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Distant Relatives Project show love to the deprived
Under its “Feeding Our Relatives” intervention, the DRP team members and volunteers gave participants, mostly children, packed meals, toiletries, school supplies such as school bags, pens, pencils, exercise books, footwear, clothing, among others.
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As part of the programme, the DRP, in collaboration with the Federation of Ghana Medical Laboratory Students Association, conducted free health screening for the children and some adult members in the community. Participants were also given free haircuts by “Nate the Barber’s Place.”
Mr William Kwaku Asiedu who established DRP in 2017 told The Mirror that the vision of the organisation was to give back to the community in a manner which would result in a life changing impact while connecting the diaspora to Africa through fellowship.
He said the DRP was anchored on three core pillars; namely education, homes, and healthcare.
He added that he was optimistic that through interventions such as the Feeding Our Relative programme, the NGO would be able to provide for the less privileged.
“Our mission is to empower under-served communities through some of our interventions and lead the beneficiaries on a path to self-sustainability,” he stated.
Mr Aseidu said apart from “Feeding Our Relatives”, the DRP had renovated the AME Zion Basic School in Seva in the Keta Municipality in the Volta Region.
“We also built new classrooms, a library and installed electricity and lighting systems. Besides, the organisation has initiated a project to provide the over 23,000 people in Seva with access to clean drinking water,” Mr Asiedu stated.
The Public Health and Policy Advisor of the DRP, Ms Princess Walker, explained that the health screening component of the programme was aimed at helping the needy and less privileged in the society to improve their health status.
She said the residents who benefited from the exercise were screened for blood pressure, hypertension, blood sugar level, diabetes, hepatitis B, HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and malaria.
The President of the Federation of Ghana Medical Laboratory Students Association, Mr Isaac Ofosu, observed that most of the people screened hardly visited health facilities and were, therefore, ignorant of their health status.
He said the majority of the people, especially the elderly, who were diagnosed to be hypertensive, did not know they had that problem.
He commended the DRP for the intervention and urged other organisations to support such initiatives to bring health care and assessment closer to the communities since it would encourage early detection and treatment of such non-communicable diseases.
Sarkodie, a rapper, assisted in serving beneficiaries and commended the DRP for extending their programme to Tema.
He advised the youth to be careful with the type of friends they kept, explaining that good company was the only option to follow in order to have a better future.