StanChart donates to Komla Dumor Foundation

The Standard Chartered Bank, Ghana, has donated $7,500 to the Komla Dumor Foundation to support its project on cardiovascular diseases.

The Foundation was established by the family of the renowned broadcaster, Komla Dumor, to sustain his legacy, following his sudden demise in 2014 from a cardiovascular condition.

The Foundation seeks to pursue the ideals Komla had, stood for and worked for; and to promote high journalistic standards and ethics.

Presenting the donation, the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Kweku Bedu-Addo, lauded the project by Komla's family as ‘a brave initiative, a good idea and a worthy cause to support.’

He paid tribute to Komla, saying he was a 'very dedicated professional' and ‘an icon in the field of journalism’ in Ghana and found his death both a shock and a surprise.

On the project, Mr Bedu-Addo recalled a BBC report that had indicated that Africans were not healthy because their lifestyles were exposing them to a lot of cardiovascular diseases, blindness and diabetes.

The situation, he said, was mainly due to lifestyle choices, ignorance or lack of knowledge.

The goal of the Foundation to deal with cardiovascular diseases, he said, was therefore, in the right direction.

"It is good to make the up and coming generation aware; and to have institutions such as this to educate the younger generation about some of the lifestyle choices they make," Mr Bedu-Addo said.

He said the Bank would be closely observing the progress of the efforts by the Foundation and wished them well.

Professor Ernest Dumor, the prime initiator of the Foundation, said it was a platform intended to draw to the attention of Ghanaians to not "sit idly and allow the next generation to pass away quietly."

He said the situation had worsened as statistics indicated that cardiovascular incidences tended to occur between ages 35 and 55, with more of the victims being women.

Prof Dumor stated that the Project had been endorsed by the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and other Associations, including the Ghana Bankers Association, as a viable one.

Moreover, he was in discussions with other partners, including the Ghana Armed Forces, to make it a national movement for maintaining the health of Ghanaians, he said.

Prof Dumor was accompanied by the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Council, Mawuena Adzo Trebarh and Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie.