Bringing Maternal Health to Ghana

Elizabeth Drummey

At 海角直播, Carmen Ward-Sullivan, PhD, is associate dean of the College of Nursing. In the Kingdom of New Sawereso Seinuah, Ghana, she is Her Royal Highness Nana Amma Manu I, Queen Mother of Support. Ward-Sullivan was bestowed this honor by King Katakyie Agyemang Duah III for her extraordinary philanthropic efforts to build the first-ever maternity clinic in his kingdom. 

Carmen Ward-Sullivan and King Katakyie Agyemang Duah III dressed in traditional African clothing.
King Katakyie Agyemang Duah III (left) and Associate Dean of Nursing Carmen Ward-Sullivan (right)

In early 2023, Ward-Sullivan was introduced via Facebook Messenger to the 32-year-old king, whose community was losing too many women from lack of access to maternal healthcare facilities. With the vision of creating a maternity clinic, she initiated a robust round of fundraising through Zoom informational meetings and Eventbrite invitations and received more donations after a Giving Tuesday post on Facebook in November of that year. 鈥淧eople really want to help and make a difference in someone鈥檚 life,鈥 she says. 

During a visit to the region in July 2023 to attend the king鈥檚 wedding, Ward-Sullivan toured the site of the new clinic. 鈥淭hat was so amazing to go and just put my hands on the walls of this clinic, which wasn鈥檛 finished at the time. The bricks are made by hand. They use a lot of the resources from the Earth, and that was empowering to me.鈥 She met many women there who sang and taught her traditional dances, as their way of saying thank you for all that she is doing for the kingdom. When completed, the new clinic will have 16 rooms with a staff of seven nurse midwives and one physician, along with three motorbikes so they can travel more easily. Ward-Sullivan is excited to attend the clinic鈥檚 opening, planned for October. 鈥淥ur goal is to provide prenatal care, delivery, and post-delivery care to pregnant women and women who have already delivered their babies,鈥 she says. 鈥淭he clinic will be available to all 11 communities in the kingdom, as well as the neighboring kingdoms, to help mitigate the high numbers of maternal-infant mortality rates.鈥 

Once the clinic is up and running, Ward-Sullivan鈥檚 next goal is a global exchange program between SMU and local nursing schools in Ghana. Based on her experience, she encourages SMU students to explore global health work, even when it might not be an obvious choice for them. 鈥淭ake a chance. Go out and do some global health work. I鈥檓 an ICU and open heart surgery nurse, but I鈥檓 finding such joy and excitement in community nursing."