By Muyid Deen Suleman
Kumasi, March 22, GNA – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, has provided food items to support about 2,285 poor and vulnerable Muslim households in Kumasi, ahead of the 2023 Ramadan fast.
The items included, bags of rice, bags of maize, cooking oil, sacks of beans and salt, cartons of tin tomatoes and many others.
The humanitarian project known as ‘Eta’am basket programme’ is the second of its kind in the country and aims at distributing food items to the most deprived and poor groups of people in the country.
It also serves as part of efforts by the Saudi Arabia government to help alleviate the suffering of those in need worldwide, including Ghana.
Addressing the beneficiaries, Mr Naif Al- Otaibi, the Third Secretary to the Saudi Arabia Embassy in Ghana, noted that the economic challenges across the world had made it necessary to support the poor and destitute families.
He said Saudi Arabia recognizing the sufferings of most Ghanaian Muslims households, took it upon itself to extend the gesture, especially as they prepared to enter the holy month of Ramadan this year.
Professor Naail Mohammed Kamil, Head of Human Resource and Organisational Development at School of Business, at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and an organiser for the donation, said the food items would help reduced some level of thinking amongst the Muslim “Ummah” and reduce their cost of living for this year’s Ramadan fast.
He advised the beneficiaries to use the items for its intended purpose and not to sell them to other people for money.
Prof. Kamil said the Saudi government’s humanitarian services comes in many folds and currently, it was digging fifty eight mechanized boreholes in Ghana to aid communities who were facing some water challenges.
He called on the Saudi government to consider extending the humanitarian gestures to the health sectors to contribute to the healthcare and wellbeing of the people especially, those in remote areas of the country.
GNA