''Our Pregnant Women Are Dying'' Due To Bad Road Network….Community Heads
As a result of bad roads, pregnant women including critically ill patients in Nheneso No.1 have to walk 8 miles to access health care in Trabuom all in the Atwima Kwanwoma constituency of the Ashanti Region. Through this long-distance trek, most women lose their lives during child labour.
The situation is as a result of the unmotorable nature of roads and lack of clinics or CHPS facilities to serve the interest of the community. Through this challenging situation confronting the community, pregnant women have resorted into risk methods of transport such as bicycle, tricycle, motorbikes to access health care. Many of whom also turn to traditional medicine and traditional birth attendants for maternal health services.
Damak Sanitation Watch and Health, in a follow up to a group photograph of children in the Nheneso No.1 intercepted by our outfit. In the said photograph, children were seen with bare-foot and virtually naked wearing self-designed face masks in their bid to comply with the covid-19 safety protocols. Among these children, eight of them are virtually poor, their month has to do all kinds of jobs to put food on the table for them once a day.
Their father, according to our findings, is dead and their foster-father also neglected them, of which the grown-up ones among them have to help people to eat. Through this hardship, two out of the eight are in school while the rest are ambling around the community.
When the team met Opainin Kwame Dapah , head of the community, this is what he has to say; ''we are going through a very difficult situation, the living standard is very poor, pregnant women are dying anytime they are in labour due to the bad nature of the road…the chief linguist of this community died on the way to the clinic due to the long hours wasted on the way because of the deplorable condition of the road''.
Nheneso No.1, he said, is a farming community. Sanitation, waste management, education, health and community development is affecting its forward development.
Residents, according to Opainin Kwame Dapah have resorted into public defecation following an old dilapidated condition toilet facility in the community. A situation, he noted, will spawn future health risk in the area and call for support from the District Assembly, non-government organisations, and individual philanthropists to enhance the growth and development of the community. The community's biggest challenge is a good road and health facility to enable them to save the lives of their pregnant women and children.
Following these core reasons, has underscored the need for policymakers, the district authorities and the government to come to their aid to enable them to eradicate illegal disposal of waste, defecation, mortality and child death.
DAMAKsanitation watch and health has made arrangements to meet the district chief executive about the situation very soon.
These picture were talking during the following up period.
