LIONS CLUB EDUCATES POKUASE RESIDENTS ON MALARIA (PAGE 28, MARCH 31, 2010)

Members of Accra Premier Lions Club have held a malaria awareness programme for the people of Pokuase.
The programme, which was mainly attended by mothers and pregnant women, was to sensitise the community to causes, effects, and prevention of malaria.A
The Club also distributed part of 100 insecticide treated mosquito nets to those who attended the programme and the rest given to a health centre in the area to be given to pregnant women who visit the health centre.
The programme formed the Club’s activity for the month and was also in line with its social responsibility.
Educating the community on malaria, Madam Victoria Owusu, a nurse at the Community-Based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) compound, said malaria was one of the major illnesses that affected most Ghanaians in the society and therefore there was the need to apply preventive measures to help reduce the disease in the country.
She said pregnant women and children under the age of five were the most vulnerable, adding that it was important to protect them from the illness.
Madam Owusu said the infection of malaria in pregnant women could result in many complications such as maternal mortality, underweight babies, and premature births.
She, therefore, advised pregnant women to visit health centres for sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) for the prevention of malaria in pregnant women to help protect them against the disease.
Advising the community on preventive measures, she said they should endeavour to cover all the water kept in their homes to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes, not to dispose of cans indiscriminately, and most importantly to sleep in treated mosquito nets.
Madam Owusu said most of the women did not sleep in treated mosquito nets but kept them in their belongings and advised them to put a stop to such acts.
Miss Abi Adatsi, a member of the Accra Premier Lions Club, said the programme was in line with the World Malaria Day celebrations, which falls on April 25, 2010.
The First Vice-President of the Club, Mr Kofi Arhin, said the Club was dedicated to the service of the blind and the underprivileged in society.
“The objective of the Club is to take active interest in civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community and we chose Pokuase because it is a malaria-prone community,” he noted.
He said the Club had been organising different activities every month and the sensitisation programme was one of such activities targeted at mothers, pregnant women and children in the Pokuase community.
The assembly member for the area, Mr Daniel Dodoo, on behalf of the community expressed gratitude to the Accra Premier Lions Club for the initiative and expressed the hope that the community would benefit from other programmes that would be organised by the Club.