2 ‘Kayayei’ collapse in food fight

Two itinerant female porters (Kayayei) at the Asokore Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region collapsed on Thursday May 12 in a struggle over food.

This occurred during the distribution of food to the porters after the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur, visited the municipality and registered the girls and women onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), as part of a programme to register over 2,000 of them in the region.

The exercise formed part of the Ministry’s social policy of caring for the vulnerable. The porters were also screened for various health conditions.

In a speech, the Minister assured the public Government was committed to helping the deprived in the country.

“We are committed to a holistic development of everybody in Ghana. We will introduce and implement social programmes for the poorest of the poor and the vulnerable in Ghana,” she noted.

She said similar programmes had been organised in Agbogbloshie in Accra where over 700 ‘Kayayei’ from Ashaiman were registered for the scheme without any cost to the porters.

According to Class FM’s correspondent in the region, Hafiz Tijani, some food items contained in jute bags were presented to the leadership of the porters to be distributed to all of them.

A stampede, however, ensued, leading to two of the porters collapsing. The two were rushed to the Manhyia District Hospital for treatment and have since been discharged.