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The theme of food distribution was called ‘Basket of Hope’ and that was to give hope to the elderly women and men their families that live in extreme poverty and unable to feed for themselves in Glefe and Gbegbeyise, located on the coastal region of Greater, Accra region.
Due to its location, the community is a waterlogged slums community along the Atlantic Ocean, near Dansoman in the Ablekuma West Municipality of Greater Accra. It is a highly densely populated, and the inhabitants mostly engage in small- scale fishing activities and petty trading for local revenue generations.
The housing of the communities is built using poor wooden structures, and given its’ location at the sea, it is at the mercy of ensuing storms, and a major concern of most residents is the absence of proper drains, which means that when it rains the whole communities; properties and houses submerge in water or wash away by the floods. In view of this loss, communities and individual property owners often spend lots of money to protect and to rebuild their houses, properties and to gather whatever is left of the damages. There is no flood insurance to claim, and the communities and individuals scramble to find a place to live with family members or friends.
Due to increased coastal erosion as a result of high population growth and other factors such as storm events, seasonal fluctuations in wave energy and changes in sea level, the coastal area of the community continues to change. The changes have a significant environmental impact on the community that results in coastal erosion, threatens life and property and affects the socio-economic life of the community.
Sanitation is a major challenge in the community. There is a refuse dump that serves most part of Greater Accra region that, sandwiched between a public toilet and the lagoon and serve as a dumping ground for Greater Accra region. This poses serious health crisis to the inhabitants and the welfare of families, women, children and infants that live in the communities. Communicable diseases such as malaria, typhoid and fever among residents are also high.
The community does not have a single health facility. According to residents, the only health facility in the area had been shut down because whenever it rains, the clinic also gets flooded. In the absence of a health facility, the resident of the community that get sick seek medical attention at Dansoman or Korle Bu Hospital about 45 minutes’ drive away.
Given the impoverished conditions of the inhabitants (women, children and infants) of Glefe, Bread of Life international decided to collaborate with SOS Children’s Village, a non-governmental organization focus on supporting children without parental care to reach out to that impoverished Glefe community and provide food supplies, “Basket of Hope” to the 25 families that have poor elderly women and men in the community.
What were in the basket? The baskets were filled with assortment of food supplies – bag of rice, oil, tin tomatoes, geisha, Maggie, coke, biscuit, malt and Don Simon, drinks and much more that will last 3-4 months of food supplies.
With volunteers from SOS Children’s Village Tema, external volunteers, and the Assembly Member from the communities, we safely distributed food supplies to 25 families that have elderly men and women living in poverty. The food supplies could last between three and four months.
The elderly women, men and their families were grateful and appreciated and surprise for the food supplies. It came at a good time during the Christmas festivity holidays where everyone was celebrating and also at a time where the economic situation in the country has worsened due to fluctuation of currency that has resulted increased in food prices in the country.
Bread of Life International will like to thank all our donors that contributed to our Food Assistance Aid Programs targeting impoverish Families (women, infants & children). Without their contribution, we could not execute the project.
We would also like to extend our sincere gratitude to Alex Kekula, National Director of SOS Children’s Village, Tema, Ghana, Godknows Kporha, the National Youth Development Advisor, the FS Coordinator, Youth Development Worker, the Assembly Member and staff of DSW and SOS Children’s Volunteer Youth and other that collaborated with Bread of Life International to safely distributed the food.
There are many poor and impoverished elderlies that we would like to reach out and support. You can join us by donating $20 per month that will go towards providing food supplies to the erldery that are hungry and hurting.
