Retail chain supports two social protection facilities
Some alcohol and drug addicts undergoing rehabilitation at a centre at Medie, near Accra, as well as a social protection home in the Volta Region has received clothes worth GH¢71,281.
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The beneficiaries are the Drug and Alcohol Free Awareness Rehabilitation Centre (DAFAREC) at Medie and the Widows and Orphans Home in the Volta Region.
The Zoomlion Foundation presented the items to the two institutions with assistance from Foschini Group, Ghana, a subsidiary of a South African retail chain.
At DAFAREC, the occupants received pairs of jeans trousers, shirts, sportswear and footwear, while the those of the Widows and Orphans Home took delivery of dresses and handbags for women.
Corporate responsibility
At the presentation at Medie, the Area Manager of The Foschini Group, Ghana, Ms Harriet Owusu, said the gesture was part of the company’s social responsibility to improve on and harmonise the well-being of society.
Experience
One of those undergoing rehabilitation, a Nigerian recovering from drug addiction, Mr Kinsley Moghalu, shared moving experiences of his addiction and abuse of cocaine, which he said he was introduced to by friends.
Mr Moghalu, who was a journalist in Nigeria, said with time he left his profession and started smuggling cocaine to Bronx (New York) in the United States of America.
Through the smuggling business, he said, he acquired wealth and started living a luxurious lifestyle in the US, but that did not last long because he was deported to Nigeria.
Out of shame, Mr Moghalu said, with only a mobile phone and some few dollars on him, he relocated to Ghana and joined some drug addicts at Tudu in Accra.
He said while in the company of his new-found friends, a group of people from DAFAREC reached out to him, saying “for the past 18 months I have not smoked even a cigarate. This programme has really helped me and I am now training to share the gospel with others.”
Appreciation
Expressing his appreciation to The Foschini Group after receiving the items, the Director of DAFAREC, Mr Emmanuel Agyapong, said the centre worked primarily to rescue people from alcohol and drug addiction.
He said although the centre, a non-profit and faith-based organisation, was originally established for men, it had recently started receiving women.
The centre, he said, provided accommodation and food and took the occupants through a one-year drug recovery therapy programme.
Mr Agyapong appealed to corporate organisations and women groups to go to the aid of the centre, which he said was in dire need of accommodation for female inmates who had been compelled to share space with their male counterparts in a rented house.
Currently, the centre has 22 people, including three women, and has challenges with providing their basic needs.
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