Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Working together to raise stroke awareness in Ghana

The World Stroke Organization has a growing patient stroke support organization network across the world and in Ghana making connections within this network is helping to raise stroke awareness.



Clara Boatemaa, a 25 year old university student based in Oxford, England contacted the WSO about setting up a charity to support stroke awareness in Ghana. Clara comes from a small town in the suburb  of  Sunyani in Ghana. After the sudden death of her mother from a stroke in 2017, Clara became more aware of how unaware and uneducated people are about stroke in  Sunyani. She has now become passionate about educating people about this disease. 

WSO put Clara in touch with our stroke support organization member, Stroke Association Support Network- Ghana (SASNET Ghana) and together they organized a community stroke awareness programme in Odumase in the Sunyani municipality of the Brong Ahofo Region on 14th and 15th December, 2018.

Clara used the opportunity to raise stroke awareness in the community to mark her mother's one year anniversary.

The major causes of stroke in the community are hypertension, excessive alcohol intake, tobacco smoking and abuse of drugs.

SASNET- Ghana led by the Director of Operations Ad Adams Ebenezer with the support from the Ghana NCD Alliance, organized the two day awareness event in which 1,600 people participated.

On the first day of the programme, the team went on a walk through Odumase with the theme 'Odumase Up  Again After Stroke'. The team shared brochures on  prevention of stroke and other NCDs.

There were  free medical screenings and the common risk factor identified during the screening was elevated blood pressure.

The chiefs and the elders of the community attended the event and Clara was appointed as the SASNET- Ghana  ambassador for the UK. Clara has pledged to help SASNET - Ghana with its goal to establish a rehabilitation centre in the community to enable citizens to check their blood pressure and for people affected by stroke to access rehabilitation.


For more information on SASNET-Ghana visit http://www.strokeghana.org/

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