Delivering Quality Healthcare in Kulmasa, Northern Ghana
Sister Rita Amponsaa-Owusu has sent the following update from the Society’s Holy Family Clinic in Kulmasa, Northern Ghana, which was inaugurated on 30th September 2024.
In 2025, Sister Rita reports that the Medical Mission Sisters and clinical team were delighted to start putting their improvised operating theatre into use. Thanks to the support of a range of donors, they have been able to equip the theatre, appoint a medical doctor and the first surgical procedures have taken place. This includes the clinic’s first emergency Caesarean section which was carried out successfully in July. The medical team also took delivery of a new ambulance, which is facilitating the movement of patients to referral centres further afield, when care is needed. This is making a big difference to the lives of patients who often cannot afford to make long journeys to referral appointments.
The power supply from the national grid in the area has very low voltage and is unstable. Most of the clinic’s theatre and laboratory equipment could not function effectively, when using it. Thanks to the support of donors, Sister Rita reports that a lOOkw PV system with a 50kw battery system was commissioned and installed in November 2025. With this more reliable solar power supply in place, the clinic is starting to provide new services - for example, the clinic’s long awaited X-ray machine is now being used.
In the meantime, in addition to service delivery in the new clinic, public health outreach in the surrounding villages continues to provide much needed care in rural communities. In particular, through home visits, mobile and special clinics and a nutrition programme, the clinic’s public health team reaches out to children under five years, pregnant women, people with disabilities, malnourished children and adults in vulnerable circumstances. The nutrition programme involves the preparation and distribution of Weanimix, a nutritious Ghanaian food supplement made from roasted corn, peanuts and soya beans, ground and mixed together to fortify diets.
However, Sister Rita also reports that outreach to communities had to be suspended for several weeks last year from August until October due to tribal clashes that erupted between different tribes - notably, the Gonjas and the Birfos, living in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district, where Kulmasa is located. The long-imposed curfew was only lifted on 8th December. Since then, things seem relatively calm on the surface, but tensions remain beneath it and peace talks continue on a number of fronts. The effects of the conflict were severe; many people, who fled, will never return to their villages. Many patients also arrive at the family clinic critically ill because, being afraid to move around, they do not seek healthcare until their conditions are very serious - fearing for their lives. Diseases such as anaemia, typhoid, malnutrition and malaria are quite common in communities. For this reason, Sister Rita is particularly grateful to those donors, who have provided emergency food assistance grants, which are enabling her medical team to treat malnutrition and build local immunity.
Additionally, not to be under-estimated is the support to women in vulnerable circumstances which is offered as part of the integrated healthcare programme. For example, some of the clinic’s partners in mission are enabling the team in Kulmasa to support women through dry season farming. This not only throws the women a lifeline to generate extra income to support their households during tough times, but also provides basic food security in the many months of no rains.
What is the outlook in Northern Ghana in 2026? This year, Sister Rita tells us that she and her team have much work ahead of them, including: planning to start blood banking services, which are essential, given that supplies of blood are required in most referred cases due to severe anaemia; continuing to install much needed equipment in the family clinic; and constructing a dedicated nutrition centre on site. This new centre will aim to address the widespread causes of malnutrition across the district, whether through approaches of in-house cooking for patients on admission to the clinic, the scale up of the Weanimix programme or introduction of food demonstration sessions to boost diets.
Sister Rita is delighted to learn that funding has also been granted in 2026 to build a few rooms on the clinic premises which will be used to accommodate staff. So far, not a single member of her medical team has been able to live in the compound, including staff playing critical roles, whether the doctor, anaesthetist, midwives, peri-operative or emergency nurses, laboratory or pharmacy staff. The new accommodation will make life-saving interventions much easier for them to carry out.
Otherwise, the needs that Sister Rita and the family clinic face every day are many in number. She is very grateful for all the clinic’s friends, supporters and partners who, over one more year, have tirelessly contributed to help build and equip a family clinic that now delivers quality healthcare in a myriad of ways.
She finishes by sending to each and every one, a heartfelt
“THANK YOU! BARKA! MEDAASE!