The Kofi Job Foundation has made a generous donation of GHc 10,000 to support the surgery of 52-year-old Janet Koomson, who has been suffering from an abnormal swelling of her thigh and leg.
The patient has been experiencing this condition for some time and required financial assistance for the necessary surgery.
Madam Koomson was scheduled to undergo surgery at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital on April 16, 2025.
However, her family was unable to raise the required funds, prompting them to reach out to the Kofi Job Foundation for support.
In response to the appeal, the founders of the foundation, Mr. Kofi Job and his wife, Dr. Esther Gyebi, kindly provided the necessary funds.
The donation was presented on their behalf by the Acting Public Relations Officer for the foundation, Kwame Agyenim Boateng, on Monday, April 7, 2025.
Some scenes from the donation ceremony
Receiving the donation, Madam Janet Koomson expressed her heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Kofi Job and Dr. Esther Gyebi for their timely support.
She noted that the donation would bring her much-needed relief from the pain she has been enduring.
Fatimatu Bint Rasool Foundation (FBR), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Greater Accra region,has presented items worth thousands of Ghana Cedis to various underprivileged in Muslim communities in Kumasi,the Ashanti regional capital.
The support was done before and after the Eid fitr celebrations.
Some scenes from the event
The items distributed include food items, beverages, water, live poultry, and pre-owned clothing to those in need, underscoring the foundation’s dedication to making a positive difference in the lives of the destitute.
The NGO,established few years ago, main objective is to offer training in personal and communal development.
GNA report indicates that,in its second street donation initiative, the Foundation brought relief and happiness to disadvantaged individuals in four significant areas; spanning Kumasi and Accra: namely Aboabo number and two, Sabon Zongo, Accra Nima, and Kumasi Nima.
The donation campaign garnered a remarkable response, as volunteers interacted with street residents, children, and struggling families, providing not only essential items but also compassion and motivation.
Numerous beneficiaries expressed profound gratitude, emphasizing how such initiatives instill hope amidst their daily challenges, particularly during Ramadan and Eid festivities.
Hajia Fatima Jibrila Zibo Badju, the founder of the foundation, accentuated the organization’s unwavering commitment to uplifting communities through acts of benevolence.
She urged others to join their mission of spreading happiness and effecting change in people’s lives.
As the foundation’s second street donation initiative, this event signals the commencement of a broader endeavour to give back to society, with aspirations of reaching even more communities in the future.
Hajia Fatima further highlighted that the foundation is actively engaged in community development initiatives such as school refurbishments and raising awareness regarding the institutional, structural, and cultural impediments to sustaining community progress.
She pointed out that the foundation aims to promote gender equality by enhancing women’s income and influence, with a specific focus on empowering women.
She mentioned that the foundation is currently in the process of seeking funding to provide access to potable water in select urban and rural communities through the installation of boreholes.
Therefore, she appealed to corporate entities to support the foundation in achieving its objectives through charitable contributions.
Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has dismissed rumors surrounding the health of Ghana’s Vice President, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, assuring the public that she is in good health and will soon resume her duties.
Ghanaian fashion
Prof Opoku-Agyemang went abroad to seek medical care after initial treatment at the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) after experiencing a sudden illness following her official duties on Friday, March 28, 2025, but there were speculations that the Vice President had passed on.
A picture of Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang during a campaign tour in the run-up to 2024 elections
Addressing Ghanaians in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday, April 6, Ablakwa emphasised that prayers from Ghanaians both at home and abroad have contributed to her recovery.
“Some fears about the state of our mother, the first female vice president of the Republic of Ghana. I also want to assure that she is doing very, very well. Your prayers worked, your prayers from all of us, Ghanaians at home and abroad, have really worked.
Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
“I have heard from her, so I know what I am talking about, and she’s doing well,” he stated.
Ablakwa urged the public to disregard what he described as “vicious and unGhanaian evil propaganda” being circulated about Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s health.
He expressed confidence in her ability to inspire young girls and women across the nation.
“Please ignore all of that very vicious and unGhanaian evil propaganda that some people are speculating. Our mother is doing very, very well, and very soon she is going to return to her duties, serving Ghana, making all of you proud and particularly inspiring our young girls, our daughters, to know that there is nothing our women cannot achieve—that women are as good as men and that what men can do, women can also do and do it better,” Ablakwa added.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) for Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH),Mr Kwame Frimpong,has sets the record straight on suspension of some surgical caes by doctors of the hospital following water crisis.
According to him,”all our theatres-Family Planning block, Family Medicine block, Main Theatre and Eye centre all all working. the only exception is the ones at the Accident and Emergency Centre”.
The PRO’s clarification follows the publication that,KATH doctors has suspended all surgical cases following water crisis.Mr.Frimpong in a chat with “The New Trust” newspaper,stated emphatically that,it was not true that,the doctors have suspended all surgical cases as reported by some section of the media.
Attached below is a statement from the Management of the hospital;
Doctors at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi have announced the suspension of all surgical cases with immediate effect due to a water shortage that has hit the hospital since last week.
In a memo dated March 25, 2025, the Komfo Anokye Doctors Association informed management the action is in the best interest of patient’ safety and security.
“This memo is to formally inform management of the decision taken by the Orthopaedic and Emergency Directorate to temporarily halt the admission of new patients until the availability of water is restored,” the memo read in part.
According to the Association, the directorate is faced with severe challenges due to an ongoing water shortage. This, the doctors say “has significantly affected the provision of essential healthcare services”.
It noted that though water is a critical resource in maintaining hygiene, conducting surgical procedures, and ensuring patient care and safety, the resource is in short supply at the facility, compromising patient care in general.
“Despite efforts to manage the situation, the current lack of water has reached a critical point, compromising both patient safety and healthcare delivery,” said the memo.
Chairman of the Komfo Anokye Doctors Association (KADA), Dr Michael Leat, who apologised on behalf of his colleagues over the impact of their action, said the Association will continue to attend to existing cases.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and kindly request management’s urgent intervention to address the water crisis. The directorates will continue to manage existing patients to the best of our ability, while prioritizing safety and hygiene,” he said.
The association, however, called for alternative water sourcing options while receiving regular updates on the water situation.
Meanwhile, management of KATH explains the Ghana Water Company Limited is yet to restore water supply to the hospital since the curtailment of service last week.
“We are at the moment depending on alternative sources which have proven inadequate due to the huge volumes of water required for our operations on daily basis.
“At the moment, apart from KATH own sources, the GNFS, KMA and the GWCL are pitching in with alternative supplies but they are not enough to meet our operational needs. We are in constant touch with the Regional office of the GWCL to expedite the repair works which occasioned the cessation of water supply to the hospital,” said the Public Relations Directorate.
By Master Abdul Faraj Yezid Timtoni Wumbei – REIGNING CHILD SANITATION DIPLOMAT
Tamale, 24th March 2025.
Government must maintain and increase focus on supporting poor households to gain access to improved toilets to eradicate open defecation and preserve the quality of Ghana’s water resources.
While most stakeholders have been discussing water conservation and protection of our water bodies especially against illegal mining on the occasion of this year’s World Water Day on the theme ‘Water Conservation: Let’s make it our way of life,’ I wish to draw the attention of the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs (MLGCRA) to the fact that open defecation also plays a devastating role in preserving the quality of our water resources.
World Water Day, which was commemorated on 21st March at a national forum in Accra, was led mainly by the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing (MWRWH) and its responsible agencies and discussions focused mainly on conserving the water resources. What was missing, however, was that there was little or no mention of access to toilets and open defecation, which also play a crucial role in preserving water quality of both surface and groundwater, and even water at the household level.
Without meaning to question why there was no focus on open defecation, I wish to remind the MLGCRA, which has recently resumed responsibility for sanitation, that with just 25% of the population having access to improved household toilets and the current rate of open defecation still around 17% of the population, the volumes expected from preserving water resources may mean little to the health of the people.
Open defecation, which occurs mainly because of lack of decent toilet facilities in homes and institutions, directly contaminates water resources through run-offs and wind-blown dust into surface water, and infiltration into groundwater sources with faecal matter.
Even the containers that people use to fetch water from streams and wells, and also to store water at home, if contaminated with faecal matter, will transfer pathogens into water sources and cause diseases among the people.
Children are usually the most vulnerable groups to the effects of water contamination through poor sanitation and open defecation. Children care very little about playing in run-off water, drinking contaminated water directly with little care about handwashing and hygiene. The resultant infections can cause stunting, loss of school hours, and even deaths through preventable diseases like cholera, intestinal worms, and typhoid.
On account of this, I wish to remind the new sanitation sector ministry to maintain focus on on-going sector interventions such as the Community-led Total Sanitation programme mainly in rural communities and small towns, and the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project mainly in low-income urban communities, and scale them up to other areas not yet covered.
These interventions seem to be the most proven solutions in recent years to the challenge with access to toilets and open defecation and they need sustained government interest, support, and upscale.
In addition to these on-going sector initiatives, the ministry may also introduce a more intensive public education on the need for improved household and institutional toilets and the dangers of open defecation.
This education must also be intensive in schools through collaboration with the Ministry of Education, where every Ghanaian child must be targeted and groomed while they are still young so that they may not grow with that habit.
The new ministry should also support child centered initiatives such as the School Sanitation Solutions Challenge and the Child Sanitation Diplomat campaign organized by World Vision Ghana, Kings Hall Media, Zoomlion Foundation, GAMA Sanitation and Water Project, and the GES/SHEP.
This intervention seeks to involve children in finding sustainable solutions to sanitation challenges around them while they are still young. It is through this programme that some of us are able to let our voices and opinions about sanitation be heard and also demonstrate our creative ideas.
I will finally seize this opportunity to congratulate Hon. Ahmed Ibrahim on his appointment as the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs and by implication, the sector minister for sanitation, with the hope that he will prioritize programmes and projects that directly deliver access to improved household and institutional toilets to accelerate eradication of open defecation.
END –
Editor’s note:
The Child Sanitation Diplomat is a sanitation champion identified through the annual School Sanitation Solutions Challenge.
This national contest on sanitation seeks to identify and groom a sanitation conscious future generation through a nationwide competition that is open to all pupils from class six to JHS two. The overall winner is designated as a Child Sanitation Diplomat and supported to embark on a one-year mentorship and sanitation campaign project.
The programme was originated by World Vision Ghana and Kings Hall Media and currently organized in collaboration with the Zoomlion Foundation with support from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate and the Ghana GES/SHEP.
Master Addul Faraj Yezid Timtoni Wumbei from the Grace Holy Child Academy in Tamale won the 5th and 2024 edition of the Challenge and is currently undertaking his one-year campaign as the reigning Child Sanitation Diplomat.
Contacts for further information
Yaw Attah Arhin (World Vision Ghana): 0244713332
Frank Ofosu-Appiah (Kings Hall Media): 0246565063
The Kofi Job Foundation has come to the rescue of a 2-year-old girl, Halaila Suleiman, who was at risk of going blind due to a severe eye cancer called Retinoblastoma.
The foundation, headed by renowned road contractor Mr. Kofi Job and his wife, Dr. Esther Okyere Gyebi, donated GH₵60,000 to cover the cost of surgery at the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
The little girl
The girl’s family was unable to afford the surgery, prompting Paediatric Oncologist Dr. Alimatu at the Kumasi South Hospital to reach out to the Kofi Job Foundation for assistance.
Thanks to the foundation’s timely donation, Halaila has undergone successful surgery, saving her from potential blindness or even death.
Dr. Alimatu in an interview with OTEC News Reporter Kwame Agyenim Boateng on Sunday March 23,2025,expressed her gratitude to the Kofi Job Foundation, stating that the donation was timely and has saved the child’s life.
She prayed for God’s blessings for Mr. Kofi Job and Dr. Esther Okyere Gyebi.
Dr. Esther Okyere Gyebi praised her husband, Mr. Kofi Job, for his philanthropic efforts, emphasizing that the Kofi Job Foundation will continue to change lives and empower the vulnerable in society.
Source: Ghana/otecfmghana.com/Jacob Agyenim Boateng
A number of environmental CSOs, including Eco-Conscious Citizens, are disappointed that the Mahama administration is amending instead of revoking LI 2642, the legislative instrument which virtually allows unfettered mining in forest reserves.
Environmental CSOs marked yesterday’s World Forest Day by drawing attention to the fact that what has been laid before parliament is an amendment of LI 2462, and not a revocation of the legislative instrument, which does not stop mining in forest reserves.
Members of Eco-Conscious Citizens marked World Forest Day by sensitising people in and outside the Forestry Commission’s headquarters in Accra about why the “perverse law” has to be completely revoked.
The Akufo-Addo government in the run up to last year’s general election agreed to the LI’s revocation. And whilst in opposition, the NDC party and Mahama also agreed to its revocation.
Eco-Conscious Citizens and its supporters take the opportunity today to mark World Water Day, bearing in mind that many of our major water bodies take their source from forests, to remind President Mahama of the promise he made to Ghanaians at the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs on Monday, October 14 2024:
“With the pressure from Organised Labour, the government has agreed to repeal that LI and replace it and so I hope that it will be done before we come into office. If it is done, that is it. If it is not done, we come, we will repeal that LI so that we can stop mining in forest reserves.”
“Please Mr President, on that day you promised to repeal, not amend LI 2462. We urge your administration to keep your promise,” says Eco-Conscious Citizens founder and director Awula Serwah.
“Mr President, you went on to point out to your distinguished audience that: ‘Until they amended the LI, you couldn’t go and mine in forest reserves. Once this government came and amended the LI that is what has resulted in the free-for-all in all forest reserves. And you should see the desecration of these reserves.'”
Ghanaians can see the devastation that has been done to our forests and waterbodies, and the longer any part of this LI stays on the statute book, the more our forest reserves continue to be devastated.
“Mr President, yesterday, you and your sector minister launched the Tree For Life initiative. LI 2462 is clearly inimical to the intentions of this initiative. Please give Ghanaians the revocation you promised them, now that you are in office,” adds Awula Serwah.
As part of efforts to get the involvement of all stakeholders in the fight against sickle cell disease (SCD) in Ghana, a two-day media training workshop on SCD has been held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, for journalists,researchers and clinicians
SCD, which is a disorder of red blood cells that can be inherited through two abnormal haemoglobin, is having a negative impact on patients and their families, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Some scenes from the workshop
Therefore, the Patient-Centred Sickle Cell Disease Management in sub-Saharan Africa (PACTS) programme, which is being championed in Ghana by KNUST, aims at tackling the disease by building the capacity of journalists and researchers to be advocates of the disease.
A group photograph of researchers and clinicians
The workshop was held from 10th to 11th March 2025 at Impact Building, University Accommodation and Conference, KNUST.
Dr Bernard Appiah, a key facilitator, took participants through topics such as: “Media Content Analysis: A focus on sickle cell disease in Africa and key steps”, “Introduction to sickle cell disease: Essentials for media professionals”, “Introduction to media reporting: Essentials for health researchers/clinicians”.
A group photograph of media professionals
Other topics were: “Being interviewed for a media story: A personal experience”, “Interviewing a researcher for a sickle cell disease story: A personal experience”, including other topics.
A group photograph of researchers & clinicians
In his opening remarks, Professor Alex Osei-Akoto, Principal Investigator, PACTS Project, who doubles as Professor and Honorary Consultant Pediatrician, Department of Child Health School of Medicine and Dentistry, KNUST & Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), revealed that plans were far advanced to get every newborn baby in Ghana screened for SCD as part of a national strategy to prevent or control the disease in the country by the Ghana Health Service.
Prof. Osei-Akoto explained that the workshop was aimed to improve the well-being and health outcomes of SCD patients in sub-Saharan Africa through earlier and improved detection of the disease and optimised implementation of known evidence-based clinical interventions, using a patient-centred approach.
Besides, the workshop aimed to enhance individual and institutional capacity to conduct and manage high-quality IR to overcome barriers to optimise SCD care and improving public knowledge about the disease.
Stakeholders were unanimous on their call for all hands to be on deck to help fight SCD. This is because the disease is seen as a significant public health issue.
A study indicates that out of an estimated 896,000 babies born annually, about 18,000 are affected by SCD.
Besides, one in four Ghanaians has the haemoglobin S or C gene. Available records also indicate that close to 15,000 to 20,000 babies are born with SCD in Ghana annually, representing 2 per cent of all live births, while an estimated number of 25 per cent of the Ghanaian population are carriers of sickle cell trait.
The participants/stakeholders supported the national strategy for SCD, especially the plan to screen all newborn babies.
According to the health experts, although screening newborn babies for SCD leads to early detection to ensure treatment, study has revealed that only 5.5% of children are screened for SCD in newborn periods, and most of the cases are diagnosed through emergency department visits during ill health.
The stakeholders have, therefore, urged every Ghanaian to support the national agenda to help fight SCD.
President John Dramani Mahama is appealing to the international community to partner with his government in completing the stalled Agenda 111 hospital projects initiated by the previous administration.
The president has indicated that his government requires $1.7 billion to complete the hospitals.
Speaking during a credentials presentation ceremony for five newly appointed ambassadors to Ghana, Mahama emphasized the importance of private sector collaboration in delivering essential services, particularly in healthcare.
President John Dramani Mahama
“With regards to healthcare, we would like to see what the cooperation is. We do have a problem with our hospital facilities. The previous government started huge projects in healthcare, building more than 100 hospitals, and somehow we are stuck because they spent a lot of money and not being able to operationalise any of them.
“And so we are looking to see if we can have some cooperation with the private sector or any entrepreneurs that are into hospital management to finish those hospitals and manage them over a period of time in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service,” he stated.
The five envoys who presented their Letters of Credence to the President on Wednesday, March 12, include Ms. Laura Ranalli, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy; Julio Enrique Pujol Torres, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba; and Musu Jatu Ruhle, Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia.
Also present were Dr. Abdulla Muraid Sulaiman Mohammed Al Mandoos, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, and Ali Ghomshi, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran.By:Akosua Otchere
