UNFPA Donates Equipment To Midwifery Schools

Twenty midwifery training institutions have received medical equipment valued at $250,000 from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to enhance their academic programmes.

The donation forms part of a programme instituted by the UNFPA to invest in building the capacity of midwives and other health workers.

The 25 different items include breast examination models, infant patient care, a maternal and neonatal birthing simulator, an artificial human skeleton, a demonstration model of childbirth, a foetus for vacuum extraction, full visibility goggles and model pelvic organs.

Others are a simulator gynaecologic, a sphygmomanometer, a scanner ultrasound portable set, dual sex torso and a midwifery kit.

The Minister for Health, Mr Alban Bagbin, receiving the items, expressed gratitude to the UNFPA for the intervention which, he said, would contribute to the efforts being made to achieve targets four and five of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Targets four and five of the MDGs enjoin member countries of the United Nations to provide adequate maternal care and reproductive care.

Members of the Ghana National Association of Midwives and the principals of midwifery training institutions were present to collect their share of the items.

Mr Bagbin underscored the need for logistical support such as the donation from UNFPA and appealed for more interventions to help achieve the various targets of the MDGs.

He stated that the ministry would send out a team to evaluate midwifery institutions to find out how the donation had impacted on the training.

Earlier, Mr Bagbin had inspected the Tema Central Medical Stores where he directed that the over three million bundles of mosquito nets lying in the stores should be distributed to the needed areas, instead of keeping them in the warehouses.

He said with the onset of the rains, mosquitoes would multiply the more and, therefore, it would be appropriate to start the distribution now.

The Country Representative of the UNFPA, Dr Bernard Coquelin, said during visits to some training institutions in the country in the company of the First Lady, Mrs Naadu Mills, it was realised that equipment used in the training of midwifery students had either been over-used or become obsolete.

He said the UNFPA was working with International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) to globally invest in midwives and others with midwifery skills under a programme which began in 2008 and had so far benefited 22 countries, including some in Africa.