A Maltese-run and funded health centre in Ghana last year received $61,000 in aid from the Malta-based Ghana Mission Foundation.

The foundation was set up in 1999 and has since helped the Institute for World Evangelisation (ICPE) fund the health centre. The ICPE was founded in Malta in 1985.

The 80-bed HopeXchange Medical Centre, as the health centre in Ghana is called, provides high quality clinical services. It also works with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and other medical institutions to offer postgraduate specialized medical educational courses to healthcare providers.

Towards the end of last year, the founder of the health centre, Mario Cappello, had a meeting with the new President of Ghana, John Atta Mills. The President praised this initiative, particularly the recently built diagnostic and treatment facility which will have a special focus on infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV. It will also provide services on breast cancer, facial malformation and ophthalmology.

The HopeXchange Medical Centre in 1998 it was chosen by the late Pope John Paul II as one of his projects for the millennium.

The Ghana Mission Foundation is open for donations all the year round. The Office of the Foundation is situated at the Media Centre Complex, National Road, Blata l-Bajda HMR1640. Donations can be forwarded by cheque or money orders addressed to the Foundation.

The Foundation said that its Financial Reports of the past years including 2009, can be viewed after the first week of March at its office. (Telephone 21242792).