The Rotary Club with support from the Lions Club and Rotaract Club has extended optical services to residents of Amedzofe in the Ho West District of the Volta Region. 

The initiative spearheaded by the Rotary Club of Ho was to provide the residents an opportunity to examine their eyes and get the needed healthcare and advice, as optical services are scarce in the area. 

The medical outreach forms part of the Rotary Club of Ho’s objective to contribute toward achieving universal health coverage in the Volta Region. 

Thirty-one Rotary Clubs from Ghana, Togo, Benin and USA, 15 Rotaract Clubs and 3 Lions Clubs converged at the premises of the Evangelical Presbyterian College of Education at Amedzofe to participate in the outreach

The residents and student community were provided optical services and screened for hepatitis B, hypertension and diabetes. They were given free basic medication and counselling on diagnosed health conditions.  

The screening, which was done under an extremely foggy weather, recorded 1,242 beneficiaries. 

The President of the Rotary Club of Ho, Simon Fafali Awumey, said the outreach was part of a series of projects earmarked for the 2022/2023 Rotary Year. 

He explained that Amedzofe was chosen for the outreach to throw a spotlight on the tourism potential in the enclave and to provide health services to residents. 

“Amedzofe is a very cold area, as you can see the weather is very cold. While the health screening is going on, our members will have the opportunity to visit some of the tourist sites we have here in Amedzofe.

We have the Ote Waterfalls, the canopy walkway, forest trails and Mount Gemi”, he said. 

Rotarian Susana Kudjoe of the Ho Rotary Club said the exercise, which was massively patronized, would enable the beneficiaries to identify unknown health conditions and access the appropriate healthcare.

She expressed appreciation to the Club members for their commitment to the core objectives of their Rotary, by availing themselves to serve humanity.

The Co-Chair of Rotary Ghana, Andrews Ofusuhene, was elated about the outreach, turn out of Club and community members, hence described the outreach as the "first mega" of its kind in the country. 

He entreated the Rotary Community to use the remaining 10 months of the Rotary Calendar to embark on projects in any of the focus areas to serve the purpose of Rotary. 

Mr. Ofusuhene asserted that the outreach would not only impart healthcare in the area but would also have effects on the local economy, as the members would tour the various sites and spend money during their period of stay. 

“One critical aspect of Rotary which we look out for is economic development, that is another area of focus. Once we come here, we buy food, we slept in hotels. Some have gone out for tourist visits, some are climbing Mount Gemi and the likes”, he stated.  

About 128 pints of blood were raised for use by the Ho Teaching Hospital and Ketu South Municipal Hospital in Aflao.

The Rotary Club of Ho which has been in existence for about 37 years has undertaken about 200 projects across Volta and Oti Regions. 

The projects covered the areas of health, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, peace and conflict resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, economic development and environmental conservation.

It recently procured and donated a mobile clinic van to the Ho Teaching Hospital, at the cost of $198,000, undertaking a beautification project at the Rotary Center in Ho as part of its projects for the 2022/2023 Rotary Year. 

The year would also see the Club embarking on the Back to School Project, breast cancer screening and awareness project, donation of hampers to hospitals in the Ho Municipality, Rotary Public Image Project: Mounting of a Rotary Billboard in Ho, the Dzemeni Maternity Global Grant project among others.