(25/4/09)Prof Sai honoured for contribution to family health

A special award ceremony was held on Thursday to honour Professor Fred T. Sai the Honorary Professor of Community Health, University of Ghana, for his contribution towards women empowerment and family health in the country.
Prof Sai, who was a former Presidential Advisor on Population and Health, was presented with a plaque and a cheque for an undisclosed amount of money by his family and patrons of Family Health International (FHI).
Dr Ward Cates, President of Research at FHI, who delivered a lecture to mark the occasion, said it had been projected that the population of sub-Saharan Africa would increase in the next 50 years, due to the low level of family planning practice among families in the region.
He said there was the need to educate women to practise birth control measures, adding that better reproductive health depended on being able to exercise the right to decide freely and responsibly, the number of children to bring forth and at the right time.
He said family planning helped individuals and couples to avoid unwanted pregnancies, thereby improving access to obstetric care, and reducing maternal deaths.
The Chief Executive Officer of FHI, Dr Albert Siemens, said FHI is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which was founded 38 years ago to improve people's access to quality reproductive health services, especially safe, effective, and affordable family planning methods.
He added that FHI also aims at designing, delivering, and evaluating local responses to the most pressing public health problems in resource-poor settings.
He explained that through research, FHI identifies and develops effective, evidence-based strategies and interventions to solve health problems in those areas.
"Our goal is to improve the health of women and children, especially those who live in resource-constrained settings," he said.
Dr Siemens noted that with funding from various donors, governments and the private sector, FHI worked with many organisations to strengthen the ability of countries and communities to implement their own responses to these problems.
Prof Sai expressed gratitude to his family and friends for the award
and donated the cheque to support a scholarship scheme, set up by his family at the University of Ghana. Known as Women in Sciences foundation, which was set to encourage female education at a higher level, the scheme has benefited over 70 females students.