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UCSOND provides PPEs to vulnerable, institutions in Nzemaland
United Civil Society Organisation for National Development (UCSOND) with funding from CARE International has donated Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) to people with disabilities, female headed households and second cycle institutions in the Nzemaland to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The items included 60 Veronica buckets and their stands, 500 sanitisers, 900 posters on COVID-19, 60 receptacles, 1,000 nose masks, a quantity of liquid soap and tissue.
UCSOND is operating in the six coastal districts and Wassa Amenfi East all in the Western Region.
The Executive Director of UCSOND, Mr Wisdom Quaiku said the items were mainly for people with disabilities (PWDs), the vulnerable, female headed households and second cycle institutions in the Nzema East municipality, Ellembelle and Jomoro districts.
He said this class of people due to their situations could not get to most of the centres where the PPEs were distributed to the citizens.
The Executive Director noted that since UCSOND was working with PWDs and had a data on them, they could easily reach their locations with the addresses they had.
Mr Quaiku said most of the PWDs were in areas hard to reach and it was the duty of UCSOND with the assistance of NADMO and the assembly members to serve these people to fight the pandemic.
He added that jingles made in Nzema and Fante would be played in the three FM stations and all local community radio stations in the three districts to educate the people on how to follow the protocols laid down by the World Health Organisation and the Ghana Health Service.
He said the 900 posters would be pasted on public notice boards and intersections in all over the districts to remind people that the fight against COVID-19 was ongoing.
The Executive Director appealed to the people to follow the handwashing religiously, keep the social distance and avoid going to public places in order to curb the spread of the pandemic adding, “Don’t politicise the disease because no sickness knows the various political parties.”
The Nzema East Municipal Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and a member of the COVID-19 Team, Mr Anthony Ernest Amoah who received the items on behalf of the people thanked UCSOND and CARE International for thinking of the vulnerable.
He said UCSOND had always been a great stakeholder of the assemblies and at this critical time that all Ghanaians were fighting the pandemic, it was good to reach out to the less-privileged.
Mr Amoah told the NGO that the items would reach the people they were meant for so that together we would fight COVID-19.
FROM PETER GBAMBILA, NSEIN
News
UNODC partners GFA Foundation on Prison advocacy and mentorship programme
The GFA Foundation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have agreed to work together to advocate for anti-discrimination and the elimination of stigmatization for prisoners and prisons.
This partnership was agreed, in principle, during a meeting at the Home of Football (GFA Head Office) between the Director of the GFA Foundation and the UNODC Team led by Mr. Christoph Capelle, an Associate Expert in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice and the Coordinator of the prison and penal reform project in Ghana.
Welcoming the Team to the Home of Football, the Director of the GFA Foundation, Mr. Malcolm Frazier Appeadu briefed the team about the GFA Foundation – Ghana Prisons Project which has covered 6 prisons across the country already.
He indicated that the Foundation is liaising with the Ghana Prisons Service to commence the second and third pillars of the project, which are the coaches and referees training programs as well as the advocacy and mentorship initiatives.
He said that the GFA Foundation will welcome partners for the execution of the second phase of the project which will include Ankaful Maximum Security Prison, Kumasi Central Prison, Sekondi Central Prison and three other prison facilities.
In his response, Mr. Christoph Capelle commended the GFA for the GFA Foundation – Ghana Prisons Project which seeks to use the power of football to promote the wellbeing, reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates of Ghana’s prisons into society.
Mr. Capelle said that UNODC is looking forward to a collaboration with the GFA Foundation on possible programs for both the medium and long term to support football and sports jobs and skills development in Ghana’s prisons.
He extended an invitation to the GFA Foundation to be part of an assessment of overall prison rehabilitation programmes including the use of sports by their international consultant at the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison.
There will be a football match and donation of footballs, sports items and equipment to the prison facility.
Present at the meeting were Mr. Kwame Koramoah, an officer at the GFA Foundation and Integrity Office, Helena Adobea Ofori, Associate Programme Officer, UNODC and Caleb Elorm Agodzo, Administrative Officer, UNODC.
It will be recalled that in 2020, The UNODC and FIFA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to tackle corruption and crime in and through sports and pledged to consider ways in which football can be used as a vehicle to strengthen youth resilience to crime and substance use through the provision of life skills training.
The MOU was renewed last year by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
News
Gomoa West: NPP, NDC supporters clash over commissioning of DRIP equipment
Supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on Monday morning clashed over the commissioning of machinery for the District Road Infrastructure Project in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region.
According to Citi News sources, the conflict began when NDC supporters questioned the decision to display images of Bismark Basie Nkum, the NPP’s Gomoa West parliamentary candidate on the DRIP machinery.
This disagreement quickly escalated, almost leading to a physical altercation between the two groups.
Baisie Nkum, who doubles as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Gomoa West, further claimed that the Member of Parliament for the area, Richard Gyan Mensah, brandished a pistol and issued threats against the NPP’s local leadership.
A viral video circulating on social media captured the DCE accusing MP Richard Gyan Mensah of pulling out a gun and threatening NPP supporters during the heated incident.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
