10/30/07-They held three educational workshops in Lawra and Kumasi, Ghana and distributed over 450 kits. Emma and Project HEAL plan to return to Ghana next summer to bring down more medical supplies, hold another round of informational workshops, and build upon community contacts. In the meantime, they will continue shipping individual kits, refill packages, and pamphlets to Lawra and Kumasi.
Project HEAL
Submitted by emmarl on Fri, 10/26/2007 - 20:24
the problem:
My name is Emma Lawrence and I am currently a senior at the University of North Carolina. I am a co-founder of Project HEAL, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public health initiative based in Ghana, West Africa. Project Heal is also a student organization at the University of North Carolina.
Project HEAL's overarching mission is to engage undergraduate students in international service experiences to facilitate culturally relevant and locally-driven sustainable development in Lawra and Kumasi, Ghana. Project HEAL has pledged a comprehensive commitment to the health and wellness of the people of Ghana in an effort to improve access to basic health knowledge, overall quality of care, and availability of vital medical supplies. The ultimate goal of Project HEAL is community-based sustainability with local health officials leading such initiatives.
In the summers of 2007 and 2008, Project Heal led three served trips to Ghana, engaging 10 undergraduate students in a wide range of community-directed health and development projects. We worked in two locations: Lawra, in the rural impoverished upper-west region of Ghana, and Kumasi, a city of a million people in central Ghana. Despite facing many challenges, we achieved our goals of opening dialogue with community health leaders, developing local contacts, and building a partnership with Lawra District Hospital.
vital stats:
people impacted:
5,000people involved:
150why it's important:
Project Heal’s primary objective is to provide the fundamental knowledge and supplies needed to prevent basic infections and related health problems. Our approach is based upon two main facets: providing individual kits containing basic medical supplies that are safe and effective for family use, and holding school and community-based educational workshops to provide information about the use of items in the kits and available medical resources in the area. With project sustainability in mind, we placed great importance on providing community leaders with necessary information and supplies to implement future workshops. At each workshop site, we worked with a community leader or local health official, who provided translation from English to the local language. We provided this individual with additional supplies and pamphlets, as well as contact instructions to utilize when they run out of these materials.
Other projects include:
-Constructing a children's library and medical resource center in the children's ward of the Lawra District Hospital
-Facilitating the shipment of 1,500 lbs of donated medical supplies to the understaffed and underfunded Lawra District Hospital
-Building a playground and facilitating "care" projects at the Kumasi Children's Home
the plan of action:
Project HEAL is further dedicated to providing the structure for students to experience the inequalities in international health care and community development that are pervasive in Ghanaian society. Ten UNC students are traveling to Ghana in the summer of 2009 to carry out our mission. The main projects for 2009 include holding additional first aid workshops in schools and community centers, holding dental hygiene workshops in schools, and developing a nutrition rehabilitation center and nutritional education outreach program in the rural Lawra District.
how you can get involved:
n/aproject updates:
07/01/2009
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