria by 2015 by providing an array of interventions, including insecticide-treated nets, indoor insecticide spraying and effective malaria drugs.
He said malaria control was possible and cost effective, adding that the tools to do that were currently available and so there was the need to scale up intervention and improve on healthcare systems.
A former Dean of the School of Public Health, Prof Isabella Quakyi, who chaired the launch, said more research needed to be conducted in order to overcome the malaria parasite.
In a related development, Zoomlion, a waste management company, undertook a spraying exercise at the Accra International Conference Centre to rid the place of mosquitoes and their larvae.
The Head of the Vector Control Unit of Zoomlion, Mr Abibu Mohammed Ziblim, said the chemical used in the spraying, Vectobac 12AS, was biological and thus was environmentally friendly.
Malaria vaccine trial begins in Africa
Saturday, May 2, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 34)
By Rebecca Kwei
About 16,000 children aged between six weeks and 17 months in 11 Africa countries will participate in a three-year trial to determine the efficacy of a malaria vaccine in May, this year.
About 1,500 of the participants will be recruited from Kintampo to try the RTS,S vaccine which was created in 1987, while its clinical evaluation began in 1992.
Dr Kwaku Poku Asante of the Kintampo Health Research Centre made this known at a media seminar organised by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) as part of activities to commemorate World Malaria Day.
It was on the sub-theme, “Counting on the media to eradicate malaria”. This year’s world theme is, “Counting Malaria Out”.
It is estimated that there are between 300 million and 500 million clinical cases of malaria per year, with 80 per cent of those cases in Africa. In Ghana, about 4,500 deaths traceable to malaria are recorded annually and 1,500 children under five die from malaria every year, while 60 pregnant women die every year from malaria.
Dr Asante said a phase-two trial of the vaccine to determine the safety and potential side effects was conducted among 2,022 children between one and four years in Mozambique recently and it demonstrated a 30 per cent efficacy against clinical disease, 45 per cent efficacy against infection and 58 per cent efficacy against severe disease.
According to Dr Asante, in the recent past other trials on the vaccine had been undertaken in children in Tanzania, Gabon and Ghana and it had been found to be safe.
In another presentation, Dr Daniel Ansong of the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) said the vaccine was the most clinically advanced candidate in the world and it had the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives across Africa.
He noted that the vaccine would add on to other interventions currently being used and that it would make a positive impact on the economy and the capacity of our healthcare systems.
The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr Alex Dodoo, said there was an urgent need for rigorous data to inform malaria policy in Africa.
In view of that, he said, a new project dubbed the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies (INESS) that would monitor Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) in real life settings in Africa to provide information and data to drive malaria policy was in the offing.
The countries involved in the project are Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. It will, however, start in Ghana and Tanzania.
In Ghana, the studies will be undertaken at three sites, namely, Dodowa, Kintampo and Navrongo, where the participants will be monitored when given ACTs.
The Executive Secretary of AMMREN, Mrs Charity Binka, said the media were the gatekeepers of every society and they had a critical role to play in getting the malaria story out.
Therefore, she said, the media must not be left out in counting malaria out of the world, adding, “It is only through the active participation of the media in malaria eradication efforts that the menace can be conquered.”
A programme officer of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Mr James Frimpong, said his organisation would, among others, continue to ensure consistent use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and scale up indoor residual spraying to 45 districts with support from the global fund.
Additionally, there was the need to improve diagnosis and that would be done with the introduction of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits and strengthening laboratory microscopy services, he said.
By Rebecca Kwei
About 16,000 children aged between six weeks and 17 months in 11 Africa countries will participate in a three-year trial to determine the efficacy of a malaria vaccine in May, this year.
About 1,500 of the participants will be recruited from Kintampo to try the RTS,S vaccine which was created in 1987, while its clinical evaluation began in 1992.
Dr Kwaku Poku Asante of the Kintampo Health Research Centre made this known at a media seminar organised by the African Media and Malaria Research Network (AMMREN) as part of activities to commemorate World Malaria Day.
It was on the sub-theme, “Counting on the media to eradicate malaria”. This year’s world theme is, “Counting Malaria Out”.
It is estimated that there are between 300 million and 500 million clinical cases of malaria per year, with 80 per cent of those cases in Africa. In Ghana, about 4,500 deaths traceable to malaria are recorded annually and 1,500 children under five die from malaria every year, while 60 pregnant women die every year from malaria.
Dr Asante said a phase-two trial of the vaccine to determine the safety and potential side effects was conducted among 2,022 children between one and four years in Mozambique recently and it demonstrated a 30 per cent efficacy against clinical disease, 45 per cent efficacy against infection and 58 per cent efficacy against severe disease.
According to Dr Asante, in the recent past other trials on the vaccine had been undertaken in children in Tanzania, Gabon and Ghana and it had been found to be safe.
In another presentation, Dr Daniel Ansong of the School of Medical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) said the vaccine was the most clinically advanced candidate in the world and it had the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives across Africa.
He noted that the vaccine would add on to other interventions currently being used and that it would make a positive impact on the economy and the capacity of our healthcare systems.
The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr Alex Dodoo, said there was an urgent need for rigorous data to inform malaria policy in Africa.
In view of that, he said, a new project dubbed the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies (INESS) that would monitor Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) in real life settings in Africa to provide information and data to drive malaria policy was in the offing.
The countries involved in the project are Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique and Burkina Faso. It will, however, start in Ghana and Tanzania.
In Ghana, the studies will be undertaken at three sites, namely, Dodowa, Kintampo and Navrongo, where the participants will be monitored when given ACTs.
The Executive Secretary of AMMREN, Mrs Charity Binka, said the media were the gatekeepers of every society and they had a critical role to play in getting the malaria story out.
Therefore, she said, the media must not be left out in counting malaria out of the world, adding, “It is only through the active participation of the media in malaria eradication efforts that the menace can be conquered.”
A programme officer of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), Mr James Frimpong, said his organisation would, among others, continue to ensure consistent use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and scale up indoor residual spraying to 45 districts with support from the global fund.
Additionally, there was the need to improve diagnosis and that would be done with the introduction of Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits and strengthening laboratory microscopy services, he said.
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