Blog Contributor:
Morgana Wingard
Feb 6th, 2012 10:53 AM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
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This piece is cross-posted from Morgana Wingard’s Wanderlust blog.
In Ghana, 8 out of 10 children under the age of five and 3 out of 10 adult women suffer from some form of malnutrition, including stunting, wasting, and/or deficiencies in iron, iodine, and vitamin A. I recently visited Nyankpala Community Management of Acute Malnutrition in Tamale, Ghana, a Health Service (GHS) project that integrates and promotes community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) services and supplies.
With funds from USAID and UNICEF, GHS has established support units for acute malnutrition at the national, regional and district levels. Between 2008 and 2011, Ghana has increased CMAM from two learning sites in two districts to 403 sites in 31 districts. In total, 2,040 health care providers have been trained on CMAM services and 5,973 children with severe acute malnutrition have been admitted to the program. Of these children 71 percent were cured, 2 percent died, and 1 percent did not recover; 26 percent failed to follow up.
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Jan 27th, 2012 12:31 PM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
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Life happens here at the Tema Clinic in Accra, Ghana. Babies trade a death sentence for life. Mothers transform their sickly skeleton figures to healthy, able bodies. Tema offers hope in a place that was once hopeless and ravaged by AIDS.
Funded by the Global Fund through financial support from Product (RED), Tema Hospital cares for 2,200 people living with HIV. We recently visited their facility again –- their work never ceases to amaze me. The Global Fund make it possible for the hospital to provide ARV treatment and PMTCT (prevention of mother-to-child-transmission). Thanks to these interventions, only 4 percent of babies at Tema with HIV-positive mothers are born with the virus.
SEE ALSO: Tema Clinic in Accra, Ghana
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Jan 25th, 2012 4:26 PM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
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Photographer Morgana Wingard reports on a USAID-funded water project in Afadjtator, Ghana.
When I wake up, I groggily roll out of bed, and half-asleep, I jump into a hot shower. Then, I fill up my water bottle with cold water from the tap, brush my teeth with water from the faucet, and wash my hands. These simple amenities that we take for granted are truly luxuries. Because in Africa, 70 to 80 percent of disease is related to water. Most people don’t have a faucet with running water, or even clean water nearby that they can drink or brush their teeth with.
We visited a joint project with USAID and Rotary International that provides clean water to thousands of people in Afadjtator, Ghana. As we arrived, the townsfolk swarmed us with welcoming cheers. Though we didn’t build the wells they are benefiting from, our tax dollars did. The United States is contributing approximately $13.4 million to improve water and sanitation in Ghana over the next four years. And thanks to this join project in Afadjtator, 86,000 more people will be able to wake up in the morning and get a glass of clean water.
Captions, from top to bottom and right to left: New well build through the joint water and sanitation project with USAID and Rotary International; Woman from the community carrying water from the well back to her house; Ed Goeas walks with children from the community; Jen Pihlaja walks with children from the community; Women filling up at the new water pump; Sheila Nix, ONE’s US Executive Director cuts the ribbon with local chiefs for the newest water pump in the community; Laurie Moskowitz, ONE’s Senior Director of US campaigns, laughs with local community members.
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Jan 21st, 2012 9:00 AM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
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This piece is cross-posted from Morgana Wingard’s Wanderlust blog.
During a recent trip to Uganda, I met the hardworking cooks of Amazima –- Nancy, Joanne, and Josephine. You think it’s hard to cook for your family? Trying cooking for more than 400. These women sweat over massive cauldrons of rice, beans and chicken every Saturday to feed children from the community.
It’s part of a larger program called Amazima Ministries –- a US-based nonprofit. According to the latest UN stats from 2009, there are an estimated 2.7 million orphans in Uganda. Amazima’s founder, Katie Davis, started the organization at merely 19 to feed, educate and encourage these vulnerable children. To learn more, visit http://www.amazima.org/.
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Oct 20th, 2011 10:06 AM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
Oct 3rd, 2011 3:19 PM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
Sep 26th, 2011 1:49 PM UTC
By Morgana Wingard
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This piece is cross-posted from Morgana Wingard’s Wanderlust blog.
The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) dreams of a world without HIV. In fact, they don’t just dream about it. They’re doing something about it. They live to contribute to the process of preventing HIV infection, restoring hope and improving the quality of life of persons, families and communities affected by HIV in Uganda. Recently, I jumped in a truck with some TASO support staff to visit one of their remote clinics outside the capitol of Uganda, Kampala.
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