Wednesday 8th August,5:50 pm…..A few minutes ago, we tried to use resources around us to improve upon our work. Today we attempted a video discussion with one of our partner facilities in Tamale. From my location in Agogo, over 400 km away, we tried to use two laptops,two web cameras and a rather slow internet connection to see how specialists could help babies from afar. Make no mistake, we are no where close to Telemedicine. All we had was our computers and Google Hangouts. Take a look at the sample pictures….the quality is not the best we know…but that’s all we had and we had to do something. It will surely get better. We are positive.

I had heard of stories but I could not believe my eyes when I was confronted with the issue head on!
Friends, this is no fable. But for the fact that medical ethics demands tact and patient confidentiality, a little more detail will have been added.

Right in front of me was this mother of a lovely baby, barely a week old. Though she was fully sound mentally and well-dressed, her countenance was one of apathy. She just did not care. And her message was sad but rather resounding….. “Take my baby away. I don’t want him. I can’t take care of him”. No amount of words from health staff and social welfare staff could persuade her to change her decision. I was shocked to the bone.

This was a clear deviation from the usual. The usual cases where mothers abandon their babies only for good Samaritans to find them and get help for them. Here in front of me was a mother herself physically “donating” her baby!

A few hours ago, right across the same floor of my ward, I had struggled to console a couple who burst into uncontrollable tears after losing a baby. But now, here was a healthy baby whose mother was just giving him up. Unbelievable! Imagine the psychological trauma for such a child growing up, knowing full well that he was abandoned, given up by his own mother.

This is indeed a wake up call for all. What on earth would push a mother to give up this baby? Granted that the driver’s mate of a father absconded, where was the support from her extended family? What is society doing to stem the tide of unplanned pregnancies?

What can everyday citizens like you and me do to ensure that every newborn arrives to a standing ovation, regardless of whether those applauding his or her arrival live in mansions or abide under tents?
What kind of social intervention or child development policy can fully heal such a child, deeply wounded emotionally from the time he took his first breath?

This is our guiding principle at the NNSS—Until we place priority on newborn survival and well-being, we will have no children strong enough, no children intelligent enough and no children emotionally stable enough to benefit from any child-based social intervention. The first cut is the deepest!

At the NNSS we seek to do our part and hope to do more with the introduction of the Olsson Newborn Grant. What will you do to help my friend? Food for thought, I guess.

And so here was this happy baby on his way to a beautiful world. He starts a chat with his mother…”Mummy I am so happy to be coming to you after nine long months. I would finally see your face”.
And tell me my dear friends, which baby would ever place such a phone call if he knew the answer on the other end would be a deep, cold reply…..”I am sorry I don’t need you now?”

The year 2013 marked the first year of our operations and our partnership with Tigo and reach For Change. We have seen the NNSS transform from a simple Action Plan to a fully vibrant organization.

We successfully started our Newborn Care Call Network which currently covers over thirty six (36) facilities and Ambulance Vehicles in the Northern Region of Ghana. Among other achievements we also started a Radio Education programme, organized educational classes for Mothers and saw the number of our volunteers grow tremendously.

The task of saving newborn lives still remains tremendous with countless babies dying from birth asphyxia, prematurity and neonatal sepsis. Many more are daily being added to a multitude that face a lifetime saddled with intellectual disability and other physical impairments.

In spite of this seeming success, we remain worried. We seek not to count our achievements by striking percentages and drawing up charts of how many babies we helped save. To a grieving mother who loses a baby to a disease condition of little public health importance, that child represents a full one hundred percentage loss. The message is clear, Every Life Counts!!

Daily we ask ourselves a number of questions: When will there be a fully structured programme for the numerous premature babies born daily? What happens to that baby born in that small village who has a congenital heart disease? Why should a baby grow with cerebral palsy just because we failed to recognize and treat neonatal jaundice?

The task indeed is enormous. At the NNSS we appreciate the efforts being made by several organizations to improve the lives of children. But for us we believe that no child can enjoy any social interventions in society unless they have an equal chance of survival regardless of where they are born within the country.

Talking of equal access to quality healthcare at birth may sound like a vision of utopia. It is true that we may not achieve a fair distribution of healthcare staff and facilities anytime soon. But in the meantime we can make use of what we have and employ technology and networking to have a feel of our desired future. This is what we stand for at the NNSS.

Dear friends, it is convictions like these that spur us on into action. We cannot help but rise to the occasion to speak up for our wonderful newborns. With your support we look forward to a year 2014 full of success stories in Newborn Survival.

In a bid to spread the message on newborn health,we intend to start a Radio Programme very soon.
We met with a local radio station today to discuss the terms.We intend to have very educative and interactive sessions on the airwaves.It is also our hope that this will help build our brand and get thousands on the campaign trail for newborn health.There is more to come…………..
Watch this space!

A number of recent events have strengthened our resolve to keep working for newborn health inspite of several challenges.It is exciting to see other individuals and organizations equally committed to the promotion of maternal and newborn health.

Over the last few weeks,we have noticed with great pleasure the efforts by the Ghana Health Service and the Tamale Teaching Hospital(TTH) to improve maternal and newborn Health under the Millennium Development Goal Acceleration Framework(MAF) initiative.We have approached the MAF secretariat at TTH to see how best we can collaborate and have been happy with the response so far.

Our excitement was heightened after reading a news item about how a single doctor has worked to reduce maternal deaths in Dodowa,a town in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. To us,every mother saved is a baby saved and so we are very grateful to this great doctor.Reading through the full article at http://edition.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201308/111987.php is sure to inspire hope in all.

We look forward to reading about many more efforts towards this single priceless goal to save mothers and their babies.

“I saw you on TV”. Those are words I hear on a daily basis since Tigo/Reach for Change started showing their latest documentaries. But coming from my mother-in-law last Friday, I had to seize the moment and blow the trumpet I just bought you know! (Tell me who on earth would have done different).Call me a loud mouth. I agree. I am the man! Got to show her how wide Tigo/Reach for Change makes me smile. A few hours ago, one of our staff came bearing the same words. I stood still and shook my head “If only they knew what it means to be a Change leader”

My readers will by now know that I am used to short, snappy blog posts. Today let’s do something different. After all, change is the only constant thing in life, and diversity they say, is the spice of life. So walk with me. Help me retrace the difficult steps I have taken this week as a Change Leader, in between those two exclamations of “I saw you on TV”.

Negotiating on the Runway. As early as 8am on Monday I had already arrived in Accra from Tamale, two clear days ahead of my first advisor session. What else could I do? I was so excited about my first advisor session. As soon as we disembarked I received a call from Tigo offices. Right there on the tarmac, enroute to the arrival lounge, I was negotiating a deal for the Closed User Group (CUG) for our newborn call network. I was so excited that I went to the Tigo offices right after dropping off my luggage at home. I was told to wait for a call to confirm. I waited with bated breath.

Drama at Korle Bu. Being high in spirits, I set off straight to the Korle-Bu teaching Hospital. My aim? To introduce the NNSS to the NICU staff and hope to get an experienced staff to consider volunteering as a resource person for our programme. Walking with my chest out in my NNSS T-shirt I walked through the hospital hoping to see my luck shine and someone exclaim “I saw you on TV”. Hmm, if wishes were horses………. . Ei! So if they did not recognize the face, how about the organizations’ T-shirt which I was parading around like a gallant Korean soldier. The reception at the NICU was good but after that, the least said about it, the better. I was practically tossed from one person and office to the other. I left the hospital feeling like my occiput (back of my head) had suddenly become heavier. So embarrassed, I left the place and didn’t even bargain with the Taxi driver. I just wanted to get home. And he too, I am sure he does not watch TV much. He charged me VERY WELL.

And so, that was how my Monday ended, a mixture of emotions in the first two stations of my twelve-station journey within two exclamations of “ I saw you on TV”.

Scared in the midst of Doctors. On Tuesday Morning at 8 am, I was on the premises of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS) at Ridge in Accra. With my desire to be the best I can be for children, I try to take advantage of opportunities to be a better doctor for children. I was here for an interview. As I walked up the stairs, three different colleagues resonated the phrase “I saw you on TV”. Some went on to say “Charlie the Tigo money, please don’t forget me”. Interesting isn’t it? In any case, my real problem was with the panelists. Did those consultants also watch TV? Will they articulate that phrase at well. If you are familiar with the medical profession in our country, I am sure you can draw your own conclusions by now. A culture with a silent rule of invisible oppression that stifles wonderful ideas, choking them with the fear of challenging the status quo. In any event my interview went well.

Designing Posters at Nkrumah Circle.Straight from Ridge, I headed for my graphic designer at Nkrumah Circle to pay for a set of posters I was making for the NNSS Newborn Call System. As usual the taxi driver did not appear to watch a lot of TV. He charged me the full fare.This is how I ended my Tuesday

Wow. How time fIies! Its already tomorrow. Its past 12 midnight. Will pause here and explain stations five through twelve in part two of this post. I yearn to complete this but as you know the woman-in law I was bragging to at the beginning of this post expects me to be a change leader in other ways! Until we meet again in part two of this post, please follow Reach For Change and Tigo in the media, learn and support all the change leaders so you can also say “I saw you on TV”.