In May 2020, MEMHREP outreach team went on their usual outreach program at Asafo to feed ‘Nyame
Adehye3’ and the vulnerable people on the streets of Kumasi.
On our way to the Asafo Interchange, the team went further to the Asafo – Adum Rails to feed the
vulnerable people around the vicinity. As the team moved on further, we came across a pregnant
woman lying beside one of the abandoned train. We went closer and she told us her name, Agnes,
how she has been suffering and how she has not been able to go to the ante-natal since 28weeks
of her pregnancy.
Three days after meeting her, MEMHREP health team went to take her from the Asafo Rails and sent
her to the Manhyia Health Insurance Office to be registered on the National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS). She was taken to the Manhyia Government Hospital for her ante-natal. There, she
was made to go for scan and labs. The lab detected traces of drugs in her blood. Since then, she
went for ante-natal every two weeks with MEMHREP taking charge of every expense (medication,
transportation and feeding).
On June 22, 2020, this pregnant service user delivered a beautiful baby girl at the Manhyia
Government Hospital. Two days after, MEMHREP health team went to the hospital to have her
discharged. We purchased baby items and clothes as well as food items for their upkeep. Items
like toiletries, baby cloth, towel, sponge, cream, baby diapers, yam, rice, soap, among others
were purchased.
Before Agnes and baby were sent to MEMHREP’s office, letters were sent to the Department of
Social Welfare, Zongo Police, Manhyia Government Hospital Welfare and other Organizations that
matter.
After Agnes’s delivery, MEMHREP then decided not to take her back to her former place with the
newborn baby so the team together with the Administration and the Chief Executive Officer
decided to send her and the baby temporarily to MEMHREP’s office till a proper arrangement is
made ready for their accommodation.
Ever since the service user and baby got to their temporal apartment (MEMHREP’s office), MEMHREP
has been taking care of her and the baby. We provide food items for them every week.
On 8th July 2020, a team was sent from the Department Of Social Welfare in the Kumasi Metropolis
to MEMHREP’s office to check and interview Agnes as to how she was living before and after
MEMHREP’s intervention. Through the conversation, Agnes was asked how she came to Kumasi from
her place, her lifestyle and everything that has to do with her life. Agnes explained how she
lost her parents and was sent to live with her grandmother.
When she turned 12 years, her aunt
brought her to Kejetia, gave her GHS10.00 and left her to fend for herself. She stayed at
Pampaso and sold water from the wife of one Police officer who owned a shop at Pampaso. Agnes
continued to narrate her story and told how she had been sleeping in front of the stores around
Pampaso.
She met a man who wanted to help her, she said. She stayed with him in a relationship until a
friend introduced her to one Daniel Owusu who brought her to Asafo Rails. Daniel was a driver
until he met his untimely death through accident whiles Agnes was two months pregnant with his
bay. Ever since the father of her unborn baby died, she had to struggle to make ends meet.
A conversation went on between Agnes, the service user and Mary, a community nurse of MEMHREP
and she confessed she had been in drugs before and that she used to take weed and alcohol.
Food items and baby needs are made available to Agnes and baby every week.