NDC interacts with hundreds of senior citizens in Ashaiman

The Gender, Children and Social Protection Committee of the NDC is intensifying its engagements with the vulnerable in the society ahead of the Launch of the NDC 2024 Manifesto.

On Sunday, June 30, 2024, the Gender Committee held a successful stakeholder engagement with 300 elderly persons in Ashaiman.

The engagement was held to celebrate and honour the elderly in the populous community.

Sunday's event in the sprawling municipalilty was held in partnership with the Member of Parliament, Hon. Ernest Norgbey, and the constituency executives of the Party.It also involved home visitations to the elderly.

It is consistent with the convention that started under the NDC, to set aside every Republic Day, July 1, as Senior Citizens Day.

Republic Day - which commemorates Ghana's attainment of a republican status from British colonial masters - was both a national holiday and Elderly Day to recognize the immense contribution of senior citizens to national development. However, it was curtailed by the NPP government in 2019

The Chairperson of NDC's Gender, Children and Social Protection Committee, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo, told journalists that because the holiday status has been stripped off, many people would be compelled to go to work on Monday, July 1, hence the decision to mark the day over the weekend.

"The NDC is a social democratic party and we honour and cherish our senior citizens, especially in a year when they have suffered haircuts; where their investments have been curtailed...John Dramani Mahama has tasked [our committee] with Hon. Ernest Norgbey, to organize this interaction with the elderly in Ashaiman.

"We want to hear their issues and their challenges. Some of them have worked in public service, so we also want to hear their recommendations and suggestions about how we can govern Ghana, and what ideas they have," said Nana Oye.

The MP for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey, said because the constituency is a known NDC stronghold, the decision to select the constituency for the event was well thought through.

"We want to let the elderly know that they have not been forgotten. We have stringent policies in our Manifesto that the senior citizens will benefit from when John Mahama comes to power," he said.

After treating the elderly to good food and music and giving them a platform to offer policy suggestions for a possible John Dramani Mahama-led administration in 2024, the hundreds of elderly who attended the event were given bags of rice, bottles of cooking oil, pieces of cloths, confectionary, drinks and many other items all neatly packaged in a basket.

The MP and an entourage from the Gender, Children and Social Protection Committee further toured parts of the Ashaiman municipality to visit veteran members of the NDC, and other senior citizens who could not make it to the event grounds. The team interacted with them and presented gifts to them.

The stakeholder engagement on Sunday at the Celestial School Complex at Ashaiman Official Town comes on the back of engagements with persons living with disability in Western Region towns, Essikado-Ketan and Shama, and Cape Coast in the Central Region.

EK