In order to address the high incidence of diabetes in Ghana, from 2017 to 2020, the Rotary club of Hoppers Crossing was actively involved in running four diabetic workshops in Ghana.
These diabetes educational workshops have helped educate 340 health professionals in the diagnosis, treatment and care of diabetes.
At the recent Rotary achievement event in June 2021 representatives from Rotary Hoppers Crossing were delighted to hear an announcement by the District 9800 Governor stating that our Club was a recipient of a Recognition Award for its Diabetes Education project in Ghana.
The project involved running diabetes seminars in Ghana over four years from 2017-2020. Three of the seminars were undertaken in partnership with the Accra Ring Road Club in Ghana together with specialist medical staff from the Ghana Society of Paediatrics, Endocrinology and Diabetes. A fourth seminar was organised and managed by Gifty Dade a member of the Hoppers Crossing Club. These seminars are of considerable importance as Ghana is an African country with a population of 31 million and a high incidence of diabetes of 6.4%. The figure for Impaired Glucose Tolerance is even higher at 10.7%, indicating that many people remain undiagnosed or are pre-diabetic. The project was funded by a Foundation Global grant from District 9800 with contributions from the Accra Ring Road Club and Hoppers Crossing Rotary.
The seminars held from 2017-2019 were organised and managed by Dr Emmanuel Ameyaw and a team of Health Care specialists in Ghana. The workshop run by Gifty Dade in 2020 had the objective of updating Nurses and Midwives on their knowledge, practices and management of diabetes care. This workshop fulfilled a very important role as the workshop was in line with the International Diabetes Federation theme for 2020: “Nurses Make the Difference” and the World Health Organization declaration of 2020 as the year for Nurses and Midwives. All seminars provided health professionals with additional knowledge, skills and information to diagnose, treat and care for people who have been diagnosed with diabetes.
In order to assess the effectiveness of the seminars, a survey of workshop attendees in 2019 gave the content of the lectures a rating of 55% for Excellence and 42% for Very Good. Overall satisfaction rated 42% Excellent score and 38% for a Very Good rating. For the survey undertaken at the October 2020 seminar, 80% indicated that they strongly agreed that the seminar met their expectations. There was a similar rating of 80% for the content and the experience gained from the workshop. The excellent ratings indicate that the workshops were successful in providing important new information to Health Professionals on all aspects of Diabetes in Ghana. They also have had a big impact as it was estimated that 27,000 people had benefited from the advice and information provided to those who attended the seminars.
Article submitted by the International Committee – Dr Bob Fairclough (Chairperson), Nik Tsardakis, Aziz Arshad and Dr George Dade, 2020-21 President of the Hoppers Crossing Club.