Our Main Activities
World Prematurity Day Celebrations
In 2019, we came up with the kids project where children between the ages of 2-14 sold yummy things like cookies, cakes, popcorn, ice cream, juices, drinks, chips, just to mention a few, at the Accra Mall and Marina Mall to raise funds to purchase oxygen and it’s related items for some hospitals with NICUs and to create the needed awareness on the success stories of Preterm Babies.
Due to COVID 19, we have not been able to continue with the Kids’ Project but we will at the right time.
God bless these little ones.
Radio and Television Outreaches
Prematurity is such that it springs a huge surprise on you. No mother is ever prepared for this. It is in this regard, that our media team periodically visit media houses or our media partners to educate the public on prematurity and it’s related complications. We normally go with doctors or midwives to help with the sensitization.
There is also a myth about it allowing most people in the hinter lands to believe, attach spiritually to it and deprive babies and their mothers the chance to live or survive.
Other Initiatives by the Foundation
We have a team of neonatal doctors and surgeons ready to come over and help with a medical outreach in Ghana.
The plan is to invite these doctors to perform surgeries, attend to sick babies and train some neonatal staff to help with the current situation.
It’s our hope that we can achieve these and more in due course.
Hospital Outreaches and Donations
The Jay Foundation has realized the need to equip hospitals with neonatal facilities with medical equipment, baby clothings, medications, baby milk, food items for expectant mothers and preterm mothers, cleaning materials and many more.
We do not just donate these items, we also have regular talks with expectant and preterm mother as well as the medical staff at the Neonatal Intensive Care Units.
We have donated the above items and more as well as had health talks with the following hospitals:
- Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
- Tema General Hospital
- Naawam Govt Hospital
- Battor Catholic Hospital
- Shai Osudoku Hospital
- Keta Municipal Hospital
- Ridge Hospital NICU
- The Louise Marie children’s Hospital
- and more
From our observations, the high morality rate is mainly due to infection and so we have a team that clean the NICUs to mitigate this.
Documentaries and Educational Videos
We realized the need for the above after visiting several hospitals and assessing their needs.
So we came up with the diaries of mothers who have had preterm babies to encourage other mother so they don’t feel alone or left out and these can be found on our YouTube channel or page:
Jay Foundation YouTube Channel.
We also have a detailed Educational Documentary on Prematurity in Ghana. These documentary has seven (7) parts and each part last for a maximum of ten (10) minutes. It has stories of preterm mothers in different Ghanaian languages, advice and lectures from doctors, midwives and nurses and success stories. It also tells the story of the Jay Foundation and outlines our purposes and plans for the country.
We need the support of anyone, media house, company or NGO to enable us air this educational Documentary to all and sundry.
We currently have it on our YouTube page and social media pages @jayfoundation18 (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter).
We will encourage everyone to watch them and share these videos to enable us help others who may find themselves in this situation.
Building Projects by the Foundation
From our interactions with the Ministry, we were reliably informed that, it was in 2012, that the Ministry of Health considered the provision of separate Pediatric Wards and Neonatal Facilities for our hospitals in Ghana.
This explains why most hospitals do not have paediatric wards or Neonatal facilities and have to improvise for them.
So most of the hospitals have had to allocate a smaller room in the maternity ward to take care of this need. This unfortunate creates some congestion and increases the rate of infection.
The Jay Foundation has identified the need to put up separate structures to serves at NICUs and mother’s hostels. This is mainly to reduce the high mortality rate of 25-30% on yearly basis.
In July 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, we put up a new NICU and Mother’s Shed at the Keta Municipal Hospital in the Volta Region. This was due to an urgent request and plea by the hospital, who had an overflow of babies who needed neonatal care.
We have more plans to put ten (10) more units in need locations to help achieve our short term goal.
We also intend to build a first class facility for surgical purposes only. Currently in Ghana, we are not able to perform various surgeries for tiny or preterm babies. They have to be sent abroad for these to be done.
This has however translated to a long term goal for the foundation. Hopefully, more preterm and sick babies will be saved when we are able to achieve this goal.