Koforidua, Jan 23, GNA – Old Students of the St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School in Accra, popularly known as ‘Old Toms’ have donated an undisclosed amount towards the construction of a palliative care centre in Koforidua.
Ambassador Sylvester Parker-Allotey, an old Tom who led a team of some members of the Association to the construction site and made the presentation on their behalf, described the progression of the project as impressive and assured of support to complete it.
He said the latest donation was the third by the Old Toms towards the construction of the Palliative care centre and expressed hope that it would be completed as scheduled to provide the desired intervention in healthcare services especially to the terminally ill and families.
The 40-bed palliative care centre, is an initiative of Reverend Monsignor Bobby Benson, a Catholic priest and founder of the Mathew 25 House, a centre which has provided care, shelter, medication, food and educational support to thousands of People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) as well as orphans and vulnerable children whose parents have died from AIDS over the years.
The Centre is to provide care and support to the terminally ill and vulnerable people at the end stage of life to die in dignity. When completed the palliative care centre, also known as a hospice, would be the first of its kind in the sub-saharan Africa to provide “serene environment and Godly care to people with terminal illness and at the end stage of life”.
The hospice or palliative care centre is a home, where sick and dying persons are cared for in the comfort of caregivers and their relatives, creating an environment for solidarity in the end of life so that people irrespective of their backgrounds would die in dignity and peace without the usual emotional pain suffered by both patients and close relations.
Monsignor Benson, an old Tom himself who received the donation was grateful for the support from the Old Toms since the beginning of the project and the many others who helped to bring the project to its current level.
He said through the benevolence of well-meaning people in the country and in the diaspora, the GH¢1.5 million facility was progressing steadily and was hopeful that “my dream of having a centre, where people with terminal illness would be given the utmost care and if God permits die in dignity”.
According to Monsignor Benson, who has work in the care of HIV and AIDS patients over the years, he was touched by the suffering, grief and emotions people go through at the end stage of life and therefore decided to construct such a centre to care for the dying.
Later, the Old Toms visited Rev Sister Claudette Burkel, an 89 year old Catholic Sister who arrived in Ghana in 1969 and taught at various schools including; the St Thomas Aquinas School for 18 years from 1987-2005, at the Madonna school in Koforidua.
GNA