Builders Club donates to Orphanage

Awutu Bawjiase (C/R), Dec 11, GNA -Members the Builders Club, a non-governmental organisation, looked on with surprise and fired a barrage of questions on baby adoption, as they presented gift items to the Countryside Orphanage at Awutu Bawjiase at the weekend.

Their apprehension was on why and how two babies, among the inmates, accompanied by their foster parents, Capt.(rtd) Joe Paul Yeboah, and Mrs. Emma Boafo Yeboah, were admitted into the Orphanage, but the couple referred them to the Department of Social Welfare.

The mother and father explained that Baby "Ama", now three-weeks old, was brought in by Social Welfare Officers, when her mother died after delivery.

The other baby, now two months old, was abandoned at Nsabaa, by its mother, who was said to be insane.

Social Welfare Officers had rescued the baby and brought her to the orphanage, the couple said, and added that they had so far been able to locate the family of the baby.

The Builders Club, which is an all men's club, presented bags of rice, confectionaries, and toiletries valued at eight million cedis to the Orphanage.

Making the presentation, Mr Martin Abban, the President of the Club, said the donation was their little contribution to the care of the unfortunate children.

He said the Club, made up of priests, businessmen, chiefs and journalists, among other professionals, was open to Ghanaians and other nationals of good standing.

It supports benevolence, environmental development and sensitises people to take care of the environment.

The parents of the Orphanage, Col.(rtd) and Mrs. Yeboah thanked the club for their kind gesture and appealed to other individuals and organisations to come to their aid.

This, he said, had become necessary since they received no assistance from the Social Welfare Department.

Capt. Yeboah announced that the Orphanage had acquired a 100-acre land for development and had plans to go into fish farming and mushroom growing in order to be self-financing.

Capt. Yeboah said the orphanage started in 1981, and now had 120 inmates, between the ages of three-weeks and 24 years, brought by the police or Social Welfare Department as abandoned, needy or street children or orphans.

Capt. Yeboah said it properly sees off and organises weddings for girls who had come of age.

He said the Orphanage, now had 57 workers, ran the pre and basic school and would soon establish a Junior Secondary School. Capt. Yeboah welcomed assistance to develop a proper layout for the orphanage, adding that the whole of the Bawjiase town, did not have a layout.

In a related development, the Members of the Abossey Okai Circuit of the Christ Little Band of the Methodist Church, has also presented a number of items, valued at five million cedis to the Countryside Orphanage at Awutu Bawjiase on Saturday.

The items were made of shoes, sandals, beans, brand new clothing, provisions and toiletries.

Sister Rebecca Frempong-Aryee, the President of the Circuit, who led members of the Circuit, comprising New Abossey Okai, Laterbiokoshie, Russia Bethlehem, and St. Luke Christ Little Bands, said the donation was to put smile on the faces of the children during the approaching yuletide season.

She said they were guided by the "Biblical injunction to visit orphans and widows in their times of tribulation, a form of Godly devotion, which was pure and undefiled, in addition to their main work of evangelisation of the gospel."

Sister Frempong-Aryee said they would visit the orphanage regularly. Mrs Yeboah, the Mother of the Orphanage thanked the Abossey Okai Circuit of the Christ Little Band for the kind gesture.