|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Electricity Company of Ghana’s Power Queens, Tema Region, in collaboration with management, have held a pre-Fathers’ Day celebration for staff, urging men to take medical checks seriously.
The Power Queens (ladies’ association) discussed important issues concerning staff and the ECG during the durbar. The theme for the celebration was “The Self-Preserving Man”. Father’s Day is celebrated every third Sunday of June, with this year’s fall on June 15.
Ms Emma Aba Amissah, the ECG Power Queens, delivering an address on behalf of the Tema Power Queens President, Madam Anabel Zormelo, said men must take their health seriously. Ms Amissah said, “How you give support and work to make money, build contacts and make wealth; you need to take care of yourself. You may think you have so many things to do until you get sick and realise you have only one thing to do: take care of yourself and get healthy.”
She stressed that men must focus on their health and get tested for prostate and testicular cancers, as these conditions were affecting more younger men, even boys aged 15. She added that science and medicine had shown that early detection could improve chances of recovery; therefore, they must test as a gift to themselves, their family, society, and their jobs.
“When you get checked, you will know what to do. From today, I will get a thorough health screening. Most of us have diseases that we don’t even know; we are waiting to fall one day and die,” she emphasised. Madam Zita Kyei-Gyamfi, the ECG Tema Management representative for mental health, speaking on stress and suicide prevention, said that culturally and socially, men have been brought up to keep their issues to themselves, emphasising that it was not a healthy practice, as there were many issues stressing men and the silence was not helping.
She added that “men should open up, build and form good relations and stop internalising your problems”. She said suicide had gotten to alarming rates with more men becoming victims, indicating that it was a mental health scare, and therefore, it was important that men spoke up and stopped keeping all stress to themselves.
The Tema Queens encouraged all staff of the region to wear blue on the day, as part of the advocacy on men’s health and to mark the pre-Father’s Day celebration. “If you keep everything to yourself, it will affect your health. Don’t be shy to ask for support when you are in need. When you are healthy mentally and physically, it promotes productivity and your overall health and prevents suicides,” she added.
Source: GNA
