News
Bleaching dangerous to lactating mothers — Queen mother
The use of bleaching creams containing hydroquinone by a section of women particularly lactating mothers in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region, have become a source of worry to stakeholders who are bent on promoting nutritional wellbeing of children in the area.
The Queen of Duori in the Waala Traditional Area, Pognaa Amamata Mumuni who tabled the issue for discussion at the launch of infant nutritional wellbeing project at Wa, expressed concern of the use of such creams by lactating mothers in their quest to lighten their skins in preparation for the naming ceremony of their babies.
She said the women used the creams to lighten their skins in order to get rid of the change in body colour which mostly happened during pregnancy instead of allowing nature to gradually restore their colour in due time.
“According to Islamic tradition, a new born baby is named seven days after birth in a modest Islamic naming ceremony.
However, the event has recently been magnified by the youth with pomp and pageantry accompanied by expensive photoshoots by mother and baby in heavy cosmetic make-up”, she said.
The queen stated that in order to look good in front of the camera, the women resorted to using those harsh body creams immediately after birth to lighten their colour without the slightest knowledge of the effect it could have on their breastfeeding babies.
“Women who use these pomades often sweat a lot but when they are breastfeeding the babies, they do not clean the sweat off the breast and so feed the baby with those chemicals”, she stressed.
Pognaa Amamata Mumuni who is the Girl-Officer of Ghana Education Service (GES) in Wa Municipality called on the Ghana Health Service to introduce such topics in their nutrition sensitization programmes in order to minimise the practice but encouraged women to stop bleaching as it could have negative health implications on them.
The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Damien Punguyire also said there was the need for mothers to protect their infants’ health by avoiding products that were inimical to the wellbeing of their babies,
“Aside the babies we are trying to protect, bleaching can also cause skin cancers and other health complications for the mother especially given the volume of sunshine we enjoy in this region, hence we encourage women to maintain their natural colour”, he added.
Taking the discussion a notch higher, the Regional Director at the Department of Gender, Mrs Charity Banye advised lactating mothers whose children were in school to spare some time and visit the schools in order to breastfeed them.
“It is disheartening to see that the lunch you packed for your toddlers is intact after picking them up from school with the excuse that they were not hungry when they actually were but there was no time for that one teacher who is attending to about 30 or more other children to concentrate on spending over 30 minutes feeding one child”, she said, painfully.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa
News
Craze for x’mas shopping: Crowded markets, low patronage
Vendors of food and other wares associated with the Christmas celebration have expressed surprise at the low patronage despite the increased number of visitors to some of the major markets across the capital.
Four days to the celebration(Christmas), the markets are filled with various products ranging from food, clothing, livestock and many other stuff, but according to the vendors, patrons are doing more ‘window’ shopping.
The Spectator on visits to some of the markets in the capital, notably the Odawna, Makola, Accra Central Business District, New Town and others made similar observations as shoppers crowd them but did little in terms of purchases.
The paper also observed that majority of vendors, originally selling other wares have switched to product related to the festive season.
What it means is that there are a lot more clothes, food and vegetables, livestock and poultry, toys, firecrackers, drinks of different types and many others on display.
The markets have also stretched to the pedestrian pavement, leaving very narrow spaces for commuters to move about freely.
That, in addition to a few of the female vendors dressed in coloured attires to reflect the occasion, has heightened the euphoria, leaving the low sales as the only headache for the vendors.
Speaking with this paper, they sounded very optimistic, believing that sales would improve in the last few days to the yuletide.
According to them, there was the opportunity to sell beyond Christmas as the New Year celebration offers similar opportunity to trade the same wares.
They urged patrons to throng the markets to shop since prices were quite moderate and products affordable for all.
News
Retirement service for Elder John Ackom-Asante,3 others
Retired Deputy Editor of The Spectator, Elder John Ackom-Asante, was last Sunday honoured by the Church of Pentecost Windy Hills District in Kasoa in the Central Region, with a retirement thanksgiving service, after serving for 26 year as an Elder of the church.
He was honoured with a citation and certificate of service along with three other elders who served in the capacity for various years.
Elder Ackom-Asante was baptised at the Darkuman Central Assembly in 1979 and ordained as an Elder in 1997.
The citation read “Your selfless service, zeal, willingness to relate wholeheartedly and your desire to effect change has gone a long way to shape the lives of many people in the church and the nation over the 26 years of your dedication to the service of the Lord.”
Elder Ackom- Asante held many positions at the Darkuman Central Assembly, Obuasi in the Ashanti Region and Tema, serving in various capacities as youth and evangelism ministry leader and marriage counsellor.
He was the founding member of the Darkuman Christian Fellowship, a member of the Greater Accra Christian Fellowship; member of Bible Society of Ghana; founding member Obuasi Chapter Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International and founding member of New Times Corporation Christian Fellowship and Chaplain, Methodist University Tema Campus 2009- 2010.
As a professional journalist, Elder Ackom-Asante combined effectively and efficiently his duty as a member and elder of the church and the demands of his profession, with admiration from the church, kith and kin, till his retirement on December
From Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Rahaman, Kasoa