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One of the widows collecting her hamper from an official of Golden Star
One of the widows collecting her hamper from an official of Golden Star

Club rewards 19 vulnerable, deprived women - In preparation towards Mother’s Day

Mother's Day falls on different days, depending on the countries where it is celebrated. In many countries, including Ghana, it is held on the second Sunday of May, during which various ways are used to show appreciation to mothers and mother figures.

This year, to commemorate the day, the Ladies Club of Golden Star (Wassa) Limited  (GSWL), operating the Wassa Mine in the Western Region, has rewarded 19 selected vulnerable and deprived  women for their bold initiative to single-handedly take care of their children and send them to school in spite of their predicament.

Currently, some of the children have completed university education and other institutions of higher learning and are gainfully employed to cater for their poor mothers, who struggled to meet their educational needs while in school.

According to the club members, the decision to organise the awards ceremony was to encourage other women in the area to take the positive step to also enrol their children and help them attain self-sufficiency in life.

 

Presentation

The women, four of whom were picked as special mothers (widows) from the eight operational communities of the company, were presented with hampers containing different items, costing GH¢250.00 each. 

The joyous ceremony was held amid dancing by both members of the club, popularly called Women of Wassa (WOW), and the community people ahead of the celebration of the 2017 Mother's Day, which falls on Sunday, May 14, 2017.

The eight catchment areas of the company included Nsadweso, Akosombo, Akyempim, Old Subri, Kubekro and Juaben.

The theme for the programme was, "The Precious Gift to Mankind is the Mother's Love."

 

Blood donation/health walk

In addition to the awards programme was a blood donation activity, where about 150 volunteers, including some male and female workers of the company, registered to undergo screening for the purpose.

Those who went through were also presented with packages worth about GH¢100.00, making a total of about GH¢25,000.00 spent by the ladies club on the occasion, with the support of the  company and other partners.

Earlier, at about 5:30 a.m., members of the community joined the club on a health walk amid brass band tunes through some streets of Akyempim before converging at the Akyempim School "A" Park for the presentation programme.

Speaking at the function, the Chairperson of the club, Madam Evelyn Gifty Bilson, who also launched the Mother's Day celebration, explained that the vision of the club, formed in 2010, was to help alleviate the plight of female employees of the company and also to reach out to women in the catchment communities.

She indicated further that the club had, since its inception, undertaken activities that had enormous positive impacts on members in particular and women within the communities, adding that several activities and projects had been carried out in the area through WOW.

Notable among them, according to Madam Bilson, who is also the Senior Training Development Officer of the company, was the construction of a modern community clinic at Akyempim, which was in response to the health needs of the people.

 

Breast cancer

Madam Bilson said the club also undertook a breast cancer awareness campaign plus screening and donation to the Breast Cancer International,  HIV/AIDS awareness campaign,  free health screening exercises for women, donations to schools around the operation area, as well as celebrating International Day of the Girl Child, among other interventions. 

The acting General Manager, Mr Michael Turkson, noted that as was common in mining companies, the number of male employees far exceeded that of the females. 

Therefore, he said, as the years passed, female workers of the Wassa Mine, which was a subsidiary of Golden Star Resources (GSR), with its head office in Toronto, Canada, also increased with all the other workplace women-related issues.

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