CHOLERA IS EMINENT IN FIASO

From: Michael Sarpong MFUM, Fiaso

The outbreak of Cholera and other water-borne diseases are eminent in the Fiaso community in the Techiman Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region because of the absence of toilet facility. The residents are always living in a constant fear of the outbreak of a disease.

The population of Fiaso is 6,423 who are predominately farmers. Fiaso is a major yam growing community in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Open defecation has become a daily ritual in the community.The Residents in community use the only refuse dump as their place of convenience. People from across the country always come to the community to purchase and where to ease themselves is always a problem.

Apart from yam they also grow maize, cassava, mango cashew and garden eggs but with the huge population in the community there is no single toilet in the community.

The residents use the only refuse dump as their place of convenience. Open defecation has become a daily norm in the community for men, women and children. Their sources of water in the community the River Fia and Asu Kwatia are always polluted by waste from the refuse dump.

Whenever it rains it washes the dirty from the refuse dump down to the two rivers to pollute them. Some of the residents share their sentiments on the absence of toilet facilities in the Fiaso community.

The leaders in the community say all efforts made to the Techiman Municipal Assembly to get a toilet facility have not yield any positive results.

The chief of Fiaso Agyewodin Kwarteng Ababio I, has called on the Techiman Municipality to help the community to get a toilet facility.

FEAR GRIPS BRONG AHAFO RESIDENTS

From Michael Sarpong MFUM, Sunyani
 

Following the death of 33 people from Pneumococcal Meningitis in the Brong Ahafo Region, many people in the region are currently living in fear.

Pneumococcal meningitis is a type of bacterial pneumonia that is specifically caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. 

Symptoms include a teeth-chattering chill lasting for approximately 30 minutes, with fever, cough and the production of rusty or blood-streaked sputum.

 The disease started late last year at Brohani in the Tain District. It has so far spread to Wenchi, Techiman Municipality, with over 100 cases reported.

Though Deputy Minister of Health Dr Victor Bampoe has assured the residents not to fear, the residents are doubtful.

                                     Dr. Victor Bampoe, Deputy  Minister of Health

Mr Yaw Kyereme, a resident of Wenchi, revealed that he is afraid to even go out because he fears he might contract the disease.

According to the residents, though they have been assured, they are afraid, and have, therefore, taken their destiny into their own hands by adhering to the instructions on how not to contract the disease.

The Assembly Member of Nwoasi Dadeasi Electoral Area and spokesperson for the assembly members in the Wenchi Municipality, Amos Kofi Osei, in an interview with said the Ghana Education Service should close down schools in the municipality to ensure that the disease does not spread.

Mr Osei noted with worry that if care is not taken, the disease would spread because of the overcrowding in schools in the area.

The government has set aside GH₵150,000 to confront the deadly Pneumococcal Meningitis, which has already claimed over 33 lives.

The Wenchi Municipal Director of Health, Mr Annor Duku, says his outfit has intensified education on the disease in the various communities in the municipality by visiting the people.

Assembly members have also been educated to also propagate the information on what they should do to avoid contracting the disease.

MYJOYONLINE.COM, STARRFMONLINE.COM AMONG RESPECTED NEWS PORTAL IN 2015

From: Michael Sarpong Mfum

Myjoyonline, Peacefmonline, Ghanaweb, Citifmonline, Adomonline, Tv3network.com.gh, Starrfmonline.com, Graphic.com.gh, Modernghana.com, Lovinggh.com are the Top 10 Most Respected Ghanaian News Portals for 2015.

Joy FM’s news portal, Myjoyonline.com has emerged as the most preferred online news brand in Ghana for 2015, according to the maiden edition of the Ghana Online News Agencies Survey (GhONAS) Report compiled by Africa’s premier branding and rating agency, Centre for Brand Development (CbD). 

According to Daniel Ofosu, the Executive Director of CbD, “the annual GhONAS Report is aimed at assessing and providing analytical insights into the performance of news websites in Ghana in order to raise the standard of online journalism in the country.” Top 50 Ghanaian-owned news portals were polled in the 2015 edition of the GhONAS Report based on a nationwide survey of 1,500 visitors/respondents from January-October, 2015. The 2015 GhONAS Report was put together in close partnership with Ayekoo TV, iPrint and Copy Center and Asasoft Ghana. The survey was supervised by CbD’s Executive Chairman, Dr. Ebenezer Owusu and Business Analyst, Jerry Adu- Asare. 

The data gathered suggest that the online news media has taken over traditional media in Ghana as most of the respondents (69%) indicated they heavily rely on news websites for their daily news and information than radio (17%), Television (4%) and newspaper ( 2%).

Based on respondents’ rating of the websites on the “ Preference Level scale” labelled 1-10, where “1” signifies the most preferred and “10” implies the least preferred brand, Myjoyonline.com controls 18.06% of the online news market share followed by Peacefmonline.com with 14.11%.

Ghanaweb.com is third with 12.58% share.Citifmonline.com outdid Adomonline.com with a marginal share of 9.26% at the fourth position. Adomonline.com sits at the fifth position and manages 9.03% share of the online news media landscape in Ghana. The 6th-10th positions were dominated by Tv3network.com.gh (4.19%), Graphic.com.gh (3.74%), Starrfmonline.com (2.64%), Modernghana.com (2.20%) and Lovinggh.com (1.98%).

The Top 50 news websites (full list attached) were also rated on a ten-point key indicators: Relevance of content, level of objectivity, level of credibility, source for breaking and developing stories, navigability of the website , use of appropriate visual aids and ability to generate own content. The rest of the indicators were: in-depth analysis of information, language usage and writing skills as well as policy on publishing user’s comments.

8 websites including Myjoyonline.com, Citifmonline.com, Peacefmonline.com, Ghanaweb.com, Adomonline.com, Tv3network.com.gh, Starrfmonline.com and Ghananewsagency.org were rated as “Three-Star Online News Brands” for their outstanding performance on the above benchmarks. For scoring 50 %– 69%, 20 websites including Viasat1.com.gh, Dailyguideghana.com, Ameyawdebrah.com, Kasapafmonline.com, Mymetrotv.tv, Pulse.com.gh, Yesiyesighana.com and Gbcghana.com were rated as “Two-Star Online News Brand”. The other 22 websites including Ghbase.com, Thebftonline.com, Cypressghana.com, Livefmghana.com and Ghanasoccernet.com scored less than 50% and fell within the “One-Star Online News Brand” ratings.

The key findings of the survey can be downloaded for free via www.centreforbrands.com.

GHANAIANS LOSING INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

From: Michael Sarpong Mfum,Sunyani

The Head of Department of Modern Language Section Sunyani Polytechnic, Mr. Charles Afram Snr has admonished the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to introduced French as a core subject in the country because many Ghanaians are losing international opportunities because their inability to communicate in French.

Mr. Charles Afram Snr said it is pathetic that many Ghanaians with high level of expertise and experience are losing international opportunities because of their inability to communicate in French.

Mr. Charles Afram Snr.

Mr. Afram Snr revealed that most Francophone countries have English Language as a core subject on their syllabus but Ghana has nothing like that. He admonished that French must be given a second look at and the effort must not be rhetorical but more practical.

He also noted that there is the perception that Ghanaians are French so there is no need to learn French but believes its having a negative toll on Ghanaians though the authorities have not realized it.

“They are not better than us but because of the effort they are putting in to get the basics in English Language they are getting all the international offers. I quite remember around 10p.m. someone came to my house I thought there was a problem, but no, the guy has lost two great opportunities to work with two different companies because he can’t communicate in French so he had come for me to help him. As we speak he is doing well, he can express himself in French now,” Mr. Afram Snr revealed.

He said, “The Centre also teaches Spanish, English, Chinese, Japanese and Deutsch so residents of Sunyani should patronize the services of the Centre because it is affordable and adequate time would be given to them.”

ONE MORE PERSON DIES FROM PNEUMOCOCCAL MENINGITIS AT WENCHI

From: Michael Sarpong Mfum, Wenchi

One person is reported dead in the Wenchi Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Rgion from Pneumococcal Meningitis according to reports from the Wenchi Municipal Health Directorate.

The Municipal Health Director, Mr. Annor Duku confirming the incident revealed that education on the disease has been intensified to reduce any further out break.

Pneumococcal Meningitis is an infection that causes swelling and irritation (inflammation) of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord (meninges)

According to him samples of suspected cases from the Awisa community in the Municipality where the person who died came from have been sent for testing to verify if the rest are positive or negative.

Last week eight people died from the disease in the Tain district, whiles 30 people were hospitalized.

The District Health Director for Tain, Dr. Michael Rockson Adjei in an interview said the situation is under control.

“We have done a lot by managing the outbreak, this is Pneumococcal Meningitis not CSM it kills faster and compared to CSM this is fatal,” Mr. Rockson Adjei noted.

He added that the outbreak started around December 24, 2015 and urged infected residents to report quickly to the nearest hospital for treatment.

FIRST AID MUST BE TAUGHT AS A SUBJECT

From: Michael Sarpong MFUM, Sunyani

The Brong Ahafo Regional Manager and Trainer of the St John Ambulance, Mr. Joseph Donkor is proposing that First Aid should be taught as a subject from the basic school in the country this he says would go a long way to equip Ghanaians with some basic first aid skills.

According to Mr. Joseph Donkor if Ghana is able to emulate the example of Australia it would help immensely especially if there is a road crush without the presence of the St John Ambulance to attend to victims.

Mr. Donkor has therefore called on government to collaborate with the Education Ministry to introduce First Aid as a subject in the country.

He attributed some death of accident victims to mishandling and misapplication of first aid.

Mr.  Donkor revealed that most Ghanaians do not know basic first aid this he said has contributed too many deaths during road crashes in the Brong Ahafo Region and the rest of the country.

Mr. Donkor noted that his outfits’ objective to educate the citizenry on basic first aid had not yielded the needed results because most people do not patronize their training programmes because they see it not to be unnecessary.

He called on Ghanaians to participate in basic first aid training being organized by the St John Ambulance especially in the Brong Ahafo Region.