Traditional rulers support Bahass Foundation
Two traditional rulers, the Paramount Chief of the Guli Traditional Area, Naa Seidu Braimah Nubalanaang and the Regent of Nadowli, Naa Kundilor Charinuma, have donated separate plots of land to the Bahass Foundation, for the construction of a mental home at Wa and Nadowli respectively.
Naa Nubalanaang, apart from the land, also presented food items and an unspecified amount of money to the Bahass Foundation.
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The presentation was made on behalf of the two traditional rulers by the Dahima Naa, who is the Chief of the Naakpa Gate, one of the four gates of the Wala Traditional Area, as part of activities to mark World Mental Health Day in the region.
The mental health day celebration was preceded by a street procession through the Nadowli township to create awareness of mental health issues and mobilise efforts in support of mental health.
In two separate messages commending the foundation for its immense efforts in promoting tolerance and giving the affected persons some dignity, the two rulers said “Your quest to treat the mentally afflicted persons with dignity and harmonise them in society is commendable.
“Your exceptional humility is worth emulating and makes us proud of you. You have exhibited a high sense of integrity and have not departed from the training your elders gave.”
The Bahass Foundation is a non-governmental (NGO) that caters for mentally afflicted persons in the Upper West Region.
The Founder of the Bahass Foundation, Elyasu Yussif, has for the past 16 years been operating with about 70 volunteers from his own resources and sometimes some philanthropists to cater for the mentally challenged persons in the region. He picks the inmates from the streets, shaves them, bathes them, clothing them and feeds them.
This gesture attracted the attention of the Good Cause Foundation, a charity wing of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) to come to his assistance with various items such as detergents, second-hand clothing, bags of rice, maize, beans and buckets.
Before the donation, the inmates were shaved, their beards well-trimmed and taken care of by the NLA who also feted them, including a pregnant woman, with sumptuous meals and soft drinks at Jirapa and Wa.
Gratitude
Receiving the items, Mr Yussif expressed his gratitude and called for the establishment of a Psychiatric Hospital in the northern part of the country to serve as a referral facility.
That, he said, would bring relief to parents who now had to rely only on spiritual camps for the treatment of victims. He regretted that society had neglected such people who could have been rehabilitated through proper care.
He said stigmatisation was one of the challenges of mental health and urged the public to put an end to it since mental illness could happen to anyone.