By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bolgatanga, Nov 13, GNA – The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SSVP)-Ghana, a Catholic charity group, has presented assorted items to the Mama Laadi Children’s Home in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region.
The gesture was to assist management of the Home in the children’s upkeep.
The assorted items, valued at about GH¢3000.00, included three bags of 50kilogrammes rice, two bags of maize, a gallon of cooking oil, soft drinks, biscuits and sanitary pads.
The initiative was part of activities to climax the Society’s Third National Festival held in Bolgatanga, the Regional capital.
The festival was on the theme: “Serving Christ in our neighbour; the role of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in post-COVID Ghana.”
Mr Vincent Joseph Ahulu, the President of the SSVP – Ghana, who presented the items to the Home on behalf of members, said the Society existed to offer support to the needy in communities. “Ours is to move to the home of the needy. It is one of the things we do as a Society,” he said.
Mr Ahulu, who was in the company of National and Regional leaderships and members of the Society, said the items were to augment management’s efforts in the care of the children.
Members of the Society interacted with the children and their caretakers and wished them well.
Mr Ismann Ayariga, the Administrator of the Home, who received the items, thanked leadership and members of the SSVP-Ghana for the show of love to the children.
He said there were 12 permanent children in the Home, while several others lived with trained foster parents and extended family members in the communities.
Mr Ayariga said those who lived outside the Home were supported monthly for their upkeep.
Giving a brief history of the Home, he said the Proprietress, Mama Laadi, started the orphanage home without a structure to house the children she picked from the streets.
He said Mama Laadi sometimes cared and stayed with the children on the streets as she was often evicted from rooms in houses she rented to stay with them.
He said Afrikids, a Non-Governmental Organization in the Region, heard of her plight with the children and constructed a house for her and the children.
“So this place was completed in 2005 and they moved in. Over 80 children have passed through the home, some went through apprenticeship training and are now master-trainers,” Mr Ayariga said.
He said some also underwent formal education and became teachers, Physician Assistants, nurses among other professions, and called for more support from philanthropists and other organizations to the Home.
GNA