Asikam Maternity block nears completion

“We just can’t wait to witness the successful completion of this maternity block as it will go a long way to alleviate the pains our women go through in accessing ante-natal and post-natal health services”, Gideon Ofori Boakye, the Assembly member of Asikam.

Asikam, a farming community in the Abuakwa South municipality of the Eastern region of Ghana, is leaving no stone unturned in completing its community-driven project under the Facilitated Collective Action Process (FCAP), which aims at strengthening decentralization process.

Also called Oman yie die, the project is a partnership between Advocates for Community Alternatives (ACA), a non-profit-making organisation, which helps West African communities that are threatened by the destructive impacts of extractive projects to take control of their futures, and the Abuakwa South Municipal Assembly as part of measures to strengthen local participation in the implementation of the Assembly’s medium term development plan.

With a $9,000 microgrant, the community members are putting up a Maternity block at a CHPS Compound in the town in partnership with ACA and the Abuakwa South Municipal Assembly. The community has so far spent approximately $4,500 of its microgrant.

The project, which is about 60% complete, is primarily meant to augment health care delivery, especially with regards to maternal health services.

“We’re done with the construction of the main building, and we’re left with a few works then we go to the roofing and plastering stages. So far, so good”, the Assembly member said in an interview.

For Obed Ofori Ansah, the Mmranteεhene of Asikam (chief of young men): “This project is really coming at the right time because the practice where our women travel to Kyebi and sometimes to Koforidua for ante-natal and post-natal health services will soon be a thing of the past.”

He is therefore calling on the residents of the town to continue with their communal assistance to ensure the timely completion of the project.

The Asikam maternity block project at the lintel level