U.S. provides relief items to flood victims in the Northern Region

Accra, October 22, 2009: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) donated relief items to more than 5,000 people in the West Mamprusi and Kpandai districts of the Northern Region yesterday.

The donated items include two insecticide treated nets, two plastic mats, two blankets, and one lantern each for 1,000 households. The U.S. President's Malaria Initiative provided an additional 10,000 courses of Artesunate-Amodiaquine, Ghana's first-line drug for malaria treatment, to benefit people in the districts. The total value of the donations comes to approximately USD $67,000.

USAID is working in partnership with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers International (OICI), Research Triangle International (RTI), and local authorities to reach the flood victims. OICI implements the U.S. food aid program in the two districts, while RTI is implementing the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative-supported campaign to spray insecticide on the indoor walls of houses in the Northern Region to protect households from malaria.

According to the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over 130,000 people living in about 660 communities in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions of the country have been affected by floods as a result of persistent rains and the opening of the Bagre dam in neighboring Burkina Faso. More than 24 communities have been cut off from the rest of the country, over 6,300 houses, including 13 school buildings have collapsed, and more than 38,000 acres of farm lands have been destroyed.

The donations were made during a four-day tour of the Northern, Brong Ahafo, and Ashanti Regions by USAID/Ghana Director Cheryl Anderson.