The Kidney Health International has awarded certificates to its gallant volunteers who have works through the months past to provide kidney health education to a countless number of people across the length and breath of Ghana.
In his speech, Dr Elliot Koranteng Tannor, Director and founder of the organization urged the volunteers not to fear to give out all the information he has equipped them with. This according him was because, the brochure used for training was carefully put together to provide all that the masses need to know about kidney disease.
Dr Tannor also interacted with the volunteers who took turns to share their experiences from their work.
Recounting some of the positive lessons from their field work, Boateng Fotia Mubarik, who has been with the NGO since its early days recounted how he confronted a quack who was selling some concoction in a public vehicle and was giving false information about some health conditions.
Mr Mubarik stated how “these quacks seems to be ahead of the professionals in their dissemination of false information”
Emmanuella Aasogr, an ICA level II student and a volunteer also shared how in her village in Upper West region, people whose feet get swollen and who also have their stomachs swollen are said to have been under a curse and as such resist every attempt to visit the hospital, she called for more public education on kidney disease in that part of the country.
Still sharing on their experiences, an emotional Efua Patience Dadzie, shared how she missed an opportunity to educate her favorite kontomire seller in the market about her blood pressure and later found out she had passed away due to a stroke. “In fact, it really pained me when I heard she had died of stroke, this is because I went round educating people and checking their blood pressure. It didn’t occur to me to even ask her if she has been checking her blood pressure, I think we should let everyone here about this education”
Hagar Dejortey was full of appreciation for the program which according to her had given her confidence to stand before crowds to educate them about kidney disease. Sharing her experience, she mentioned that there were occasions where they encountered difficult questions from people who sometimes wanted to test their knowledge base of the education they were providing.
Michael Afrifa Boakye, one of the hard working volunteers who visited several communities with kidney disease prevention health talks recounted some myths people had about kidney disease. He mentioned how in a church, people wanted to know if keeping urine on one’s self for long could cause kidney disease. According to him, there are a lot of myths about the disease out there in the public that needs to be corrected.
Magdalene Hanson took her turn to tell her colleague volunteers how “we ought to study more to educate the public more, this is because there were times where people wanted to know the difference between chronic kidney disease and acute kidney disease”. She further added that it had been months of interesting encounters with various groups of people from churches to communities to offices.
Annette Obiri Gyimah who had also given health talks to a lot of groups and communities narrated how she took her work to online communities and called for more engagement with more young people who are online, she mentioned how the online community needed to be informed about kidney disease and suggested ways to further reach the millions therein.
An elated Regina Adutwum who said she visited market women with her education, mentioned how the markets have been left to unprofessional folks who paraded these markets all the time with the wrong kind of information about various health conditions. She added her voice to the need to train even more volunteers and send them out.
In all, 43 volunteers were awarded certificates of participation for their enormous work in promoting healthy kidneys throughout the country.
To end the event, Dr Tannor said a call would soon be made to train more volunteers.