South Korean government pledges more support for northern Ghana

The South Korean Ambassador to Ghana, H.E Woon-Ki Lyeo, has reaffirmed his government’s intention to help confront the challenges facing the people of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) ecological zone.

Mr. Lyeo stressed that despite its meager resources, the South Korean embassy was still committed to helping address the numerous developmental problems in the SADA zone.

Mr. Lyeo made these remarks when he paid a courtesy call on the northern regional minister at the regional coordinating council as part of his working visit to the northern and upper east regions. He was accompanied by the South Korean International Corporation Agency (KOICA) and the UNICEF country representative.

The call was a prelude to the handing over of 45 motorcycles to the Ghana health service to ease the transportation challenges facing community health nurses in the region.

He said the South Korean government was committed to improving health care for newborns and quality education through capacity building of teachers, circuit supervisors and school management committees.

Mr. Lyeo exhorted the minister to have hope for a brighter future for the region because 50 years ago, South Korea was among the poorest countries in the world, but with the strong determination of the leadership and government coupled with community participation, the Republic of South Korea has emerged as one of the world’s most industrialized countries within five decades.

The people of SADA , Mr. Lyeo advised, can also use the same community support to build solidarity among the people in enhancing a sense of connectivity and encouraging the culture of sharing and caring.

So far, the embassy has spent 4 million U.S.dollars on capacity building and 9 million dollars on improving community-based primary healthcare by strengthening the Community Health-based Planning and Services (CHIPS)compounds.

The support Mr Lyeo explained, was part of the South Korean government’s global collaboration between KOICA and UNICEF which is concurrently going on in five countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Nepal.

Ghana, Woon-Ki Lyeo has worked with its development partners such as KOICA and stressed that, strong determination of leadership from government is needed to enhance the well-being of the vulnerable in communities. Mr. Abubakari thanked Mr. Lyeo for having the largest region with problems equal to its size at heart with the little resources at their disposal.

He said even though over dependency on foreign aid was not the sustainable way to address problems, the region needs a lot of support to improve nutritional level among children.

Mr. Abdallah re-echoed calls on health workers in the region to exhibit a high sense of professionalism in the discharge of their duties at the various health facilities.

The minister underscored the need for health workers to change their attitudes towards work and the handling of working tools. He said stakeholders and government can provide all the necessary tools for them, but without the right attitude and commitment, the tools will have no positive effect in service delivery.

The minister told health workers in the region that the government is aware of the numerous challenges facing them in their quest to provide healthcare for the people, especially the vulnerable in the rural communities.

Development, Mr Abubakari observed, is a progressive venture and cumulative as time goes on, adding that no government has been able to provide all the necessary things for workers to deliver service to their populace.

He said while development partners such as UNICEF and the people of South Korea are assisting, there is the need for the proper utilization of the support. “I personally believe that, when you are a professional who is ethically committed to the delivery of services, even without the adequate logistics the person will be able to do better than people with adequate logistics but without the right attitude and ethically not committed, as these will not yield any positive results”, the regional minister stated