The
health of most Ghanaians and the medical care extended to them is distinctly
inferior to that of developed countries. Many villages will have their
own small clinic and towns their hospitals. But these are usually understaffed. Finding adequately qualified staff is the main problem
(partly as a result of the very sizeable brain drain out of the country).
Moreover, due to financial constraints and lack of education, the majority
of Ghanaians will just seek medical help when they feel it to be absolutely
necessary. This means that the help sometimes comes too late. To top it
all, once a doctor has prescribed a treatment, patients will not always
buy the prescribed drugs, glasses etc. for lack of money. Two particularly severe health problems afflict the country (and the continent as a whole). The first one is HIV/AIDS. Despite vigorous campaigning by the government and other focus groups the estimated number of adults living with HIV/AIDS is around 1.9% (CIA World Factbook, 2007 estimate). The second one is malaria, with a staggering 3.2 million reported malaria cases and more than 3800 malaria deaths reported in 2008 (WHO). Unfortunately we do not have any medical volunteer projects available at this point of time. If you are open to consider other projects, do check out our orphanage and teaching volunteer assignments. |
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