Time with the Dinner Committee Head

Webcom (W): I’m here with Ms. Ohema Aduse-Poku, the chairperson of the 2010 MSA Dinner Planning committee. I would like to start off by congratulating you on planning an awesome dinner, I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews about the dinner.

Ohema (O): Thank you, Thank you, thank you very much

W: So what was the first thought that came into your mind when you were approached to head the MSA Dinner planning committee?

O: well the first thing I said was a violent NO! NO! NO! NO! I didn’t want to hear anything about the dinner from the newly elected President of MSA and the “should have been MSA Dinner committee chairperson” Lydia Gyan-Kesse. I gave so many excuses; I had never been on an MSA committee, i didn’t know anything about the MSA Dinner. I had so many reasons to reject the position.

W: Why were you so hesitant about heading the committee?

O: well for starters, the work seemed so tedious and i didn’t feel like i was ready for that challenge, Come to think of its so much more work to plan the dinner than the health week.

W: I agree totally. Its so much more easier to plan the health week not only in terms of getting sponsorship but Its not as involving as planning dinner. So what made you change your mind and agree to take on the challenge of planning the Dinner?

O: Well it was after the former former dinner committee head, Dr. Adoma Antwi, came to me about agreeing to plan the dinner. She told me frankly that planning the dinner would be stressful, but it would be a once in a lifetime experience. She also said that being able to successfully plan the MSA Dinner would give you the confidence to be able to take on other challenges not feeling that anything is too great. Lydia was there too and jokingly said that after planning the dinner planning my wedding would be a breeze. Lol. After thinking carefully for a while, I decided to take up the challenge because I felt it would be an opportunity for me to not only plan the dinner but also have an impact on the society.

W: well you definitely have had an impact on MSA and the society, because we can say that the MSA Dinner 2010, was planned by Ohema

O: yes and by my Committee members as well

W: So why did you decide to help out the Clubfoot foundation as your project this year? There are so many other foundations out there like the sickle cell foundation, Cleft foundation etc so why did you settle on clubfoot?

O: We decided to go with the Clubfoot foundation because we restricted ourselves to foundation at KATH and our options were Cleft foundation, but that was used for the project 2 years ago, the sickle cell foundation, which was being aided by Explo. So the foundations that were left were the clubfoot foundation and the renal dialysis clinic but we decided to go with the clubfoot foundation because we felt that it would be easier to get funding for people with clubfoot because it is a condition that can be fixed and has a great prognosis unlike the people on renal dialysis. At KATH they get about 74 new cases every year

W: So how can clubfoot be fixed or corrected? Surgery?

O: Well about 90% of the time they actually don’t do surgery, they use the Ponseti approach to manage the condition. Clubfoot is diagnosed at birth and from the first week of life to the first 3 months there will be serial casting of the infant’s legs in POP to get them into the right position. They change the cast about once a week. After the 3 months the child is examined to see if they need a tenotomy of the Achilles tendon, if not then the child is placed in special shoes or foot braces which need to be changed as the child grow. National health insurance doesn’t cover the foot braces which are changed about 8-10 times until the age of 2.

W: so this is where the foundation comes in right?

O: Yea the foundation helps the mothers pay for the braces which cost about 20ghc per brace and it’s important to note that if the mother isn’t committed to the program for the first 2 years of the child’s life the condition can recur

W: So how much were you able to raise for the cleft foundation?

O: As at now, we cannot give an exact figure because well we aren’t sure yet. We are still chasing pledges.

W: Oh Ok that’s good, alright enough about the cleft foundation; let’s talk about planning the dinner. What was the most challenging aspect of planning the dinner? Was there ever a point where you felt like there is no way I can plan this dinner?

O: well if I say that there was no point when I felt like that I would be lying. There were times when I would expect people to do things by a certain time and they would come back to me with the task incomplete. So I had to learn to come up with backups and sometime backups for the backups because you are never 100% sure that the people would deliver as promised. Two days to the dinner was one of the most challenging times during the period of planning the dinner.

W: why what happened?

O: well we had an encounter with one of the companies who had promised us drinks for the dinner. They called us and told us that they would provide us with only half the amount they had promised, I had problems with getting electricity at the venue and not only these but I also had to juggle dealing with the dinner and being at the Pediatric emergency unit where I had strict consultant who would always ask for me and would not understand my absence. This was definitely a trying time when I asked myself “Why did I decide to take this on?” But it was okay...my committee and I worked it out.

W: yea you definitely did. So what was the most memorable moment for you?

O: Well there were a couple of memorable moments, I think the first one was when I had to go and speak at CCC to talk about the clubfoot foundation. This was the first time in a long while that I had to stand in front of a multitude of people and speak. It was so overwhelming, midway through my speech I was wondering “What was coming out of my mouth” It was so nerve racking. But when I finished someone came up to me and said wow medical school is definitely creating more than just doctors. That was definitely one memorable moment. Other moments include being on TV and also especially at the dinner when I saw everyone at the dinner in the dress code for evening. Contemporary African. It was great.

W: speaking of the dress code, how did you come up with the whole African theme for the dinner?

O: Well that one, the credit goes to my committee. Someone (I think Alberta) came up with the idea and we run with it and made a point to sell the idea to the people and it was awesome. The decorations were also great of the hall was also very beautiful and went wonderfully with the theme. Some people on entering the place called their friends and told them “You just grab something and come because the place is beautiful”. We actually ended up selling a number of tickets at the gate. Wait I forgot about another memorable event which was the fact that one of our invited guest, the regional commander of police, informed at the last minute that he would come for dinner and said “Oh don’t worry about security, I’ll have my men come and provide security”. So for the first time ever at an MSA Dinner we had security provided for by the Ghana police service which was great.

W: That’s great. I’m sure everyone felt safe that night. So looking back at the planning of the dinner what were some of the lessons you learnt?

O: well it has to be, never to give, no matter the odds stacked up against you. You never give up because there were lots of temptation to postpone the date of the dinner especially since a lot of my classmates had obligations that weekend and wouldn’t be able to make it and we had a lot of last minute disappoints with drinks and money etc. But I really wanted to get it over with. I had reached my tipping point where I wanted to have a normal life once again. I didn’t wake up and go to class at 8 and if there was any break would have to rush and go and see this or that person here and there to make sure that the necessary arrangements were being made. So I resolved to put in that little extra effort to make sure that it came off on the 13^th of November.

W: That’s great. Do you have any special thanks to give to anyone?

O: My committee members... there were the best. Lots of people have told me that I had one of the most corporative committee’s ever and that was definitely true. They all worked hard throughout the time notable Caryn, Barbara, Nana Serwaa, and Alberta. I also want to add Anda who came in at the last minute when we were broke. She threw us a life line when we really needed one. I would also like to thank my friends who were not on the committee but helped out including Nana Akua, Awo, Ogyefo, and Kesewa.

W: Aight. That’s cool. So do you think you are ready to plan your wedding?

O: haha no... Haven’t even thought of it. I guess we’ll handle that when it comes along. Lol

W: So was there a man by your side throughout the whole process who maybe was complaining that you weren’t spending time with them?

O: Well I lost a couple....

W: O wow!! Wee!! Not just one but a couple

O: yea I lost a couple. That’s were the story ends

W: O please this is juicy tell us more

O: They would say this your project thing is taking too much of your time and you don’t have time for me but I mean, these weren’t long-term they were relatively fresh stable relationships

W: o so you were just getting to know them and stuff

O: yea

W: Ah so then MSA has to try and hook you up with some new guys right

O: O nah. Well I forgot to mention that I also met other wonderful people. Like the saying goes, when one door closes another one opens... lol

W: well you forgot to add that one to the benefits of being the planning the dinner. Lol. Well Ohema I would like to say thank you for granting us this interview. I had a lot of fun. I would like to say Congrats again for planning the MSA Dinner 2010...

O: Thank you very much!!