Joseph Wemakor: My encounter with Erin Banco the global health reporter from US to Ghana

Experiences of most events are likely to be forgotten but certainly not about the wonderful encounter I’ve had with one of America’s finest and top journo who equally doubles as the world’s acclaimed health reporter during her visit to Ghana on Thursday April 21, 2022.

Erin Banco is the Global Health Correspondent at Politico; a political journalism company based in Arlington Country, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally.

She is a prolific writer and a celebrated journalist (the recipient of the 2020 Forward under 40 Award among other prestigious accolades).

Her visit to Ghana for the first time ever lasted for only a short period of time, let’s say, about seven (7) days in total, but the experiences were quite eventful and the impact felt was so great!

She was in the country on an assignment to learn about USAID’s Global Ghana’s Vaxx program being enrolled by the government and the works of the Ghana Health Service, the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) including other stakeholders in health are doing to help administer Covid-19 vaccinations as well as check up on other health issues affecting Ghanaians (TB, Measles, HIV, Malaria etc.) and equally find out how the health system in Ghana is actually working.

My work, not only as an experienced fixer but equally an all-rounder journo availed me with the opportunity to rub shoulders with her and even go to places with her where she could fetch the stories having duly secured the authorization and permit required from the Ghanaian authorities (MoH/GHS etc.)

Even though she had secured an appointment with the Director General of the Ghana Health Service and the Minister of Health of Ghana earlier, our first point of call was the Salvation Army Medical Centre, one of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) health facility located at Ablorman, a rural community near Amasaman (a small town in the Ga West Municipal District of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana).

Our visit was fruitful as we were given a rousing welcome by the working staff on duty led by the administrator of the Centre.

We had interesting deliberations on their various roles they play as health practitioners and how their facility is committed to helping save lives in the community. In the end, we had a tour of their facility and a group photograph to seal our visit.

Our next stop was the University of Ghana Medical Centre where we met with its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Darius Osei who enlightened us on many positive achievements the facility has chalked as far as responding to Covid-19 emergency cases are concerned, saving lives including other interventions and measures it is exploring to ensure health issues are adequately resolved in the country.

We’ve indeed had a good time talking to other staff members playing critical roles in the facility and of course a fantastic tour of the entire facility by the support of Mad. Seyram Gold, a member of the Public Relations team to draw curtains on the day.

 In fact, I must confess that the PR Unit of the Centre was very instrumental and supportive. Kudos to Madam Barbara Owusu-Hemeng, the Head of the PR Department for the wonderful facilitation.

We left Accra early the next morning and journeyed all the way to the Biakoye Health Directorate situated in the Oti Region of Ghana where we’ve made a stop over at the Worawora Government Hospital.

This actually marks the second day of our exploration on the row as far as the assignment is concerned. Here, we’ve discovered a lot of interesting happenings which I wouldn’t want to share with you here and now, but to say, Oti Region is fantastic and the healthcare delivery agenda is on course to bring change as far as fighting covid-19 and defeating it completely and other diseases are concerned.

However, on the third day of our escapade, we flew by air to Tamale in the Northern Region (Sunday April 24, 2022) made it straight to Bolgatanga thereafter to finally connect to Bongo where we made a stop over to fraternize with Mr. Stephen Bordotsiah, the District Director of Health Service of the Bongo District Directorate of the Upper East Region of Ghana. He was in the company of his staff members including other health practitioners in the district.

Here, we’ve had the opportunity to also tour one of the health centres in the area where covid-19 vaccination jabs are often administered by the healthcare officials.

Throughout our conversation, we’ve realized that they have made a tremendous stride as far as the fight against covid-19 is concerned. This is a story that might interest you to know about. Just stay tuned for that, don’t shake.

Interestingly, we drove back to Tamale in the evening to rest and continue our journey the next day since the distance from Tamale to Bongo by road and back is long long lasting for almost three (3) hours approximately.

Our final destination to round up our entire trip and for that matter the Northern Region was the King’s Medical Centre at Kumbungu, a small town near Tamale where we had an opportunity to meet up with the Medical Superintendent of the Centre Dr. Wenceslas Apugu in the company Simon Ayamba, Senior Nurse Practitioner, Naomi Abilla, Ag. Administrator, Naana Nurrah Fuseini, the pharmacist and other supporting staff members who briefed us on their operations within their facility.

The revelations were amazing and we’ve equally had a nice time touring their whole facility and listening to the experiences as far as their work is concerned.

We’ve discovered that the facility is also part (member) of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) and a lot of interventions the Centre is implementing to improve healthcare delivery in the e area as well as the whole Northern Region.

Well, our trip has been a very successful one if you care to know and I’m so glad I’ve made your day with this write-up of mine just to throw light on how we’ve made it through.

Anyway, this is just a scratch on the surface of the news. To get to read about the whole fascinating news stories and the mind blowing discoveries we have encountered together as a team, why don’t you log on now to:  https://www.politico.com

These riveting accounts on Ghana’s health system and more can only be best revealed to you by my guest, Erin Banco herself in her reports.

But don’t forget, always remember to get in touch with me from any part of the world you find yourself just in case you need my service to take you around to places in order to make your stay a memorable or enjoyable one either in Ghana or elsewhere.

Authored by Joseph Wemakor

The writer is an experienced fixer, all-rounder journo and a human rights activist.