Contribute towards upkeep of orphanages-NGO Official

Awutu Bawwjiase (C/R), July 2, GNA - Nana Adu Kwadwo, a patron of the Builders Club, a Non Governmental Government Organisation on Friday alled on Ghanaians not to show apathy towards orphanages but to contribute towards their upkeep. Nana Adu Kwadwo made the appeal in an interview with the GNA after the club had spent more than six hours entertaining and socializing with the inmates of the Countryside Orphanage at Awutu Bawjiase on the Republic Day on Saturday.

Builders Club also presented the Orphanage with items, including a First Aid cabinet containing assorted medicine, bandages, plasters, napkins, baby pampers and powder. The rest are four cartons of Key soap, detergents, toilet rolls and quantity of toys worth more than ten million cedis.

The club later organised a football match, Tug of War (male and Female encounter) dancing competition involving the inmates and workers of the orphanage and later presented prizes to the deserving winners of the a quiz programme.

Nana Adu Kwadwo, who is a Media and ICT Consultant, said as children without fathers and mothers, they needed love and affection to enable them to overcome their psychological and emotional distress. "We should take time off our heavy schedules, visit interact, dine, entertain and socialized with orphanage homes for them to overcome the spiritual and psychological stress they are passing through." He said the Club, is ever prepared to go the extra mile in putting smiles on the faces of these less fortunate children by uplifting their morale to enable to them feel at home.

Mr Martin Abban, Chairman of the Club, which is an all men's organisation, said the donation was their little contribution for the care of the unfortunate children. "We are here to fulfil and execute a mission to see and to put smiles on the faces of these little children and to heal their psychological and emotional pains and rejection." He said the Club, made up of people, including priests, businessmen, chiefs and journalists was opened to Ghanaians and other nationals of good standing.

It was aimed at supporting benevolence and environmental development by sensitising people to take care of the environment. The parents of the Orphanage, Col (rtd) and Mrs Yeboah thanked the Club for their kind gesture and appealed to other individuals and organisations to come to their aid. This, he said, had become very necessary since they received no assistance from the Department of Social Welfare.

Mrs Yeboah said the orphanage, started in 1981, now had over 120 inmates, between the ages of three-weeks and 24 years, brought in by the police or Social Welfare Department as abandoned, needy or street children. She said the Orphanage, now has 57 workers, running the pre and basic school and would soon establish a Junior Secondary School. She said the Orphanage had acquired a 100-acre land for development and plans to go into fish farming and mushroom growing in order to be self-financing. Earlier an acrobatic club from Bubuiashie in Greater Accra entertained the inmates with some soul inspiring displays.