On Day 5 of our listening/learning trip to Africa, we visited the Tema General Hospital (a (RED)/Global Fund site), located 22 miles outside of Accra in the largest port, industrial city in Ghana. Built in 1954, the hospital is currently undergoing renovations in an effort to better serve the increasing number of patients. An eye care center was recently completed and the Minister of Health just announced plans to construct a new, modern maternity block.

These are some photos from a PMTCT (prevent mother-to-child transmission) program funded by the Global Fund. The PMTCT program at Tema General Hospital provides voluntary counseling, testing, treatment and services to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

-Morgana Wingard

Another on-the-ground post from the delegation traveling through Ethiopia and Ghana this week, this time from Maggie Williams. Learn more about the trip here.

There have been miracle days on this trip.  Yesterday, for me, most of the miracle took place at the Tema General Hospital in Tema, Ghana.  The hospital is a dynamic, living, breathing place, where women and their children are loved and taken care of.  Mothers with HIV find hope and help for both their lives and the lives of their children. Tema identifies women with HIV, gets them into treatment and helps them deliver and care for their healthy babies.  Maybe we just caught the Tema staff on a good day, but they make this very tough work look and feel like a labor of love.

Small simple counseling, testing, and treatment rooms line the hallways. Bigger rooms are used for waiting, dispensing medicine, and perhaps more importantly, for sharing the company of other women.

But particularly seared into my brain are the pictures of the Ghanaian women who are the nurses, doctors and technicians.  These professional women are master organizers.  They are customer service savvy, heavily invested in making things work for their clients.  They understand the emotional and economic challenges these families face.  They are the kind of women who post their goals along the walls and reach them.

I feel honored to have met them.

-Maggie Williams

Cross-posted from our friends at the (RED) Blog who are currently travelling with ONE through Ghana. Day 4 of our listening/learning trip.

After an incredibly educational trip to Ethiopia, we have finally made our way to one of the four countries that (RED) money is working in – Ghana. Boy, it’s HOT here!

Today we’re planning on visiting facilities that are funded by the Global Fund and supported by (RED) – I’m really looking forward to seeing our (RED) money at work. (RED) money goes directly to The Global Fund which invests it in HIV/AIDS programs on the ground in Africa. We’re very proud of the fact that the every cent of the donation that any of our (PRODUCT) RED partners such as Apple or Gap sends to the Global Fund from the sale of a (RED) product gets to Africa –no overhead is taken out.

We are on our way to see two hospitals where we will learn more about HIV testing, counseling, and ARV treatment. One of the hospitals focuses on prevention of mother to child transmission and hopefully we will get to meet some of the mothers and their infants who have successfully completed the transmission treatment. More than 70,000 HIV positive pregnant women have received preventative antiretroviral therapy to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission due to support from funds from the Global Fund and (RED) so this will mean a lot to us.

Our trip so far has been amazing. We have met so many people here that are affected by a variety of challenges and yet still stay so strong, determined and hopeful in the face of their adversity. Meeting them has been my favorite part so far. We’ll be reporting back later on today’s visits.

Molly @ (RED)