The tricycles were provided by the Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) with support from the Swiss Red Cross(SRC) at an estimated cost of GH¢ 1 million and the twenty-two tricycle ambulances and 73 Haemocue (blood testing) machines for distribution to six deprived districts in the Region.
The beneficiary districts are Bongo, Binduri, Nabdam, Kassena Nankana Municipality, Pusiga, and Talensi.
The service is to help improve maternity and child health care in the rural and hard-to-reach communities.
It is also expected that with the ambulances in place now, maternal and child mortality in the beneficiary districts will be reduced.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony at Bolgatanga on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, the Swiss Red Cross Country Coordinator, Thomas Okollah observed that since 2014, the organization had supported the MNCH project in the Upper East Region with the GRCS as the implementing agency.
He said the project was designed to use community volunteers organized into Ghana Red Cross Mothers' Clubs which had complemented the government's efforts in reducing maternal and neonatal mortality in the beneficiary districts.
"It came to light during the initial stage of the project that pregnant women, post-natal mothers, and newborns who needed acute health services were challenged by the inability to easily access health facilities due to lack of reliable means of transport," Okollah noted.
He added: "as a need responsive organisation, Red cross procured one tricycle in 2016 as a pilot project to increase access to health facilities in a community in the Binduri district which proved successful."