Children with cerebral palsy need Government attention

A care-giver of a child with cerebral palsy has called on the government to facilitate centres for children with cerebral palsy. Mr Emmanuel Asante, Care-giver and grandfather of a five year old girl with cerebral palsy is urging government to facilitate the creation of centres for children with cerebral palsy.

He further called for services such as physiotherapy services and other therapy services to be extended to homes of children with cerebral palsy to enhance their quality of life.

“Children with cerebral palsy tend to get heavier as they grow and it becomes almost impossible to carry them for services such as physiotherapy in the hospitals,” Mr Asante said in an interview with the media.

Mr Asante a pensioner who is struggling to take care of her five year old grand-daughter said it was important to train parents with basic skills in physiotherapy to prevent the children from getting contractures due to care givers inability to take them for services they need.

Having centres for children with cerebral palsy for instance in every district will also enable the parents to leave their children in good hands to enable them work and earn a living.

Mr Asante said it will be absurd for him to even think of sending her granddaughter to school but having a centre for the children will give the family a lot of relief

Recounting his journey as a primary care-giver for her granddaughter, he said “her condition put a huge strain on our finances, we use to take her for physiotherapy services at Korle-bu but as she grew older, we could no longer afford the cost.”

He explained that he always had to hire a taxi to take her in addition to the cost of the physiotherapy; we could no longer afford the drugs such as anticonvul-sants.

Five year old Nhyira with cerebral palsy now needs an urgent surgery, she is deaf and blind. Mr Asante urged government to support families with children who have cerebral palsy by including them as beneficiaries of the disability funds.

He also called on the public to come to their aid and help put a smile on Nhyira’s face.

“Having a child with cerebral palsy requires a lot of finances, yet many parents and care-givers are unable to work since they have to take care of these children all the time,” he added

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that affects the movement and sometimes speech of children.

Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Initiator of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme on cerebral palsy in Ghana, said there was the need for an umbrella body that coordinated the activities of individual organizations working on cerebral palsy.

Such coordination she said will help point parents and care givers to the right services they need and will enhance the advocacy campaign.

 

Examination bodies deserve credit for clean exams

Desperate parent

Sadly those who contribute the most to this unfortunate situation at the end of which the whole country turns round to blame the Exams Council are the parents and students themselves. In our university days the academic year was broken into three terms. There were no end of term exams. All the first year studies were examined at the end of the third term in what was called the First University Exams, the dreaded FUE. In the second year the BA/BSc Part One exam was again written at the end of the third term and the BA/BSc Part Two exam was written at the end of the third term of the third year. Students told stories and had fun in the first two terms of each year and then went into overdrive in the second half of the third term to cram lessons taught since the beginning of the year. Mental breakdowns and other anxiety and pressure related illnesses were common the few weeks before the exams.

In many homes, especially in urban areas, parents do not monitor the studies of their children. In fact, in many homes parents cannot be bothered about the studies of their children virtually throughout basic school and would not step in to support their children develop a study plan and use it to prepare themselves for the exams. Children in their final year in Junior High School spend more time at home playing, watching TV and doing other things rather than studying. And their parents would to nothing about.

Both students and parents would then panic on the approach of the exam and seek any means possible to ensure their children passed well so that they could go to good schools. Some parents have been involved in accessing exam questions illegally and causing the leakages which have resulted in the cancellation of papers of some centres or the entire country.

In 2014 – or so – IBIS, a Danish NGO, facilitated a workshop that brought together DCEs and District Directors of Education in Northern Region to review the poor performance of schools in the region in the BECE and to discuss the factors contributing to that. Whereas Tamale Metropolis and Sagnarigu District had an excess of 2,000 trained teachers, the region as a whole had a shortfall of over 7,000 trained teachers. Students in Bunkpurugu, a rural district with a shortage of trained teachers, did far better than students in Tamale metropolis and Savelugu municipality.

The Directors of Education provided the rationale for this picture. Students in the municipalities and metropolis spent a lot of time watching TV, videos, playing computer and other games. While their colleagues in the rural areas studied. At a meeting between parents, students and teachers of our son’s school, one teacher advised parents to particularly control how their children watched the latest TV craze, telenovellas. Each Broadcaster – TV3, GTV, Metro, UTV, Viasat1 – has its own telenovella. They are addictive and distract learning.

When parents and their children have conspired to give the study time of their children to fun, they then turn to take short cuts to ensure their children pass the BECE very well, having their cake and eating it. What is the shortcut to a successful heart surgery? There is none. The surgeons just have to spend several hours sometimes, standing, following processes methodically, to achieve success. Can we imagine the chaos in this country if all the surgeons did not really study to pass their exams but simply passed their exam through unfair means? See how our farmers spend long hours in the scorching sun sometimes engaged in physically demanding labour in order to produce food. But some parents and some students want to have excellent grades without any effort. And that means seeking advanced knowledge of the exam questions or getting support in the exam hall to answer the questions.

This year’s West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination was also a vast improvement upon the years’. Parents and candidates and conscientious school heads would have heaved a sigh at the end of it. The results are yet to be released so it is not yet known whether any results would be cancelled or withheld. But to WAEC and the stakeholders of that exam too, we say congratulations.

 

Health & Well-being

Role of Oats porridge in maintaining shiny hair

Shinning, soft beautiful hair doesn’t tangle: we all love to have it, but everyone is blessed with a different hair.

Luckily, things are quite that simple. The most important fact to remember is that, before beauty, comes health. So a beautiful hair has to be a healthy one. And keeping it healthy depends on more than just washing it.

For a start, your hair needs regular nourishment – Vitamin B5 in particular. Oats porridge contains Vitamin B5. That is why a daily bowl of oats can really help to make your hair shiny.  What if you don’t like oats porridge?  What if you don’t have breakfast due to lateness to work?!

There is another way to nourish your hair regularly, which has no bearing at all on what you eat. Hair Treatment Shampoo and Conditioners which contains Vitamin B5 complex, Pantyl B. Vitamin B5 complex nourishes hair by penetrating all the way to the very trip.

Every hair has three layers; the outer one called the cuticle, which is made of overlapping cells arranged like scales. Their function is to protect the inner layer from damage or moisture loss.

When your hair is healthy, the cuticle is smooth and flat. That is why it looks shinny and feels silky-soft. It is when the cuticle scales get broken or raised that the problem begins and your hair looks dull and rough. It tangles too easily and it crackles the moment you start brushing it. You would be surprise how easy it damages hair cuticle.

Styling and blow-dying can both be harmful but believe it not so can combing. So even if you eat all the right foods and are a complete goody-goody, simply combing your hair can end up making it look worse.

What to do? Try using Treatment Shampoo and Conditioner or all-in-one, every day.  Within a short time, you see the difference.

Regular use of these Treatment Shampoo and Conditioner will keep your hair looking shinier and   softer. Or to put it another way, it will look healthier.

 

How to choose an exercise video

 

There is no shortage of exercise options. Walking, running, biking, swimming, strength training, group fitness classes among others.  What if you have time constraints caused by a busy home and work life?

Or you live in a rural area and the closest gym is 100 miles away? What if you are too shy to ask about the fitness classes at your local gym, let alone actually walk in to one?

Luckily, another option is available to people who want to enjoy the benefit of exercise but prefer to do it from the comfort of their home. Exercise videos are a good alternative to gym membership when there are monetary or logistic concerns. While some videos are boring or hard to follow, there are many that are well-produced and have the marks of a seasonal, professional fitness instructor.

Before you warm up the VCR however, you should make sure that the video you choose is right for you.  Exercise tapes are like running shoes; one size does not fit all. You might get claustrophobic just thinking a step routine in a 3ft by 5ft living room space.

Keep goals in perspective

While videos can motivate and inspire you to understand that they can’t shut your kitchen cabinet door or magically melt way 40 pounds in three weeks.

It’s very important not to give in to all the hyped marketing surrounding many videos that may make unsubstantiated promises. In fact, any videos that promises quick weight loss or instant results is probably unsafe and should be avoided.

If you are really interested in purchasing a video, do some research and find out if one of your friends has the same video, or if your local video store carries it. That way, you can try it before you buy it. When starting out, look for boxes that indicate the video is for beginners. Choosing an intermediate or advanced tape could be frustrating and lead to discontinuation of programme.

Exercise is good for women

 

A large-scale, six-year study involving 39,372 women over age 44 confirms that exercise reduces the risk of coronary heart diseases in women.

The study found that the more energy women spent exercising, the lower the risk of developing heart disease, including hearts attacks, regardless of other factors.

Among the approximately 23,000 women who did not engage in any vigorous activity, women who walked as little as one our per week had about half the risk of more sedentary women of development heart disease intensity was less of a factor than the total amount of time spent walking.

 

Low-Fat not always better

Women who follow a low-fat diet may not be getting as many essential nutrients as they should.

More than half the women who reduced their fat intake to less than 30 per cent of total calories were short changing on vitamins A and E, calcium, folic acid, iron and zinc. This in trun places them at greater risk for osteoporosis, pregnancy-related problems and perhaps, certain types of cancer.

While a low-fat diet is recommended for the prevention of obesity, breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease, following a low-fat at the expense of nutrients is not a wise choice. Instead, women and men as well should follow a diet that is varied and balanced, low in fat and high in essential nutrients.

For some, supplementation may be in order. For other, simply choosing high-nutrients foods over high-sugar low-fat foods can make a positive difference in overall health.