A Stopped Heart Cannot Build a Nation
Bringing accessible blood pressure screening and health education to Ghana's transport hub communities, the drivers and traders whose interdependent livelihoods form the heartbeat of our economy.
Where We'll Screen
Free screening reaches Greater Accra in December 2026. Exact sites announced soon.
See the plan →Partner With Us
Clinics, faith communities, and associations co-building the pilot on the ground.
Explore partnership →Support the Pilot
Fund the follow-up that keeps people in care, not just the one-time screening.
Give on Ko-fi →For Researchers
Our protocol, evidence base, and 12-month closed-loop methodology.
Read the research →Ghana Stands at a Critical Crossroads
Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular death in Ghana. Among informal sector workers (trotro drivers, market women, and their families), access to preventive healthcare is nearly nonexistent. Most will never know their blood pressure until a crisis strikes.
GHSI does not measure success by how many people we screen. We measure it by how many remain connected to care over time.
We do not stop at the cuff. We stay until care continues.
On January 13, 2019, my father died of a stroke.
Stroke is not sudden. It is the end of years of undetected hypertension.
GHSI exists to change that.
Mavis Amegah-Dorr, Founder
Three Pillars of Community Health
GHSI is designed to deliver a comprehensive community health intervention, not just one-time screenings, but sustained care.
Education
Before screening, GHSI will deliver accessible health education on hypertension, its connection to stroke, and warning signs to watch for.
Explore the pillar →Screening
Community-based blood pressure measurement using WHO-protocol methods, available where people already gather, at lorry stations and markets.
Explore the pillar →Referral & Follow-up
GHSI will track participants for 12 months: measuring not just who was screened, but who connected to care and whose blood pressure improved.
Explore the pillar →A 12-Month Closed Loop
Screening is the entry point, not the finish line. Every participant flagged with elevated blood pressure is tracked across a full year, at five follow-up points that measure who connects to care and whose blood pressure comes under control. Community hypertension programs in Ghana have shown that control is achievable for the people who stay in care, and that most people are lost within the first year. The closed loop exists to change that.
The Heartbeat of the Economy
The informal sector workers most often missed by facility-based care.
Transport Workers
A trotro station worker, Accra
Vendors
A coconut vendor at a roadside stall
Produce Sellers
A produce seller at a neighbourhood market
And the customers and families who pass through with them. A market stall or lorry station is a community's crossroads, so screening there reaches far beyond the workers alone: the buyers, the riders, and the households whose lives run through the same places. These communities span urban and peri-urban Accra: people who work at the city's commercial heart while many live where services are thinnest.
Coordinated From the Diaspora, Run in Ghana
GHSI is coordinated from the diaspora and run in Ghana. Ghanaian clinicians deliver the screening, Ghanaian institutions anchor the trust, and Ghanaian researchers lead the evidence.
Akoma+ Foundation
Akoma+'s Ghanaian clinicians and trained volunteers run every screening event on the ground.
PHAIG
Leads community engagement, mobilization, and stakeholder coordination across Greater Accra.
Archdiocese of Accra
A network of four Catholic health facilities and 62 parishes anchors trust in the communities we serve.
Ghanaian Research Leadership
Outcomes research is led by Ghanaian academics, keeping the data and the evidence in Ghanaian hands.
Fund the Staying
Hypertension is detected in seconds. Care continues for years. Your contribution funds the systems that ensure a blood pressure diagnosis leads to care, retention, and control: twelve months of structured follow-up, training and supervision for community health workers, and the data discipline that turns each screening into outcomes evidence.
When you give to GHSI, you fund the staying.
Support GHSI on Ko-fi