Residents of Yaru in the Gudayiri Electoral Area of the Wa East District are appealing to the government and the District Assembly to provide them with a health facility.
They said it is to enable them to have timely access to healthcare services.
Speaking to Info Radio at the community, Madam Shietu Samad explained that the aged and children in the Yaru community suffer the most as a result of the lack of a health facility.
She explained the roads leading to communities, where there are health facilities, are very deplorable and unmotorable.
“If one falls sick here, we are able to get a car but, it however remains a struggle how the car gets the person to the nearest health facility or to Wa.
“In such cases of sickness, our aged women and men and our children suffer a deal for their lives: There is no clinic, and our roads are hell,” Madam Shietu lamented.
She added that they sometimes lose precious lives midway to the health facilities due to the delay and discomfort resulting from the poor state of the roads.
Madam Samata Samad further lamented the hurdle expectant mothers go through when in labour and are transported through the bumpy, muddy and rutted roads for skilled delivery at the health facilities.
“Sometimes, some of the women deliver on the way but in pain and agony, and most of them contend with their lives if at all the newborns are safe,” she lamented.
The residents, therefore, appealed to the government, District Assembly and benevolent individuals and organizations in the health sector to come to their courteous aid.
Meanwhile, the Wa East District Chief Executive, Dr Suleman Ewura Kandia Mahama, in an earlier reaction to the road concerns by the residents of Yaru, said the district authorities were considering building a health facility at the community to reduce the hurdle of traversing poor roads to access primary healthcare services.
The United Nations Agenda 2030 Goal 3 enjoins member states to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” and this includes ease of access to healthcare services.
Thus, the present state of accessing healthcare services by residents of Yaru in the Wa East District falls short of this global health objective.