In a bid to stretch out its tentacles in the fight against Malaria through the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS), the Operations Manager for AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control Ltd (AGAMaL), Mr. Eric Obubuety has called on the media to help the company win enough funds, in and outside Ghana to help the fight against Malaria.
He attributed the closure of most of their operational sites to financial constraints from their core funding agency, Global Fund.
“we had to close all our operational sites within the Obuasi Mine’s concession with the exception of Obuasi, due to inadequate funds from our donor, Global Fund. Adansi South, Adansi North, Amansie Central, Upper Denkyira East and West Districts, All 8 districts in the Upper East Region and all other operational sites in the Western Region”, he stated.
Mr. Eric Obubuetey made this known to Journalists, when they visited the Headquarters in a working tour earlier yesterday.
History
AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control Limited (AGAMaL) is a social intervention program initiated by the Obuasi Mine in 2006 after AngloGold’s merger with Ashanti Goldfields. The program came to reduce Malaria cases drastically within mine and as at 2013, Malaria cases in the Obuasi Municipality has dropped beyond 75 percent.
AngloGold Ashanti gave out $3.7 million for the kick start of the program, which was then managed directly by the Obuasi Mine.
As part of their Cooperate Social Responsibilities, AngloGold Ashanti rolled out this program to benefit the people of Obuasi where they had their deep shafts and later extended it to other areas where the mine had concessions like Adansi South, Adansi North and Amansie Central.
Global Fund
In 2009, the Global Fund came in to support the life touching program with $133million targeting 40 Districts by the close of 5 years.
The program went as far as Upper East, where all the eight Districts in the region were operational sites. Upper West Region, Central Region and Western Region were not left out.
According to the Operations Manager, Mr. Eric Obubuety, the unexpected happened in 2014, when operations was delayed after Global Fund came out to tell them of their poor financial standing which forced them to scale down their operations, leaving Obuasi and 9 Districts in the Upper West Region.
“We were taken aback when Global Fund came out to say they were financially handicapped which meant we couldn’t touch the 40 districts we initially targeted and also had to close down most of our operational sites”, he explained.
He urged the Press to help echo their voice to both local and international donors to come to their aid.
By: Emmanuel Agyemfra Boateng
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