Accra, Jan. 21, GNA - The local Black Stars managed a 1-0 win over Ethiopia to progress to the quarter finals of the Championship of Africa Nations (CHAN) on Tuesday.A 76th minute goal by Kwabena Adusei's from the spot after Seidu Bancey was fouled in the penalty box separated both sides.The win ensures Ghana qualifies out of Group C leading on seven points despite coming off second best as the Ethiopians stayed in the driving seat through out.Ethiopia controlled the game with captain Adane Girma leading the attack, which put pressure on the Ghana’s back line effortlessly .Ghana's goalie Stephen Adams was put to test with Girma coming close to finding the back of the net many times.Ghana's first opportunity at goal came when Adusie almost put the Stars ahead six minutes after the hour mark.Ghana awaits the runner up of Group D for the last eight meeting on Saturday.GNA

Accra, Jan. 21, GNA – The Lebanese Community in Ghana has opted to sponsor children of Ghanaian soldiers who paid the ultimate price (death) in the course of serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).A Ministry of Defence statement signed by Col C. B. Ankomah-Danso, Director of Public Affairs and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said, the Minister of Defence, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, has expressed gratitude to the Lebanese community for such a kind and thoughtful gesture.Mr Ali H. Halabi, the Lebanese Ambassador to Ghana explained that the gesture was in recognition and appreciation of the tremendous sacrifices Ghanaian troops have made to Lebanon since the inception of the Peace Support Operations Mission.Mr Halabi acknowledged that: “It was high time this gesture was extended to the children of soldiers who had paid the ultimate price for peace in Lebanon.”Mr Halabi said the Lebanese community currently sponsors some Ghanaian students at the university of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).GNA

Accra , Jan 21, GNA - Funny Face, the ace Ghanaian comedian, has said he is happy to be associated with Vodafone, since the television commercial, dubbed Vodafone ‘Red,’ has enhanced his brand.Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, the award winning comedian and actor said the concept, storyline and production of the Red commercial, were very well executed and it is creating awareness for his brand.“Look at the Red commercial, the concept, storyline and production were executed very well and it is enjoying massive airtime on various television stations and that is creating top of mind awareness for my brand,” he said.Funny Face said he is heavily pushing the Red on all his social media pages as it is economically prudent to stick to one sim instead of owning multiple sim cards.“Funny Face naturally doesn’t sign up to anything, I sign up to good things, and Red is a good thing so when I was called to join Red,. I didn’t think twice,” he said.He said the response of his fans on social media with regard to the Red advert has been overwhelming and people are using the quotes from the television commercial.“I follow almost 61,000 people on Twitter but close to 40,000 are crazy about Red – they are using choose Red as their profile picture,” he added.In the commercial, Funny Face urges his classmate who broke her nail as a result of swapping sims in her phone, to subscribe to Vodafone ‘Red,’ an all-inclusive package and enjoy unrivaled minutes to call people on Vodafone, other networks and overseas. He also mentions that Red includes data to browse the internet and send text messages.The Red product was unveiled by Vodafone Ghana in December last year, to enable their customers get an all-inclusive package that meets their individual lifestyles, and also reduce ‘multi-simming’.Red comes in four offers, Red Life Weekly, Red Rush, Red Hot and Red Classic.GNA

Accra, Jan. 21, GNA – World Vision Ghana, a child-centred Christian humanitarian aid organization, on Tuesday, urged government to increase funding for the health sector in accordance with the Abuja Declaration.Mr Hubert Charles, National Director of World Vision Ghana, said in spite of government's pledge to spend 15 per cent of its national budget on health, government expenditure on health was still around 12 per cent of its total expenditure.Mr Charles who was briefing the Media on world Vision's 'Child Health Now Campaign,' yet to be launched, said per capita expenditure on health was only 325 dollars, while out-of-pocket expenditure was 27 per cent of total health expenditure.He stressed the need for all partners to collaborate to work towards scaling up of health interventions to ensure quality maternal and child health in the country.He said this would ensure the scaling up of health interventions including funding, for the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Four, Five and Six, by the year 2015.The National Director said, World Vision recognizes the gaps that exist within the health care delivery system, and intends to support in fixing some of the challenges through the Child Health Now Campaign, to particularly assist those that affect women and children in rural communities.He, therefore, called for enhanced efforts to reduce morbidity and mortality from preventable infections and under nutrition among mothers, new-borns, and children under five years.Mr Charles, said World Vision wants government to speed up interventions to improve the quality and accessibility of health services, with a particular focus on poor and marginalized communities.This, he said, calls for the placement of equitable access to health services on the agenda of District Management Teams, to address major challenges of inadequate human resources.He said World Vision believes that this would also address the human resource gaps in rural health facilities, including improving incentive packages to attract personnel, and therefore advised government to reform the National Health Insurance Scheme financing system to ensure that all, especially the poor, could afford insurance, and take action to ensure accountability, efficiency and sustainability of the system.He said this calls for the prioritisation of proven interventions to improve nutrition in the national health and development agendas, and make them available to all children and mother, particularly the most vulnerable.He also urged government to increase funding and ensure the rational use of funding for essential drugs, promote local production of essential drugs in line with the Abuja Declaration, and improve co-ordination of procurement to prevent stock outs.The National Director urged government to ensure the implementation of the child health policy on the effective prevention and treatment of pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, including antibiotics that could be administered at the community level.Mr Charles said the organisation also believes that increasing the capacity of communities to take first line critical actions was crucial, to promote and protect the health of children, women and the most vulnerable, and urged government to intensify efforts towards the achievement of these objectives.He said World Vision intends to partner with other organisations to expand education for families and communities on good nutrition and health practices, to improve health-seeking behaviour, empower families and communities to demand quality and effective health service delivery.“We also seek to support effective community monitoring systems to identify signs of faltering growth in children under five and work with care givers to implement corrective actions,” he said.Mr Micah Olad, National Child Health Project Co-ordinator of World Vision Ghana explained that the Organisation’s global initiatives to promote child and maternal nutrition had been embodied in its Child Health Now campaign.The campaign, he said was part of efforts aimed at achieving a two-thirds reduction in child mortality figures by the year 2015, which was in line with the MDG Four.He indicated that although Ghana had made some improvement in child and maternal health over the last two decades, the progress had been relatively slow because mothers and children were still dying from preventable causes.He enumerated some of the causes of maternal mortality as haemorrhage and hypertension, most of which could be prevented through relatively inexpensive and proven measures.Mr Olad further indicated that children less than five years were also dying from neonatal causes such as pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea, yet only half of these children with suspected cases of pneumonia were taken to the appropriate healthcare providers, and less than a quarter receive antibiotics.According to him statistics from the recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey show that under-five mortality rates decreased from 121 deaths per every 1,000 live births in 1990 to 78 deaths per 1,000 live births in 201, while infant and neonatal mortality rates also declined by a similar margin, yet there were still large Regional disparities.He said in 2008, the rate for the entire nation was 80 deaths per 1,000, however, the Central, Northern and Upper West Regions experienced much higher rates with 108, 137 and 142 deaths per every 1,000 live births, respectively.“Almost one-third of children under five years old are stunted and one in eight new-borns are born with a low birth weight. The presence of stunting has remained fairly consistent over the past decade,” he said.It is estimated that about 40 per cent of deaths among children less than five years old were either directly or indirectly due to under nutrition.The maternal mortality ratio on the other hand improved from 580 deaths per every 100,000 births in 1990 to 350 deaths in 2010 owing to the fact that 57 per cent of births were assisted by a skilled attendant, “however this number is distorted by the massive inequalities between urban and rural areas and the richest and poorest households, he said.Mr Olad noted that any form of intervention in the area of access calls for collective efforts by all partners and stakeholders, including the Media, to enhance public education to ensure attitudinal change.GNA

Sekondi (W/R), Jan. 21, GNA — More than 500 pigs have been infected with African Swine Fever (ASF) in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region.The Western Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr Victor Oko Nai, made the disclosure during heads of department meeting at Sekondi on Tuesday, to take stock of last year’s activities and strategise for the year.He said the viral disease was detected last week and that all livestock infected with the disease would be slaughtered and burnt to prevent it from spreading to other communities outside the district.He indicated that three communities in the district had been affected, adding that farmers’ whose livestock had been affected would be registered and compensated.He cautioned farmers’ who livestock had been affected not to smuggle pig products outside or bring in new livestock to the community since fresh livestock could be infected.At Anochie alone, 512 pigs have been infected by the viral disease, while one family alone had 98 of his livestock infected by the deadly viral disease.African swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs and very similar in its clinical presentation to classical swine fever. The viruses are distinct and classified in different families.Some of the symptoms of the disease include vomiting, diarrhoea (sometimes bloody), reddening or darkening of the skin, particularly the ears and snout and gummed-up eyes. Other signs were laboured breathing and coughing abortion, still births and weak litters, weakness and unwillingness to stand.The Western Regional Epidemiologist, Dr. Rubin Tetteh, told the GNA that the disease is not endemic in the region, therefore communities that had not been affected by the disease could eat pork.He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has put in place remedial measures to avoid the spread of the disease, including disinfecting the pens of livestock affected by the disease, farmers observing 40 days sentinel period, cleaning of the pens of livestock, biological education of farmers and farmers avoid feeding livestock with waste food from restaurants.GNA