Scores of women and children in Saforoo, a community in the Akwapim South Municipality of the Eastern Region over the weekend benefited from a health outreach programme organised by the African Foundation for Women Empowerment (AFWE), an NGO.

The exercise which marked the maiden health outreach programme of the organisation, saw the women, mostly aged, widows, underprivileged and children screened for various ailments and diseases and provided with the needed treatment.

 It was organised in partnership with a private healthcare service provider, Aegis Healthcare and it offered services to many residents in the linear settlement who have difficulties accessing proper healthcare facilities in the regional capital, Koforidua or even in the national capital, Accra.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the programme, the Executive Director of the AFWE, Ms Marcia Mprah, said the choice of a community health outreach was to make health services available to the women who were unable to access health facilities due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

 She explained that as a result of the pandemic, many individuals had been reported to have shied away from general OPD services, due to the fear of contracting the deadly virus.

“December, being a festive season for us is as an opportune moment to rally more young girls and women for health screening purposes which would in turn help tear down the barriers for most women who have been unable to access quality health care throughout the year and that is why we intend to commence this exercise at Saforoo.”

Apart from the health screening, the residents were also presented with bags of rice, mackerel, biscuits and souvenirs to help them enjoy the Christmas.

  The African Foundation for Women Empowerment was launched less than a year ago to harness, refine and also develop the African woman to achieve desirable goals in society.

 It envisions an African society where women are given equal opportunities and empowered to explore their full potentials and capabilities in their environment, through the creation of sustainable and institutionalised support mechanisms that promote their social, economic, cultural and moral development.

The AFWE has some of its benevolent individuals as Abel Antonio Cárdenas Tuppia, the Ambassador of Peru to Ghana and the Director General (DG) for the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Samuel Kwabena Awuku.