Health: giving an isolated community access to a local medical facility

Liate Wote is one of a small group of hamlets which lie to the north of the Volta Region in Ghana.

Mad Foundation has been active in the Volta region for over six years and has strong ties with many of the local communities. With no public transport and no vehicles in the community, medical emergencies in Liate Wote were often claiming lives and causing great distress; the day to day health of the community was also suffering as the journey to medical care was often physically and financially prohibitive.

The community approached Mad Foundation directly, the community chiefs and elders suggested that an old clinic, that had once been in use some years ago and was little more than a shell, could be renovated to a usable standard. This would hopefully attract a nurse to the village with the support from the local District Assembly who would be prepared to fund a nurse’s salary, should a suitable facility be available.

The village committee had already assessed the cost of the required materials and specialist labour for this project, having checked their proposal Mad Foundation agreed to try and help raise the £670 needed for the renovation work and the further £870 needed for basic equipment, a total of £1540. The community was keen to help in any way that they could and many people stepped forward and offered to provide free labour. The funds needed were raised from various sources, a generous donation was made by the Edward Vinson Charitable Trust.

A team of UK volunteers from Madventurer and a team of local people started work on the clinic early in March 2005. Having purchased materials from local suppliers and employed local skilled craftsmen for certain aspects of the work, rapid progress was made. As per plan, the shell as it stood was split into rooms to provide proper consultation and treatment areas, given new flooring, a new roof, windows and doors, plaster and paint.

Work progressed at a strong steady pace thanks to the commitment of all the volunteers involved.The final lick of paint was applied at the beginning of April and the community held a fantastic closing ceremony for the project and presented all the UK volunteers with a certificate in recognition of their contribution.

The village committee were able to confirm at the ceremony that a new nurse was to be funded by the District Assembly, we have since learned that this new facility and the new nurse has already helped save at least one life with emergency primary care.