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| A patient being prepared for the Surgery |
The Ghana Reconstruction of Anomaly and Trauma Fund popularly referred to as the GRAFT Foundation , a non-governmental charity medical organisation, as part of its Hope Projects, have restored the lives of 106 underprivileged persons in the Volta region, who were suffering from various medical deformities and complicated anomalies acquired from birth or accident.
The NGO led by its founder Dr. Kwame Abrokwaa Yankyera with his team of volunteer Ghanaian Plastic Surgeons, Anesthetics, Urologists, Orthodontists and Nurses conducted free Reconstructive Plastic Surgeries on patients (including babies), some of whom travelled from Kete-Krachie, Dambai, Nkwanta and other parts of the region to the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho.
The exercise which begun on August1-9th, saw the team work tirelessly to rectify anomalies such as, Cleft lip and Palate, Burn related complications, (Ectropion and Contracture) Syndactaly (fused fingers), Tumours and Swellings as well as Genital Filariasis (Abnormal Swelling of the Scrotum).
Dr. Kwame Abrokwaa Yankyera, who is also head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns department of the 37 Military Hospital in an exclusive Whatsapp message to this reporter, said ‘We finished surgeries (with the 106thperson) on Saturday, 9th August at exactly 4:19PM.. We take glory not in the numbers but giving hope to these people and making them productive again, all to the glory of God’.
In July, Dr. Abrokwaa Yankyera and his team of volunteers screened over 250 Patients with such medical conditions at both the Regional and Hohoe Government hospitals and those who conditions do not required surgery were given medications.
He explained that, the foundation initiated the Hope Projects in 2013 with the aim of bringing hope to the medically hopeless in the country, who have no idea that such anomalies can be corrected and as well cannot afford the cost plastic surgery.
The GRAFT foundation, through its first Hope Projects in 2013 change the lives of 92 persons in the 3 northern regions, Central and Western regions. A feat that won Dr. Abrokwaa Yankyera a cash prize of 50,000 Ghana Cedis, after he was nominated and adjudged the winner of the first ‘MTN Heroes of Change’ programme organised by the MTN-Ghana Foundation.
The success of last year’s project, according to the benevolent Plastic Surgeon motivated the foundation to include the Volta and Eastern regions this year’.
Dr. Abrokwaa Yankyera expressed gratitude to the staff and management of the Volta Regional Hospital for their support during the exercise and also appealed to benevolent individuals and institutions to support the GRAFT foundation financially and materially to sustain the Hope Project.
