Kofi Ampeah Woode
Pursuant to her passion for the socially disadvantaged, a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) of the Ghana Army – Sergeant (Sgt) Effah Ezra Abena, through her setup – The Influential Woman Foundation (TIWOF) – has held free medical screening to identify health concerns, and provide preventive measures, for the people of Sogakope, in the Volta Region of Ghana.
The event, held on Saturday 20th April 2024, at the GP Primary School, Sogakope, South Tongu District, in the Volta Region of Ghana, was massively patronized by the locals, with essential healthcare services such as vital sign checks, blood sugar testing, and screenings for Typhoid, malaria, Hepatitis B, and breast cancer screening offered by health practitioners.
Overall, healthcare was provided to over five hundred (500) persons, while about four hundred and fifty (450) people were registered for free, onto the National Health Insurance Scheme platform.
Eight (8) members of TIWOF collaborated with five (5) persons from Charmel Foundation, nurses from the Sogakope District Hospital for the one-day event, which was supported by some persons living outside of Ghana with Sogakope descent.
TIWOF was inaugurated on Saturday, 25 November, 2023, to provide needed resources for girls in rural communities to address environmental challenges, reduce poverty, promote social justice, and initiate other empowerment drives, especially for girls and women.
For their relatively short period of operation, TIWOF, with its 35 membership of mainly women, led by its leader – Sgt Effah EA, have impacted many disadvantaged persons’ lives, in some rural and urban areas of Ghana, with some eleven (11) social impact projects, so far, touching over 1000 lives, since 3rd of May 2020.
Standard social projects of TIWOF are StreetMax – where over 500 socially disadvantaged persons are fed in the streets during Christmas; Pinktober – breast cancer screening for free; and menstrual hygiene education and materials; training women on handiworks like making, liquid soup, fascinator, beading, local drinks; and supporting education for rural girls.
TIWOF has so far, made donations of rice and foodstuffs to thirty-five (35) widows at Obomeng Kwahu, in the Eastern Region of Ghana; held free breast cancer screening at Larteh Akuapem; shared food to 500 children in the streets of Accra; donated learning materials, personal protective equipment (PPE), menstrual hygiene items, to girls in Bosomtwe in Ashanti Region;
Additionally, they have donated a mower to Nsawam Females Prison; taught liquid soap making to school children in Akosombo, in the Eastern Region; donated sanitary pads and learning materials to Primary and Junior High schools at Vakpo, in the Volta Region; and donated over 1000 sanitary pads to girls in Nyanfeku Ekroful in the Central Region.
They also donated 600 pieces of sanitary pads and exercise books to girls at Kete Krachi, in the Oti Region; and held free breast cancer screening at Pokuase Mayera, in the Greater Accra Region.
