On Thursday, August 10, 2023, Golden Star Wassa Limited (GSWL) received a citation from the Wassa East District Health Directorate of Ghana Health Service (GHS) for demonstrating exceptional commitment to promoting and maintaining the health and well-being of its employees and host communities.
The citation was in recognition of GSWL’s leadership commitment to wellness programmes, healthy work environment, safety measures, community health initiatives, as well as health education and training.
Over the years GSWL has partnered with like-minded organizations like the German Development Corporation (GIZ) to achieve its health objectives.
To ensure the sustainability of these health projects and programmes GSWL has maintained Ghana Health Service as an implementing partner.
Together, the three organizations have achieved the below health interventions：
— Training of Health professionals on maternal and child health to address issues of neonatal health and infants’ death.
— Training of Health Professionals on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) to address issues of cross-infection at health facilities.
— Health education on menstrual hygiene in basic schools to destigmatize menstruation and removing myth associated with menstruation.
— Distribution of sanitary pads to menstruating girls in all basic schools in the Wassa district for a period of 1 ½ years. An action that has significantly reduced and continues to reduce absenteeism and teenage pregnancy among adolescent girls. Currently, over 1000 girls are benefitting from this exercise.
— Awareness creation on cervical cancer was embarked within catchment communities of GSWL.
— Health education on breast cancer and screening for all women within our catchment communities
— Donation of medical equipment and non-drug consumables in over 11 health facilities to strengthen our health systems to improve health outcomes.
— Over 7,000 students in basic schools and vulnerable community members have been enrolled onto NHIS for social protection.
— General health screening on hypertension, diabetes, body mass index (BMI) was conducted for over 6,000 community members within GSWL catchment as preventive health care.
Commenting on the citation and recognition Mr. Paul Harris, CEO of GSWL intimated that “In recognition of our responsibilities toward our employees, their dependents as well as our host communities, our health management is always highly prevention focused and proactive using a comprehensive, disciplined, and integrated approach to protect our stakeholders. Through it all, we have relied on the dedication and professionalism of our people and their commitment to our health systems and to each other. This citation is a recognition of jobs well done and we are proud of the team.”
Golden Star continues to adhere to health and safety management systems aligned with ISO 45001 in accordance with our corporate policy as well as the requirements of the Minerals Commission of Ghana.
In addition, our health systems are subject to annual audits by the Mines Inspectorate Division of the Minerals Commission.
The health systems also cover our entire workforce and are overseen by specialist health and safety personnel with accountability to assess system effectiveness for continuous improvement.
