Chapter Profiles GlobeMed at Northwestern Unviersity
Our Partner - The H.O.P.E. Center // Ho, Ghana
Constructed in 2007, the H.O.P.E. Center is a primary health clinic in Ho, Ghana that serves a population of roughly 4,000. Services include child welfare clinics, child immunizations, first line drug treatment , family planning and testing and counseling services. A partnership between Ghana Health Service (GHS) and GlobeMed at Northwestern, the H.O.P.E. Center is staffed by GHS nurses with support for projects and running costs provided by GlobeMed at Northwestern.
In summer 2009, a 3D model of the Centre was created to enable GlobeMedders to virtually explore the Centre as it appears in actuality (http://virtualclinicsite.org).Visitors can take a virtual flight to Ghana to the H.O.P.E. Centre through a Google Earth interface. Visitors can also view narrated video tours that integrate video footage from the actual Centre with animations of the virtual clinic to understand how the space is organized and utilized on a routine basis. Visitors may also explore the virtual clinic independently through the Google Sketchup Interface. Check all this out and more at http://virtualclinicsite.org!
Current Project - Child Nutrition and Peer Education Program
The H.O.P.E. Center currently supports two health projects:
The child nutrition project uses locally grown soybeans to fortify the diets of malnourished children. Currently, 1 in 5 children in the catchment area surrounding the H.O.P.E. Center are malnourished. Nurses educate mothers on healthy feeding practices and how to incorporate soybean powder supplements into the diet through demonstrations, and also conduct home visits. Supplements are given to children under five, and interested mothers are given seeds to plant soybeans on their own farms to promote sustainability. Additionally, mothers from surrounding villages are trained to become peer educators, monitoring crop growth and child development in their communities.
The clinic also offers voluntary testing and counseling services through an adolescent sexual health resource center. Students from surrounding schools are trained as peer educators to promote sexual and reproductive health knowledge. Because of its discrete location away from the town center, the H.O.P.E. Center is an ideal resource for teens seeking testing and counseling services.
Our Impact
- provide primary health services to roughly 4,000 in Ho, Ghana
- distribute soybean powder to hundreds of underweight children to supplement carbohydrate-heavy diets
- monitor 25 severely malnourished children in the surrounding catchment area
- train 100 student sexual health peer educators each year
- have active chapter of over 50 university students
Get Involved
For more ways to get involved in GlobeMed at Northwestern, email us at northwestern@globemed.org!
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