In the News
Keep to
healthy lifestyles -Minister
Breman Asikuma (C/R), Dec.
20, GNA- Major Courage Quashigah, Minister of Health on
Tuesday, called on all Ghanaians to keep to healthy
lifestyles by eating the right food, exercising their
bodies and keeping their environment clean.
He stated that Ghanaians would stay alive for long and
healthy if they refrained from over reliance on drugs to
cure themselves of sicknesses and rather prevent
themselves against the causes of sicknesses.
Major Quashigah made the call at a ceremony to launch a
pilot training programme on Regenerative Health and
Nutrition Project (RHNP), at Breman Asikuma, capital of
Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa (AOB) district, in the central
region.
The RHNP is a new health policy developed by the
Ministry of Health, which emphasizes on health promotion
and prevention, and aims at improving the health status
of Ghanaians through promoting healthy lifestyles with
emphasis on nutrition.
The minister said as part of activities for the pilot
programme, the Ministry of Health intends to collaborate
with the district assemblies to establish change agents
in the districts to facilitate the promotion of healthy
lifestyles and nutrition.
Major Quashigah stated that the policy was adopted after
understudying the Israelis who live long and healthy,
because of their peculiar lifestyles, which is in
conformity with eating the right food, exercising
regularly and keeping their environment clean.
According to him he has seen a 74-year old woman taking
part in a running exercise in Israel and that he was
also shown a community in Israel, which had not recorded
a single death, in a period of 38 years. He said it was
in this regard that a number of specialists from Israel
have been brought into the country, to spend a year, to
assist in the education of Ghanaians about the RHNP and
the creation of awareness on its benefits, to facilitate
its acceptance by all.
The minister reiterated that if Ghana were to attain a
middle-income status by the year 2015, it was imperative
that the nation moved away from spending huge sums of
money on drugs and rather save such money for
investments.
According to him, Ghana spends more than 500 million
dollars on malaria treatment alone in a year, and called
for a new paradigm on health from curative to
preventive, adding that the launching would be
replicated in all the 138 districts to popularize it.
Major Quashigah, also had a meeting with the management
and staff of Our Lady of Grace Hospital, to know their
problems, among which were, the lack of a bus to convey
staff to and from hospital and insufficient staff
accommodation.
Mr P. C. Appiah Ofori, Member of Parliament of AOB
constituency, for his part, said all the efforts
government was making to develop the nation would be a
fruitless venture if people did not keep to healthy
lifestyles and lived long to benefit from those
development projects. He in this regard advised the
people to refrain from drug abuse and the use of hard
drugs, whilst committing themselves to hygiene and
environmental cleanliness to prolong their lives.
Mr Prince Emmanuel, head of the Israeli delegation,
noted that Ghana has always been in the forefront of
everything that is good in Africa, and that even though
they came from Israel they feel proud to be associated
with Ghana in the dissemination of the RHNP in the
country. Mr Emmanuel Adjei Domson, district chief
executive of AOB expressed gratitude to the ministry of
health for choosing the district as the place to launch
the pilot project, and promised that all efforts would
be made to facilitate its popularity and acceptance.
Earlier, an early morning walk dubbed, "the walk of
life", led by the minister was undertaken alongside some
health workers, teachers, assembly members and a
cross-section of the members of the public, through some
streets of the town for 30 minutes, bearing placards.
Some of the placards read, "exercise at least three
times a week, exercise your body by turning, running and
skipping, take some rest it is good for your heart,
drink at least seven glasses of water a day, you are
what you eat, and eat a lot of fruits and vegetables".
Later, Dr Elimele Ben Israel, a naturopathic doctor from
Israel, talking to newsmen said the 15-member
delegation, would be traveling to all parts of the
country to share information on RHNP with the people. He
said during their tour they would encourage the
establishment of health clubs among the people, among
others, and also urged them to live healthy lifestyles
in order to live long and healthy.
Talking to the press too, Dr Edward Addai, director for
policy planning and evaluation of the ministry of
health, stated that health is not about what is
happening in the hospitals, and advised people to live
the life that would help them stay out of hospital.
According to him, people tended to weaken their bodies
with what they ate and how they lived, adding that,
people got malaria because their bodies were too weak to
fight the malaria parasites. Dr Addai, who is also the
RHNP project co-ordinator, therefore urged the people to
ensure that their environment was always clean,
stressing that, "anytime you looked at your environment,
you should know that your life and healthy survival
depended on it".
Source:
GNA
 Prince
Immanuel spoke to the Land and Agriculture
Committees, Culture Committee, and the Moral
Regeneration Movement
by Prince Immanuel Ben-Yehuda
KNN-Africa
The good news of the Regenerative Health and
Nutrition Program in Ghana has reached South
Africa and resulted in an invitation being
extended to the African Hebrew Development
Agency to send representation to meet with the
National House of Traditional Leaders and attend
the opening of the legislative season of the
National House in Cape Town at the end of
February.
Prince Immanuel Ben-Yehuda, the International
Projects Director of AHDA and his Executive
Assistant, Ahkote Yielah Eshet Nasik Gavriel
attended the annual speech given by the South
African President Thabo Mbeki, to African
royalty, Kings, Chiefs, Queen Mothers, and
delegations from South Africa and other SADAC
countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia and
Namibia.
After the address by Mbeki, Prince Immanuel was
invited to address the National House and
explain to them the elements of Regenerative
Health and Nutrition and also the Restoration
Village Organic Agricultural Program presently
being initiated in Ghana.
It is believed that these programs might have
great impact in South Africa, especially being
directed through the National House of
Traditional Leaders as 70% of our people in
rural areas remain under the leadership of
Traditional Leaders.
Prince Immanuel spoke to the combination of the
Land and Agriculture Committees along with the
Culture Committee and then later met with
representatives from the Moral Regeneration
Movement to determine how the African Hebrew
Development Agency might form a strategic
partnership with NHTL to address the health
conditions threatening the people in South
Africa as well as initiate viable agricultural
projects and education in rural areas to
encourage young people to remain there.
The Chosen First Fruit youth organization (CFF)
of the African Hebrew Israelites were featured
participants in a conference organized by the
Moral Regeneration Movement in the Eastern Cape
in 2005. Later the CFF delegations organized
another MRM conference in Johannesburg.
"It is important to know that we have not come
here as guests and visitors, but as members of
the extended family who have come to join hands,
and add our experience to the solving of
problems which we see as affecting many of our
communities across the African Continent and
around the world. Meeting with the Traditional
Leaders, who are recognized as the custodians of
the land and the culture, two essential elements
to ensure our future of strength is most
essential if there is to be progress among our
people,"
Prince Immanuel said. "The Traditional Leaders
and their authority must continually be enhanced
as so much of the richness of our past which has
sustained us to this point, is under their care.
Therefore, we should consistently turn our
attention to and work through with and through
them in conjunction with the governmental
legislative bodies to ensure the progress of our
people."Prince Immanuel was also the featured
speaker at an engagement sponsored by the Hon.
Jacqueline Mofokeng, ANC Parliamentary
representative from Gauteng.
The Ministry hopes to introduce it in 50 other
districts this year
Source: GBC NEWS
The Ministry of Health, as part of its paradigm
shift has introduced the Regenerative Health and
Nutrition Programme which it has been
successfully launched in 10 districts. The
Ministry hopes to introduce it in 50 other
districts this year. A statement issued by the
Ministry said people from all walks of life
including journalists have been sent to Dimona ,
Israel to understudy their concept and system.
It said beneficiaries of that trip assembled at
the Manna Heights Hotel in Mankessim to review
the concept and share their experiences and the
way forward. After three-days of deliberation,
participants came out with a communiqué which
advocated the development of a national policy
on cultivation of organically grown foods
including vegetables and fruit and the
production of regenerative health food and crops
at reasonable cost.
It called for the introduction of health
education and nutrition as examinable subjects
in school curriculum and increasing access to
potable water.
The Communiqué asked for a scale up in
consultation with relevant stakeholders
including establishing strategic partnerships
with community radio stations, the programme of
mass communication of the Regenerative health
message at the national and district level
including packaging the Regenerative message
into local languages and the production of
jingles as well as build capacity of change
agents.
It noted that there is the need to explore
options for setting up a National Commission on
Regenerative Health and Nutrition and
introduction of alternative and sustainable
source of financing the programme.
The Communiqué suggested the empowerment of MPs,
Chiefs and other opinion leaders to disseminate
the Regenerative Health and Nutrition messages
and lifestyles in collaboration with the Ghana
AIDS Commission to promote the use of nutrition
in the management of HIV and AIDS.
Ghana Loses $762 Million Annually In
Malaria Control
by Shirley Asiedu-Addo
Ghana General News
About $762 million is lost in controlling
malaria in the country yearly. The loss includes
labour loss, cost of transportation to
facilities, cost to families and cost in
treating patients.
According to the Minister of Health, Major
Courage Quashigah (retd), if the cost of
preventable and avoidable diseases continued to
increase, it might be necessary to sell the
country to pay for the ill-health of its
people.Major Quashigah, who was addressing a
meeting to review the new Regenerative Health
and Nutrition Programme (RHNP) introduced to
ensure good health by adopting healthy
lifestyles, said, “It is important that the
country work to ensure that limited resources
are not wasted on preventable diseases.” Health
service providers, district chief executives and
media practitioners attended the meeting in
Mankessim in the Central Region.
The RHNP was adopted from Dimona,
Israel, where a community of about 3,500 African
Hebrews live without encountering any diseases
as a result of the programme.
Major Quashigah stated that in the near future,
all diseases would be costed to know their cost
to the nation and the need to work to prevent
them. He noted that since 2006, the RHNP had
been piloted in 10 districts in seven regions of
Ghana in the form of week-long training of
change agents and advocates.
The minister stated that more than 700 change
agents and 5,000 advocates had so far received
training in RHNP across the country, adding that
he expected them to work hard to touch the
people in the communities and families to adopt
the programme. He said it was unfortunate that
eating junk food was associated with
sophistication, adding that eating healthy
foods, exercise and rest could do a lot of good
to the body.
The Director of the programme, Dr Edward Addai,
stated that RHNP had been found to be an
important way of improving the lives of the
people in any nation.He, therefore, urged all
stakeholders to ensure that the programme was
successful. The Omanhen of the Mankessim
Traditional Area, Nana Amanfo Adu VI, urged the
people to ensure the proper handling of fruits
and vegetables to avoid contracting diseases.He
also called on them to adopt personal hygiene
and good environmental sanitation practices to
ensure healthy living.
Over 1,000 people of
diverse backgrounds have participated in a
health walk
Health walk organized by
the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the
African Hebrew Development Agency (AHDA), an
Israeli based organization at Keta
Ghanadistricts.com
The walk, which was to promote the physical
fitness of participants, was also to arouse
community consciousness about the need for
regular fitness exercises as one of the
fundamentals in diseases prevention.
It also formed part of a week’s programme of
Regenerative Health and Nutrition Training to
promote alternative health care through physical
exercise and good nutrition dubbed: "Renew your
strength to prevent diseases.
"The 8.5 kilometre walk from the forecourt of
the Keta District Assembly premises at 0600
hours went through the main streets of Keta,
Dzelukope and Vui, ending at the beach at Tegbi
where participants, including health workers,
traditional rulers, students and some Israeli
nationals underwent drills before retiring for
water and fruits.
Mr. Solomon Yaw Fordjour, District Chief
Executive of Afram Plains and Mr. Kofi Ahiabor,
DCE of Keta took part in the exercise.Mr. Prince
Emmanuel Ben-Yehuda, the Project Director of
AHDA based in Dimona, Israel, where good health
practices were said to have made maternal and
child mortality alien to the place in the past
40 years, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that
exercising, intake of plant based diets, of
fruits and vegetables, drinking of water and
eating at the right time are the best means of
disease prevention.
He said his association is in the country to
assist the Ministry of Health to drum home to
the people that most of the diseases in Ghana
are preventable if everybody assumed
responsibility for his or her own health through
disciplined lifestyles rather than relying on
hospitals and drugs.Mr. Ben-Yehuda said their
presence is to mobilize communities, including
the chiefs and health workers to know and lead
the way in advancing the regenerative health and
nutrition concept in the country.
Mr. Kofi Edusei, Project Manager of the
Regenerative and Nutrition Programme (RNP) at
the Ministry of Health said the Ministry is
shifting health paradigm from the development of
hospitals to development of health in homes
through good health practices and so limiting
the propensity of people becoming sick. See:
Ghana Districts
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/health/artikel.php?ID=145242
Obesity is not wealthy
living - Health Official
Accra, June 12, GNA - Ghanaians have been urged to discard
the illusion that obesity is a sign of wealthy
living. Mr. Kofi Adusei, Project Manager,
Regenerative Health of the Ministry of Health,
said obesity or fatness rather made the
individual susceptible to all kinds of illness,
which could result in death. Mr. Adusei,
speaking at a seminar on regenerative health for
citizens within the Adentan Municipality said
fatness increased the Body Mass Index (BMI) of a
person.
BMI which could be classified as underweight,
overweight, obese and highly obese helps the
physician to detect risk of the individual to
developing diseases such as hypertension,
diabetes, among others, due to poor eating
habits.
'You can live up to 120 years and still look
younger if you cultivate the habit of eating
more fruits and vegetables, drink 8 glasses of
water a day and do a lot of exercises,' he said.
Dr Elimelek Israel, African Hebrew Development
Agency, said the use of body and hair creams and
soaps which contained a lot of chemicals also
disturbed the normal functioning of the body.
He advocated that Ghanaians should value
local creams and soaps such as alata samina,
shea butter, palm kernel oil and also put on
dresses made of cotton, silk and wool to protect
the body.
Dr Isreal noted that regular exercise and
massage helped in proper circulation of blood,
which would boost the immune system.
Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of
Health, who shared his Dimona experience in
Israel, said for over 40 years people in that
part of the world had never fallen ill or
witnessed death due to good eating habits and
exercise.
Dimona is a community in Israel with a
population of 4,000 who have adopted healthy
eating as their standard of living. He noted
that he therefore borrowed the practice and
decided to make it work in Ghana and urged all
and sundry to support and adopt it to ensure
longevity.
Major Quashigah said most of the local dances
such as Adowa, Agbadza and Boboobo were
exercises in themselves and encouraged the
dances every morning as exercise.
Nii-Noi Adumuah, Municipal Chief Executive,
Adentan, said although the municipality was a
newly created one, they were determined to
invest in all aspects of the socio-economic
life, including health.
|
