On February 20, 2008, during a Presidential trip to Africa, First Lady Laura Bush visited the Maamobi Polyclinic in the Greater Accra region. A longstanding partner to the Ghanaian government, EngenderHealth assisted in preparing the clinic for the visit, and the Quality Health Partners (QHP) project, led by EngenderHealth, will play a key role in assisting with new malaria activities there. EngenderHealth has worked in Ghana for more than 20 years, assisting the government to enhance its health system, by expanding and improving its family planning, reproductive health, obstetric care, HIV and AIDS, and malaria services.

The First Lady’s visit to the clinic highlighted the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which will be expanding to Ghana and other countries in Africa. Mrs. Bush was joined by the First Lady of Ghana, Theresa Kufuor. During their visit, the two first ladies helped to treat bed nets with insecticide and gave them to four pregnant women, underscoring how vulnerable pregnant women and children under five are to malaria and how easily the disease can be prevented through this safe and simple intervention.

EngenderHealth, through QHP, will continue to support the Ghanaian government in the expansion of its malaria program. For the past four years, QHP has helped Ghana’s national health system to strengthen reproductive and child health services, develop malaria-related policies, improve the management of malaria cases, and prevent malaria among pregnant women. Our malaria-related work will be expanded to also include enhancing laboratory services and diagnostics and collaborating with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on monitoring and evaluation activities.