A total of 34,029,072.00 Ghana cedis is needed to refurbish the Emergency Ward of the Department of Child Health of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, to benefit children in Ghana and those from other West African countries.

The ward is a referral centre for children suffering from various types of illness and severe infections, including complicated malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis, severe anaemia, childhood cancers and heart abnormalities and premature babies.

Professor Bamenla Goka, Head of the Department, disclosed these to journalists in Accra on Tuesday when the FirstBanC, a financial institution, presented a cheque of 5,000 Ghana cedis towards the refurbishment of the facility.

The bank had also adopted a ward at the Department for rehabilitation and to supply it with standard medical equipment. Prof. Goka said the expansion of the Emergency Ward and the Intensive Care ward would be in three phases and that about 9,000,000 Ghana cedis would be needed for the first phase of work.

She said the Emergency Ward, which was built to take care of a maximum number of 15 children but currently takes 40 children, had remained the same since the Department was built in the early 1960s.

"The inadequacy of space and beds means that sick children are forced to share beds with each other, sometimes three to a bed, thus drastically increasing the chance of cross infection. During peak admission periods, some children have to sit on their parents' laps in a chair for hours while they receive life-saving care", she said.

Prof. Goka said that equipment and facilities at the ward were stretched beyond limit resulting in their frequent breakdown.

Mr Frank Gamadey, Financial Controller and Head of Pension at the FirstBanC, who made the presentation, said the gesture was to complement government's efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal Four on 93Reducing Child Mortality".

He said child healthcare, especially the fight against child cancer, was the main social responsibility of the company.

"We believe in wealth creation, and one of the best ways to ensure a progressive nation is to invest in children so that they can grow to become healthy and responsible adults."

Madam Jane Boatey, mother of a three-month-old baby, told the Ghana News Agency that due to the lack of beds, she had been carrying her baby in her arms while receiving drip infusion.

"I have been standing since yesterday and I will plead with the government and other corporate bodies to come to the aid of the hospital for the sake of these little children".

Sunyani (B/A) July 2, GNA - Pastor Moses Kyeremeh, Founder of Glorious Victory Ministry, a Christian non-governmental organisation, has presented three bales of second-hand clothing to inmates of Sunyani Central Prisons. Two bales of the clothing are to be distributed among the female inmates whilst the remaining one is for their male counterparts. The ministry also donated a bale of similar clothing to inmates at the Compassion is Love in Action orphanage at Yawhima, near Sunyani.

Making the presentation, Pastor Kyeremeh said in addition to promoting spiritual growth and development, the ministry supports the needy in society, especially widows and prisoners. He expressed concern about the deplorable conditions in the prisons stating, 93Like all other Ghanaians, prisoners also have the right to basic amenities such as toilets." Pastor Kyeremeh appealed to the government to improve on the sanitation situation and also called for an increase in the daily 60 pesewa feeding fee per inmate in the prisons. Senior Chief Officer Mohammed F. Ganda, who received the items on behalf of the prisoners, thanked the ministry for the gesture. He said the central prison had 805 inmates made up of 791 males and 15 females.

Senior Chief Officer Ganda expressed concern about overcrowding among the male inmates indicating that instead of the proposed intake of 500 the prisons sometimes accommodate more the 800 inmates. He appealed to the government to improve on the sanitation situation, saying, 93even though there are supposed to be toilets in each cell, inmates have to queue for the general toilet." The Senior Chief Officer noted that the reformation of inmates was a shared responsibility and advised society to embrace them after they had served their sentences.

At Yawhima, Madam Shallot Osei Kwarteng, founder of the orphanage, also thanked the ministry for the items and appealed to other NGOs to support in the upbringing of the inmates. She said currently the orphanage had 30 children comprising 20 boys and 10 girls.

In another development, Mr. Raphael Godlove Ahenu Junior, Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Foundation, an NGO, presented 70 pairs of used shoes and sandals to the Frontier Mission Network, a charity organisation operating in the Northern Region to be distributed among the needy and vulnerable in that region.