On 25th March,2014 thanks to special funding, and local health professionals, a Glaucoma screening clinic will be held for pupils attending schools in Abiriw, Akwapem North, and their teachers. There will be no charge.
It is anticipated that 170 pupils from the Presbyterian schools in the town and 150 from the Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, together with 14 teachers, will be tested.
Attention has recently been drawn to Glaucoma and the World Health Organisation has published worrying figures about the increase in the number they anticipate will be affected by the condition. It has been emphasised that this is a major problem and everyone should know their status.
In Ghana, Glaucoma has sometimes been neglected when it comes to focusing attention on particular ailments. This is partly because World Glaucoma Day coincides with Ghana’s Independence Day, and, despite the best efforts of members of the Glaucoma Association of Ghana, the problem has been overshadowed.
In Abiriw , a local organisation, Focus on Your Strengths , established by Mrs Patience Addo Gibbs, has already sponsored one Glaucoma Clinic. That was held on 20th September 2013 and attracted nearly 100 townspeople who were tested, without charge, by a highly trained and well equipped team.
FOYS has secured funding to sponsor a second clinic and, in response to particular needs has identified school-aged children as the group that is particularly ‘at risk’. In delivering the clinic, FOYS be building on experience gained from running Diabetes clinics. It will also draw on the understanding, commitment and skills of local health personnel, and on the capacity to organise such events that has been built up in the community.
The number being tested on this occasion – nearly 350 – reflects the determination of the organisers to make a significant impact on the health provision in the community. The testing is vital and will be the initial step in assessing the needs of those suffering from, or liable to suffer from, Glaucoma.
Health
FOYS Activities…and a reflection on the life of Maya Angelou, March – April 2014
On 25th March, thanks to special funding, and to local health professionals, Dr Eric Acquaye, Vida Ansah, Esther A Karrey, and Charlotte Adarqwa, a Glaucoma screening clinic was be held for pupils attending schools in Abiriw and their teachers.
One hundred and seventy pupils from the Presbyterian schools in the town and 150 from the Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, together with 14 teachers, were tested.
The decision to make the clinic the major FOYS activity for the first part of 2014 was taken partly because the World Health Organisation had drawn attention to the prevalence and debilitating impact of Glaucoma. WHO has published worrying figures about the increase in the number affected by the condition and medical sources have emphasised that Glaucoma is a major problem in Ghana. It has been recommended that everyone should know their status.
Glaucoma has had to struggle for attention. This is partly because World Glaucoma Day coincides with Ghana’s Independence Day, and, despite the best efforts of members of the Glaucoma Association of Ghana, the condition they target has been overshadowed
The Clinic on 25th March was the second Glaucoma Clinic sponsored by Focus on Your Strengths and followed one held on 20th September 2013. On that occasion, nearly 100 townspeople, mainly adults, were tested, without charge, by a highly-trained and well-equipped team.
FOYS secured funding to sponsor the second clinic and identified school-aged children as a group particularly ‘at risk’.
In delivering the clinic, FOYS built on experience gained from running Diabetes clinics – as well as the September 2013 Glaucoma Clinic. Once again, the organisation relied on the understanding, commitment and skills of the local health personnel named above, and on the capacity to organise such events that now exists within the Abiriw community.
The (large) number being tested – nearly 350 – reflected the determination of the organisers to make a significant impact on the health provision in the community. The clinic represented the initial step in assessing the needs of those suffering from, or liable to suffer from, Glaucoma, and follow ups were put in place.
Bulletin to Library
Other initiatives undertaken by Patience Gibbs during her time in Ghana during March/ April 2014 included donating copies of The Bulletin of the Society for African Church History to the Library of the Akrofi Christaller Institute in Akropong. The copies (Volume 1, Number 1 and numbers 3-4) of The Bulletin had been obtained thanks to the Rev’d David Weeks in Bristol and she had taken them with her in order to fill a gap on the shelves.
The Institute Library provides resources for post-graduate students welcomed the copies of these issues of a pioneering journal that was crucial to the development of the study of African Church History. The Deputy Librarian, R.A. Cantey, wrote a letter of appreciation.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
During her visit to Ghana in March 2013, Patience Gibbs spoke to the Presbyterian Women’s Fellowship in Abiriw about Maya Angelou, whom she had known when they were both working at the Institute of African Studies, Legon. FOYS Newsletter 2013/1 carried a picture of Maya Angelou, a note about her and some lines she had written. The death of the inspiring woman on 28th May 2014 prompted an outpouring of eulogies and tributes.
As is clear from her autobiographical volume covering her time in Ghana (1962-65), All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (published 1986), Maya Angelou made a number of important contacts while in the country and had some significant experiences. She lived modestly and perhaps her most remarkable public engagement was taking the role of Mother Courage, the eponymous (anti)hero(ine) of Bertolt Brecht’s play.
Maya Angelou was involved in other productions at the Drama Studio, where she supported Efua Sutherland. She combined this with holding a position in the Institute of African Studies, and being involved with a literary and Pan-African publication, The African Review. That journal carried her name, among others, on its masthead and published such writers as Bessie Head and Kwame Dawes.
Maya Angelou gave little indication to those who worked with her at Legon of her remarkable abilities and her amazing strength of character. However, reading the acknowledgements of her influence that appeared after her death, it is clear that the time spent in West Africa helped to prepare her for subsequent phases of her life.
The lines quoted in the 2013 newsletter remain relevant and thought provoking and bear repeating:
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
Who received God’s good grace, somehow!
FOYS Activities, March – April 2013
While in Ghana during March and part of April 2013, Patience Gibbs was able to take forward the work of Focus on Your Strengths, the not- for-profit organisation that she set up to work, particularly, with women and young people in Abiriw, in the Eastern Region.
Second Hepatitis B testing Day. 19/03/2013, at schools
With the help of Nurse Rosina Osae (who writes in the pop-up clinics below) and the team she assembled, ‘pop-up clinics’, funded by FOYS, were run at the Seventh Day Adventist and the Presbyterian Primary Schools in the town. In all 150 pupils were tested and, as with the adult clinic held in November 2012, all those tested were found to be negative. In addition to the tests, there was a presentation on the causes and dangers of Hepatitis B infection. In answer to a question about Hepatitis B, one pupil explained that he knew of the illness because footballer Stephen Appiah had suffered from it.
Steven Appiah
[Born in 1980, Appiah has played for the Ghana national team at youth, Olympic, and senior levels. He captained Ghana on their World Cup debut in 2006 and was a member of their squad for the 2010 World Cup.]
Nurse Rosina Osae on ‘FOYS –backed Health Clinics Abiriw, 2010-13’
Over the last three years, the Ghanaian not-for-profit organisation, Focus on Your Strengths (FOYS), has funded a series of worthwhile and successful clinics in Abiriw. Before initiating the series of health clinics, Mrs Patience Gibbs consulted Dr Joseph Opare about local needs and the most appropriate programme to set in motion.
Since taking his advice, FOYS has backed one-day clinics held on 15/10/2010; 01/04/2011; 30/03/2012, 07/11/ 2012 and 19/03/2013.
I have been privileged to work with Mrs Gibbs and have taken on responsibilities for ‘on the spot organisation’. In this role, I have been fortunate to coordinate health personnel based at Tetteh Quarshie Hospital. Teams have included: Charlotte Adarkwa, Principal Nurse; Mr Danso, Senior Physiotherapist, and James Amanakwa, Health Promoter.
Intervention in the community’s thinking about health issues has included providing advice on, for example, balanced diets , exercise regimes, and protection against sicknesses and conditions such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS.
In order to reach various sections of the Abiriw community different venues in the town have been used. These have included Calvary Presbyterian Church, the ahenfie, and, in March 2013, to reach school-children, the Seventh Day Adventist and Presbyterian Primary Schools.
Programme for a one-day clinics typically include a health talk and testing (perhaps for blood/ sugar, or Hepatitis B). We have also been able to screen (for Ear, Nose and Throat problems), go through physiotherapy exercises, and take measurements – perhaps of weight or blood pressure.
Those found to have high blood / sugar levels or high blood pressure have been referred to local clinics or hospitals.
All the clinics were successful and all have been much appreciated, indeed the expressions of gratitude from those tested or treated have made participation very rewarding.
Students wait for their tests
At the end of the session the pupils were challenged to maintain their negative status and this challenge was subsequently discussed with mothers and grand-mothers at the Presbyterian Women’s Fellowship (PWF) meetings.
PWF
The Presbyterian Women’s Fellowship (PWF) remains central to the contact Patience has with the women of Abiriw. In addition to attending fellowship meetings and church service, Patience was able to lead a session on four women selected for study: Florence Nightingale, Yaa Asantewa, Mother Theresa, and Oprah Winfrey. She spoke about the roles as social reformers of each of the women, drawing attention to the variety of motives that drove them.
Patience concluded with a prayer written by Maya Angelou, whom she had known when they were both working at the Institute of African Studies, Legon, during the early Sixties. The prayer ends:
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.
When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
Who received God’s good grace, somehow!
Bee-Keeping
From links established in the UK, Patience knew that Brian Durk, a Cheltenham-based apiarist who has made several visits to West Africa with Bees Abroad, would be in Ghana during March.
Accompanied by a Ghanaian apiarist with whom he was working on establishing a training hub for bee-keepers in the Central Region, Brian visited Abiriw and Patience took him to see some of the seven hives that have been constructed since FOYS funded bee-keeping workshops. In addition to giving advice about positioning hives, the two specialists set in motion plans that led to follow-up visits and the harvesting of honey from colonised hives.
A gallon and a half of superior honey, together with wax, was subsequently extracted and contact was later made with a honey-seller who advised on marketing the bee products.
Brian Durk
Soap-making
As on previous visits, Patience was able to trigger soap and balm-making activities. News of trainees passing on of soap-making skills was shared and four batches of soap were manufactured over two days.
In the process of soap production there was experimentation and on this visit successful tests were conducted in connection with the order in which ingredients, particularly the aloe vera and the oil, were added.
(NB The test was for hepatitis B and the clinic was made possible by a grant from St Julian’s Charitable Fund.)
FOYS activities, September – November 2013
As you may be aware, Abiriw, a town on the Akuapem Ridge in the Eastern Region of Ghana, remains the centre for the activities of Focus on Your Strengths (FOYS). In the last three years, FOYS has organised clinics in public spaces and in schools in Abiriw that have raised awareness and provided diagnosis about Diabetes and Hepatitis B. These clinics have also provided advice and support for sufferers. The experience of organising the clinics has been that, if some outside funding is available, local resources can be mobilised for the benefit of those who, for a variety of reasons, do not use the medical facilities available in hospitals.
The presence of a number of blind or partially -sighted people at the clinics prompted FOYS to investigate the possibility of arranging to test for glaucoma. Research showed that this was a problem that ranked worryingly high in the nation’s medical profile, for, aaccording to the World Glaucoma Federation, 8.5 % of the Ghanaian population suffers from it. Moreover, it is only one of several debilitating eye conditions
There is some provision for eye care in the Eastern Region of Ghana, but it is inadequate. For example, the Eastern Region has a population of over two million, but they are served by only 4 ophthalmologists, 2 optometrists and 22 ophthalmic nurses. Furthermore, very limited health budgets mean that eye care is available only in hospitals – at Mampong (Tetteh
Quarshie) and, for more sophisticated analysis and treatment, at Koforidua. Experience shows that few can meet the costs of transport and hospital fees. (These are typically GHC 30 per visit for suffers for eye complaints.) As a result, eye care is sadly neglected.
It was in this context, and thanks to donations made and funds generated in the UK, that FOYS set in motion plans to hold an Eye Clinic in Abiriw. Drawing on experience gained in mounting earlier clinics, the component parts were brought together relatively smoothly. Using her wide contacts and building on the relevant infrastructure, Nurse Rosina approached appropriate bodies and individuals. The task she took on included making contact with Mr Opare, the local Director of Public Health, and lining up a medical team led by Dr Acquaye.
In Abiriw, the capacity for ‘staging’ clinics has been built up over the years and those with experience played their parts very efficiently. For example, a large poster (see above) was created, publicity flyers were prepared (using resources in the Abiriw Community Information Centre), and the town-crier was employed to make announcements. Preparations at the ahenfie (palace) weremade by Abena Foriwa and her helpers. All the component parts came together on September 30th when townspeople began assembling at the ahenfie from 6.00 a.m. and registration began.
Registration took place in the main court-yard of the palace, with adjoining spaces and buildings were used for different tests
One hundred people signed up; ninety- six of whom were eventually processed.
Since optometrists in Ghana have to test both those familiar with the alphabet and those unfamiliar with it, they have the option of using either the ‘Tumbling E’ chart or the familiar Snellen Chart.
Tests for a variety of eye conditions were carried out and the results were as worrying as had been feared: all but ten of those who attended were found to have one sort of eye problem or another. The following were the major ocular conditions encountered: Refractive errors; Cataracts; Diabetic Retinopathy; Hypertensive Retinopathy; Bacterial Infections; Viral Infections; Agricultural injuries to the eye; Trauma; Sickle cell retinopathies, and Allergic conjunctivitis.
At the end of the clinical session, a ‘team photograph’ was taken. Dr Acquaye spoke appreciatively of the initiative taken by FOYS and the importance of the financial support it had secured. He added that he normally saw only a trickle of patients in his office, and that he relished being able to get out to see so many on a single day. The photograph brought together the ‘home’ team of FOYS regular workers as well as the ‘visitors’ who brought specialist skills.
On Dr Acquaye’s recommendation some of those who had attended the clinic went on to Tetteh Quarshie Hospital or Koforidua Hospital – where some were issued with spectacles. During October 2013, the regular Wednesday morning meetings of the Abiriw branch of Presbyterian Women’s Fellowship provided opportunities to drive home the lessons of the clinic and to hear how those diagnosed with problems were following the medical advice they had been given.
The same forum provided opportunities to encourage women to take part in the National Health Insurance Scheme, and to exhort those who had a card to make use of the facilities it entitled them to.
The next (sweet) story is short and tells itself; it is a sequel to the bee-hive making and bee-keeping activities encouraged by FOYS.
Many, many thanks to all who have supported FOYS and made the clinics and workshops possible.
Patience Gibbs, Bristol 20 12 2013 patience.gibbs@btinternet.com
First Hepatitis B Testing Day 2/11/12
Report on First Phase of Hepatitis B screening day sponsored by FOYS (Focus on Your Strengths) at Abiriw ahenfie, Akuapem, Eastern Region, Ghana. Friday 2nd November was the day set for the FOYS (Focus on your Strengths) Hepatitis B screening day at Abiriw. We were up by 6 – a wonderful time of day when the light pierces the mist, and we were at the Palace/ ahenfie at 7.00.
A few had already gathered in response to the publicity that had been spread through church ‘notices and meetings’, through head-masters, thanks to the Town Crier and by means of printed slips of paper. Preparations were in hand and Nurse Rosina Osae from the clinic in Akropong was firmly in charge of an experienced team. She oversaw the setting up and reported to Patience Gibbs – who had a folder with an envelope containing cash to cover the costs of the clinic. These were covered by a generous grant from St Julian’s Charitable Fund. (See picture taken in the meeting courtyard on the ahenfie.)
A t a registration table, clients were signed in by name, age and house number, and then given a ticket with a number – a raffle ticket! (Their ‘status’ would, in due course, be written on the back of this ticket and returned to the ‘Registrar’ who would record it.) The nurses set out the kits for taking and testing blood samples, their gloves and their ‘sharps box’.
At about 8.00, Principal Nurse Charlotte Adarkwa spoke about the causes, symptoms, and rates of infection of hepatitis B> She also drew attention of the implications of family members contracting the disease for prospective carers and about the support services available to them.
At this stage the clients numbered about 60; many elderly and the majority women. When all was ready, Nana Henaku was ushered to the seat beside the (male) nurse and set a good example to his townspeople.
The tables and the waiting area were in the shade, and the progress towards the front of the queue steady. The clinic then proceeded in a relaxed, gently convivial atmosphere.
From about, 9, Patience spent time at the gate of the Palace encouraging passers-by to join the queue, and, over the next hour and a half, numbers crept up through the 70s and 80s into the 90s.
It should be said that, as a fall back – if the target of 100 had not been reached (Patience had paid for 100 kits) – arrangements were in place to move the nurses’ table to one of the schools. However, this was not necessary. One or two late-comers took the places of a couple of people who had collected tickets early and then been called away. The figure of 100 proved just right. By 11.00, all had been tested and everything had been packed away: the extra chairs had been carried back to the palace store-room and the wrapping paper from the kits had been collected up.
The results were good.! ‘NR’ – ‘Negative Result’ – had been written on every raffle ticket! No cases of Hepatitis B were found! A clear ‘bill of health’ for this section of the community. Next time, it was suggested, we should give the schools plenty of warning and concentrate on pupils .
Clinic in progress
Mrs Patience Gibbs and Nurse Rosina Osae
FOYS focus on your strengths 