HEALTH AND SANITATION
44
Third-year vocational
school students install the
underground rough-in for
a new toilet room facility in
the village of Hweehwee.
Health of the nation
To bring the message across that a plumber’s work
is vital, a plumber accompanied doctors to Ghana to
demonstrate that medicine and plumbing are equally
important contributors to society.
By Julius Ballanco, P.E.
It all started with a movie. That is the explanation
you will hear from Drs Ted Thachenkary and Mark
Kevin regarding the creation of Anidaso Health.
Both Thachenkary and Kevin had seen the film
Hotel Rwanda. Thachenkary’s comment over lunch
was, “We need to do something.”
Within six months, Thachenkary and Kevin, both
internist doctors, were on their first trip to Ghana. Their
interest in Africa was to help the people. The help
they brought was providing medical assistance to the
remote Kwahu region of Ghana.
Russ Chaney
In the spirit of the sharing of
unique experiences that shape
the plumbing industries in our
respective nations, the following
is a plumber’s first-person look at
the importance of clean water and
sanitary conditions in providing
medical care to a remote village in
Ghana. Written by Julius Ballanco,
P.E., president of JB Engineering
and Code Consulting, it is the next
in a regular series of similar articles
that will run in Plumbing Africa.
Russ Chaney – IAPMO CEO
and chairman of the World
Plumbing Council
Both men are hiking club buddies of mine. I always
admired their dedication in traveling to Ghana to
provide medical care for the local people. Kevin
started working on me years ago, saying, “You should
come to Ghana.” “I’m not a doctor. I’m an engineer
and plumber. What could I do?” was my normal
response. Kevin would reply, “Our biggest concern
medically is poor water and sanitary conditions.
That’s what you do.” Even with this valid argument,
I continued to decline his invitations.
While hiking through the Tetons, Thachenkary continued
attempting to break me down, saying, “Man, you have to
come to Ghana. Consider it a fact-finding mission. You know
so much that you can offer the people. It’s only two weeks.”
October 2018 Volume 24 I Number 8
When I returned home from the hike, I informed my wife
that I was going to Ghana with Anidaso Health. Ten years
after starting, Anidaso Health switched from a medical
mission to an engineering and medical mission to Ghana.
My first trip was with a team of 13 people. Five were
doctors, two physician’s assistants, two nurses, two
engineers, and the remainder a support team. After a
13-hour trip, we landed in Ghana. Exiting the plane, we
immediately felt the heat and humidity, as well as the
smell of Ghana.
Our host, Fred Frempong of SVG, an NGO, picked us up
at the airport for the three-plus-hour drive to the Kwahu
region of Ghana. Kwahu is considered the mountainous
region of the country; however, the mountains only rise
a little more than 2 000 feet. I like to describe this part
of Ghana as being similar to West Virginia in the 1920s;
it is a very poor mountainous part of the country with
industrious, loving people. Sanitation and plumbing are
an afterthought. Less than 10 per cent of the population
have access to indoor plumbing on a daily basis.
INDOOR PLUMBING
It is hard to imagine, but in the United States in 1920,
only three per cent of the population had daily access to
indoor plumbing. We have come a long way as a country
in 100 years.
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