The Ghana Nuts Limited, an agro-processing company in Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, at the weekend presented a Mercedes Benz Sprinter 312D Ambulance valued at 27,000 US dollars to the Chiraa Health Centre in the Sunyani West District.
Mr Prince Obeng-Asante, Deputy Managing Director of the Company, said aside of meeting
its social responsibility to communities in the catchment area, the Company was motivated to
donate the ambulance to facilitate and enhance the activities of the centre.
He said the Company was established to assist in rural wealth creation through the Youth in Agriculture Programme and requested the community to release 2000 acres of land to enable the youth to engage in groundnuts and soybean cultivation.
Mr Obeng-Asante said the Company was ready to buy the produce on the farm after pre-
financing them through the provision of seedlings and farm implements.
He stressed that the community needed to generate its own wealth to empower the people
financially and economically and that would be a reliable way of achieving
such a feat.
Mr Obeng-Asante said the Company had paid for a comprehensive insurance cover on the
ambulance and would also bear the driver's salary for one year and advised against the use of the
ambulance to convey corpses.
Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, urged the people topatronize the National Health Insurance Scheme, reiterating that the government was committed to the implementation of the proposed policy of one-time premium payment of the scheme by December 2010.
He charged the District Chief Executive and the Sunyani West Assembly to include the cost of face-lifting the centre's compound in the assembly's 2010 budget estimates to ensure the
provision of quality health service to the people.
Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, former Member of Parliament for Sunyani West, urged parentsand guardians to ensure the proper upbringing of their children for them to become useful citizens.
He suggested the need for the community to take up the management of some locally initiated
projects including a library complex and a community centre and plough back the proceeds for
further developmental projects.
Mrs Dora Opoku, Medical Assistant in charge of the Centre, said it handled cases of malaria,
upper respiratory infection, anaemia, snake bites, accidents, deliveries as well as ante-natal and post-natal care.
She said the donation of the ambulance was timely and significant because of "Post Partum
Hemorrhage," snake bites, accidents and severe anaemia cases that were mostly referred to the
regional hospital in Sunyani.