Ghanaians in USA donate to Korle Bu, Psychiatric hospitals

Accra, May 8, GNA - Ghanaian citizens in the Washington Metro Area in the US have donated 100 mattresses to the Maternity Block of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the Accra Psychiatric Hospital in Accra. Ghanaians residing in the Tri-state of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, contributed to buy the items during Ghana's 50th anniversary celebration thanksgiving service.

In a statement read on his behalf, The Reverend Kennedy Kwasi Odzafi, Chairman of the Ghana@50 Thanksgiving Service Committee, Washington Metro Area, said the Golden Jubilee Celebration of Ghana was an occasion for both citizens at home and abroad to take stock of achievements and failures of the nation since independence. He said in the Washington Metro Area under the leadership of Dr Kwame Bawuah-Edusei, the then Ghana's Ambassador to the US, Ghanaians in the tri-state raised 4892.45 dollars at the thanksgiving service to undertake a project to help the needy back home.

"During the visit to Ghana by the Chairman of the Thanksgiving Service Committee last year, he came face-to-face with the situation of the maternity ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, a place where future leaders of the country were being born. It was sad to observe that mothers and their newborn babies had to sleep on the bare floor. "At the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, patients were lying on the bare cold cement floor, some even with no clothes on."

Rev. Odzafi said on his return to the US he shared his findings with his executives who took the decision to use the money raised to purchase mattresses and donate to the maternity ward and the Psychiatric Hospital.

He said Ghanaians abroad were ready to sacrifice and contribute to the development of the country but they were challenged by the unfriendly bureaucracy of government policies and regulations, some of which were "unrealistic taxes" on goods meant for charity. "The government should look into taxation laws on goods coming to the country from non-profit or non-governmental agencies. It is frustrating to ship goods to our ports and be asked to pay so much tax that the donor has to abandon the goods at the ports." Rev. Odzafi also called on the media to produce positive and educative information to the population and put an end to the divisive and unpatriotic publications.

He called on all Ghanaians to rally behind President John Evans Atta Mills and his administration to work as a team to build the nation. Representatives of the Korle Bu Maternity Block and the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, who received the mattresses on behalf of their respective facilities, thanked the donors. 8