By Jesse Owusu Ampah, GNA
Accra, Dec. 12, GNA – Oyeman Autoimmune Foundation, established by Mrs Emma Wilhelmina Halm Danso, has been adjudged the winner of the NGO in Health Philanthropy Award at the National Philanthropy Excellence Awards 2019.
The award was in recognition of the critical role the Foundation plays in the lives of people affected with autoimmune disorder.
Mrs Danso, the Executive Director, expressed gratitude to the awards committee for recognising her Foundation as the Best NGO in health philanthropy, which brings hope to persons affected by autoimmune disorders through advocacy, education, counselling, and fund raising.
“I dedicate the award to my husband and co-founder of the Foundation for his support and encouragement; through my battles with autoimmunity and also to the late Mrs Dorcas Asanoa Agble, Nee Tandoh, who suffered from the deadly autoimmune,” she added.
Autoimmune disorder occurs when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys healthy body tissues by mistake.
Sharing her own encounter with the disease, Mrs Danso said; “Personally, the joy of my National Service days was wrecked because most of the days are filled with pain, I could not understand nor explain.”
She said that affected her input even though she did her best, and that little did she know that years later, she would be diagnosed with the disease.
Mrs Danso said as a result the Foundation was borne to bring hope to persons directly and indirectly affected by the disorder, particularly Lupus, through advocacy, awareness creation, counselling, fundraising and medical assistance.
She said in 2017, the Ministry of Health legitimised Lupus as a serious public health concern by ratifying the World Lupus Day Proclamation.
She said Ghana needed a national lupus patient registry to collate data to identify the incidence and prevalence of the disease.
Mrs Danso expressed the hope that policy makers and stakeholders would enact relevant policies that would support people with autoimmune disease.
She said, however, that the Foundation would, through advocacy, generated broad-spectrum support for autoimmune healthcare in Ghana, through their call for the establishment of a national commission on autoimmune disorders.
She also called for a Centre for diagnosis and treatment of the disease and a scholarship scheme to support the training of autoimmune specialists.
GNA
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