By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Sapeliga (U/E), Dec. 22, GNA – The Catholic Relief Service (CRS) has provided relief items worth GH₵1,281,114.63 to Burkina Faso refugees living in some parts of the Upper East Region.
The refugees came to Ghana due to instability in neighboring Burkina Faso, and others as result of activities of Jihadists that had displaced many of them.
The refugees, mostly women and children were spread across communities in the Bawku Municipal, Bawku West and Binduri Districts and the relief items are to help them live dignified lives.
The support was facilitated by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO), a faith-based development organisation and distributed to 1,446 refugees constituting 338 households.
The items comprised food and non-food items and each household received one 50kilograms bag of rice, one 50kilograms bag of maize, four bowls of beans, one gallon of cooking oil, 500 grams of salt, 10 pieces of bathing and laundry soap, three blankets, mosquito net, sanitary pads, bucket, tippy taps gallons, kettle, two jerrycans and cash of GH₵320.00.
A total 42 Ghanaian families in the areas who hosted and supported some of the refugees were also given the food items and cash.
At a short ceremony held at Kaare, a suburb of Sapeliga in the Bawku West District to hand over the items to the refugees, Mr Daniel Mumuni, CRS Country Representative to Ghana, noted that refugees’ crisis continued to rise to deepen vulnerability of families despite decades of efforts to address the challenge.
He said it was a reminder for all stakeholders including governments to address the security crisis including conflicts, wars and activities of violent extremists and terrorists that pervaded and affected the African Sub-region in recent times.
He said families had been displaced and exposed to health dangers, hunger and children denied education globally and in West Africa due to rising refugees’ crisis which called for collective efforts to addressing the root causes.
“Even in Ghana, we are not yet experiencing anything God forbid, but we are now experiencing effects of what has happened elsewhere, our hearts are broken, and we are seeing our brothers and sisters in this situation”. The Country Representative said.
“I will continue to encourage all of us especially our country, to continue to ward off this extremists’ violent tendencies,” he said.
Mr Mumuni encouraged the refugees to remain resilient while stakeholders continued to work to support them.
Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga, who commended CRS for the support, noted that apart from the material and physical needs, the Catholic Church continued to provide them spiritual needs to continue to be under the protection of God.
Mr Issahaku Tahiru, District Chief Executive for Bawku West, commended NABOCADO and CRS for the support and noted that some of the refugees had been in the area for the past three years after Kaya, a community in Burkina Faso was severely attacked by Jihadists.
He said the Assembly was making plans to construct a school for the refugees and appealed to individuals and organisations to continue to support them to live dignified lives.
Mr Madi Bukari,a refugee in appreciation, said the support would go a long way to uplift their lives.
GNA.