As part of its annual Service Project, the Cape Coast branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Saturday embarked on a massive clean-up exercise at the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in collaboration with its management.
Dubbed "Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital Sanitation Day", the exercise, which involved more than 600 volunteers from the church, students from the Cape Coast and Ankaful Nursing Training Colleges and staff of the hospital started at 0600hrs, amidst brass band music.
For more than six hour, the team equipped with cutlasses, rakes, shovels, dustbins and brooms, cleared weeds, trimmed hedges and trees, de-silted gutters, gathered and burnt rubbish and cleared minor dumpsites.
In addition, the Church donated several boxes of assorted soaps and detergent to the facility.
The President of the Cape Coast Stake of the Church told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that, the exercise formed part of the church’s activities, and that, this year’s activity was dedicated to sanitation and beautification.
He said the decision to choose the hospital was inspired by the fact that the church was passionate about the less privileged in society, like the inmates of the hospital, with majority of them being neglected by their families.
The Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr. Kwaw Armah-Arloo said the exercise had been of immense benefit to the hospital, saying that, any time the compound gets weedy, it served as a hideout for snakes and other dangerous reptiles, posing danger to the inmates and hospital staff.
He expressed gratitude to the Church and other organizations that occasionally aided the hospital and appealed for more support from the public.
The Komenda - Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Isaac Sam accompanied by some staff of the Assembly, took part in the exercise briefly and also donated 12 boxes of mineral water in support.
