Myhelp-Yourhelp Foundation helps Akropong School for the Blind
Cheers, applause and smiles greeted the arrival of the team from ‘Myhelp-Yourhelp Foundation’, a Christian charitable organisation, when they arrived at the Akropong School for the Blind in the Akuapen North Municipality of the Eastern Region last Friday, December 3.
The Christian NGO was in the school, to aside donating assorted items to them, dine with the students, encourage them to forge ahead irrespective of their condition, and to share the word of God with them.
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Items presented included 400 pieces of bedspread, 400 pieces of pillow cases, boxes of bottled water, bags of sachet water, boxes of Faytex sanitary towels, packs of tissue paper, boxes of Life Buoy soap, boxes of hand sanitizers, packs of soft drinks, boxes of mackerel, boxes of toothpaste, packs of milk, a box of tomato paste, bags of maize, bags of millet, bags of rice, and bags of sugar.
The team also fed the over 300 students and staff of the school with packed launch. They also interacted with the students.
With the school’s motto being: “My help comes from God”, God brought them help from Myhelp-Yourhelp Foundation.
Interestingly, the gesture coincided with three major celebrations—World Disability Day, Farmers’ Day and the third anniversary of the Foundation.
The colourful event attracted many dignitaries to the premises of the school, including the Coordinator for Akuapem South Municipal Assembly, Lydia Akueteh; People’s National Convention’s (PNC) 2020 Presidential hopeful, and Rev. Samuel Adjei-Debrah of the Apostolic Church.
To show their appreciation for the gesture, the school’s band performed various Ghanaian songs to entertain their guests.
The sterling musical performance by the band swept some members of Myhelp-Yourhelp Foundation off their feet into the dancing floor, with some of the students and dignitaries also joining the buzz.
From Gospel through Highlife to Afropop music, the band entertained their guest to the best of their ability in a fashion that compelled many to of the guests to draw their phones to film their performance.
Other students, on the other hand, performed various activities, including quiz, news reading and mimicking of animal sounds to the administration of their guests.
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, Mr Nicholas Cofie, said the NGO believes in spreading love, hope and smiles.
For him, the Foundation was conceived and built on the teachings of Christian doctrines, hence their strong believe in seeing to the wellbeing of the underprivileged such as the students of the school for the blind.
He said the Foundation occasionally visits orphanages, prison establishments, rehabilitation centres and special schools to impact the lives of the inmates in those facilities.
Rationale
For Mr Cofie, doing good to the underserved and less privileged in society should be seen as a ministry and a worthy cause to follow by all people who believe in God, particularly Christians.
He said convinced by the teachings of Christ, members of the Foundation, who are all professionals with different backgrounds, come together all the time to contribute towards such projects.
He said it is always fulfilling to see the underprivileged smile, calling on all benevolent individuals and institutions to support the work of the Foundation so that they could reach out to many vulnerable children in the country.
Mr Cofie said Myhelp-Yourhelp Foundation since its three-year inception has impacted many lives positively and would continue to do more to bring smiles, love and hope to their less privileged.
He therefore expressed his appreciation to Virtue Clothing, Unilever Ghana Ltd, Bond Savings & Loans, Randa Cakes & More, Cake Haven, Nuvivcakes, Labianca, Obiri Yeboah Foundation, JODi Construction, Abbi’s Healthy Fruit juice, Salama Transport, and Liberty Industry Ventures, for their continued support to the foundation and its activities.
Background
The Akropong School for the Blind was established in 1945 and it is made up of different departments from the Kindergarten to the Junior High School (JHS) level.
It also has a Vocational Department, the Music Unit and the Adult Rehabilitation Class. The Adult Rehabilitation Class is set up for people who become blind late in their life time.
Appeal
The Headmistress of the school, Mrs Veronica Derry, commended the Foundation for the gestures, saying that government alone could not provide all the logistical needs of the school, hence the need for corporate Ghana, Civil Society organisations and benevolent individuals to support the efforts of the government.
She said the school was very critical to the development of the human capital, particularly for people living with disability.
She noted that through the school, many disabled people, who otherwise could have ended on the streets as beggars or become burdens on their families, have become breadwinners in their families.
Mrs Derry however expressed worry that some parents after bringing their children to the school abandoned them, without bothering to check up on their tuition and feeding at the school.
She said the situation sometimes becomes so pathetic to the extent that when the school vacates, some children had to be taken care of by the caretakers at the school since their parents would not come to take them home.
She has therefore appealed to parents not to see their children in the school as a burden but to give them all the needed encouragement and love in order to enable them to live their dreams.