Coronavirus: Joseph Assignment Global Initiative provides relief to three basic schools

As further evidence of its commitment to the wellbeing of persons, particularly children in the communities where it operates, the Joseph Assignment Global Initiative has made donations of COVID-19 relief items, in the form of food, to more than a thousand children in three basic schools in the Asikuma/Odoben district of the Central Region.

The recipients - New Faith Baptist Church International Christian Academy in Asabiem, Amanbeti and Bisease - were built by the Joseph Assignment Global Initiative, the charitable arm of New Faith Baptist Church, Illinois, between 2008 and 2012, in response to the lack of schools in the underdeveloped district.

Offering the rationale for the gesture during a ceremony for the donation, Country Director at the Joseph Assignment Global Initiative, Nii Quarcoo Ofori disclosed that this was to cushion students and their caregivers during the economic downturn and followed a similar exercise conducted at the Wamanafo Senior High and Technical School in the Dormaa East District of the Bono Region earlier in the year.

He revealed that the ongoing pandemic has impeded the Initiative’s outreach itinerary for the year but gave assurance that food donations will continue when schools reopen to supplement the meals the children receive, stating that the importance of proper nutrition for optimal learning cannot be overemphasised.

“We are encouraged by the responses from the students and their guardians alike and will continue to offer all the support that we can, to see that they have a fair shot at escaping their circumstances,” he said.

To this end, he noted, work is underway for the construction of a secondary school at a central location within the community, to ease the strain of accessing second-cycle education for members of the community.

He added that the faith expressed by the New Faith Baptist Church in choosing Ghana as a destination for its interventions, due to the relative peace and tranquility within her borders, has been repaid in multiple folds and expressed hope that it will continue into the future.

Headmaster at the New Faith Baptist Church International Christian Academy in Asabiem, Joseph Aboagye said that the conduct of the Joseph Assignment Global Initiative, which has is consistent with its faith-based beliefs and practices has been key to rising enrolments in the school.

Agnes Bediako, a mother of four students currently enrolled at the Bisease school was full of appreciation for the numerous developmental projects undertaken by the Joseph Assignment Global Initiative.

She stated that beyond the infrastructure, members of the community have been deeply impressed by the human face which characterises all of the endeavors of the Initiative and has helped change their perception of aid agencies. “

The people from the Joseph Assignment Global Initiative are different. They don’t treat us as props for their own gain but show genuine empathy and concern for our welfare,” she sated.

She added that the timing of the donation of the relief items is especially crucial as it coincides with the yuletide and will serve to make it a memorable one in such an extremely difficult year.