By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, Aug. 15, GNA – The Willingway Foundation Ghana, a Kumasi based NGO, has initiated a project aimed at removing the destitute, mentally ill and mad people from the streets of Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital,
The project dubbed ‘Operation Remove Vagrants from the Streets’ would, among others, house the rescued persons at the Foundation’s rehabilitation centre for treatment and transformation.
Madam Lydia Abena Manu, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, explained that the idea of the project followed recent reports in Kumasi which indicated that some residents were being terrified and attacked by these persons who have been roaming on the streets.
The Foundation, had therefore, collaborated with the Ashanti Regional Mental Health Directorate and the Regional Police Command to effectively undertake the exercise.
It had so far taken 10 females, including two pregnant women to the centre for care.
Madam Manu speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi after the exercise, described it as a ‘very tough one’, explaining that the group had to spend much time in persuading these wanderers before they succumbed to enter the dispatched vehicles.
She pledged Willingway Foundation’s resolve in warding off such dangerous people in the streets.
She indicated that the Foundation had since 2018, collaborated with the Regional Health Service to rehabilitate drug and alcohol addicts.
It has also supported advocacy, awareness creation and capacity building for students, police and other bodies on mental health and related issues.
Madam Faustina Nuako, the Ashanti Regional Mental Health Coordinator, called on stakeholders to assist the NGO and other organizations taking up such tasks in providing treatment, drugs and other logistics for their smooth operations.
She said most mental conditions were curable and called on families of mentally unstable persons not to give up on their affected relatives.
GNA