The Foundation also organised an entertainment and refreshment session for the children within the community while the screening was ongoing.  The exercise was organised by the Foundation in collaboration with the Trustchoice Health Centre (THC), a diagnostic and herbal health facility and Unilever Ghana Limited. 

Ms Esther Coffie, Founder of the Foundation said the Dedeiman community was chosen because of its depravity of good source of water, toilet facility, health facility and even a licensed chemical shop.

She noted that their only source of water was River Nsakye which was not potable and had no health support.  Ms Coffie told the GNA in interview that: “Our NGO focuses on health and education and since we had plans of organising a health screening exercise, all we need is a community that we can impact, a community we can listen to and one that needs to be heard, and Dedeiman was that community”.

Dr Sumaila Awudu, an Alternative Media Practitioner of the Trustchoice Health Centre told the GNA in an interview about the exercise said the results indicated that most of the women in the community had menstrual disorders, malaria and typhoid cases, skin disorders, and hypertension.

He explained that the typhoid cases could possibly be caused by their source of water which was a river in an unhygienic state. He said it was also realised that most of the people in the community consumed alcohol in high quantity, adding that close to 80 per cent of men above 20 years had high blood pressure.

He also detected that the prevalent rate of Diabetes in members of the community was very low, a state which was not common among people with hypertension.    Dr Awudu recommended for the community to get a good source of drinking water and urged the Foundation to organise a health education especially one that would teach them to boil and filter their water before drinking to reduce the rampant typhoid cases in the community.

He said one of the solutions to the typhoid cases in the community was for them to have access to toilet facilities, adding that before that, the Foundation could organise a durbar and educate them on proper disposal of faecal matters since it streamed into the river which was their only source of water.

“They also need education on alcoholism because most of the elderly drunk for fun and particularly the local gin “akpeteshie” which had  high alcoholic content, a state which was mostly the cause of their high blood pressure”, he said.

The Doctor noted that four cases of Hepatitis B were recorded among members of the community, adding that unfortunately none of them knew it could be transmitted through sexual relations, therefore their sex partners who did not take part in the screening exercise could be at risk of getting and also spreading the disease.

“I also urge the Community leaders to lobby for a recreational centre to be built for the community to keep the youth busy because I realized indulging in sexual activities is very common among members of the community”, he said.

However, Dr Awudu disclosed that their diet was very impressive because they barely ate junk foods, since most of them were farmers and ate balanced diets from their produce.   He said the Foundation gave 20 different medications to the participants of the exercise including free medicine for arthritis, anti-stress, sexual weakness, respiratory disorders, hypertension, anti-diabetic, menstrual disorder, and infertility.

Madam Mary Aku Essah, a 74 year old woman who was a beneficiary of the exercise told the GNA in interview that the scan by the health centre indicated that she had a blood pressure and back ache, a disorder she said was true since she had been suffering from backache and headache for some time.

“They gave me trust athrocare for arthritis, Mist Antiaris for nervous disorders, and lippia tea for stress relief and we are very grateful to them, we the residents of this community stick to traditional medicine without undergoing any test and eventually pass on so sadly”, she said.