Catholic Priest to fund the construction of Hospice Centre

Accra, Jan 9, GNA - A fund for the construction of the first ever Hospice Centre in Ghana to take care of the aged and vulnerable has been launched in Accra.

The Project is a brain child of The Reverend Monsignor Bobby Benson, Founder and Director of the Mathew 25 House, an HIV AIDS centre in Koforidua.

The Mathew 25 House was set up six years ago by the Rev Monsignor Benson and currently cares for over 60 People Living with HIV and AIDS and children whose parents are dead from HIV/AIDS or became weak from the disease.

The launch took place at the St Thomas Aquinas centre, his Alma Mater, to commemorate his 60th birthday and to rededicate his commitment to the idea of building the centre.

He said having devoted his time to the care of PLWA, he had come to the realization that such a centre where people would be paid to care for people with terminal illness was necessary in helping those who had been abandoned.

He said the location of the centre would be at a serene environment and although he had people with HIV and AIDS in mind, other people with terminal illness would also benefit from the facility.

All speakers at the launching ceremony expressed worry at the lavish and extravagant funeral ceremonies that had become the order of the day whiles children and family members lived in abject poverty.

Mr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, said the end of life was very important and it was time “we as a people began to attach importance to it” than seeing it as a taboo because death is inevitable and it must be prepared for in a dignified way.

He gave an example of how sick people were left in misery because they had no one to care for them and how they were sometimes put in taxi cabs or rickety vehicles to the hospital whiles corpses are rather put in ambulances with all the necessary care.

Mr Yamson thanked the initiator of the project and pledged his support and donated an undisclosed amount towards the take-off of the project.

Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle, the Bishop of the Accra Diocese of the Catholic Church who launched the fund, also condemned the current practice of families neglecting their sick relatives only to organize expensive funerals when they died.

He stressed the importance of the hospice centre where the terminally ill would have the best of care.

Other speakers at the well attended ceremony included Reverend Father Andrew Campbell, Parish Priest of Christ the King Parish and Most Reverend Dominic Andoh, Archbishop Emeritus of Accra Diocese.