Wa, Naa Seidu Braimah, a former Member of Council of State has donated to support a vulnerable family in Wali-Sombo after the Ghana News Agency’s (GNA) report exposed the plight of the struggling family.
The support included three 50kg bags of rice, one gallon of oil, and a cash amount of money for their upkeep.
Ms. Lilian Kpelle, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare who presented the items to the family on behalf of Naa Braimah encouraged the family to make the most out of it and hope for the best.
She said even though Wali-Sombo was not part of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, they were still going to treat the family’s plight as a special case and get them enrolled to benefit from the programme.
Meanwhile, the Department of Gender in the Upper West Region has also initiated processes to support in roofing the structure accommodating the vulnerable family to address the challenge of bad leakage.
Speaking to the GNA earlier after reading the story, Naa Braimah described the family’s plight as very pathetic and touching, hence, his decision to offer them his widow’s might to support their feeding.
Naa Braimah who is also the Chief of Guli community in the Wa Municipality hoped that other people would be touched by the plight of the family to come to their aid to help alleviate their suffering.
He said without the necessary support, the six children of the vulnerable couple could become a burden on society and could contribute to increased crime and other social vices.
Naa Braimah lauded the GNA for putting an eye on under-reported issues in society especially on issues of vulnerability which according to him was pervasive.
In a feature article titled: “Surviving poverty and vulnerability: Woman labours hard for sick husband and children”, the GNA explored the daily struggles of Rahinatu Abu, 37, to feed six children and the husband, Abu Naabau, 76, and is down with stroke.
The feature also looked at Ghana’s social protection systems and their failure to provide the necessary protection for the vulnerable family despite the country being a signatory to a number of international human rights conventions and protocols and how that constituted a violation of the family’s human rights and dignity.
Currently, Rahinatu Abu’s main work is to harvest and split wood, then carry to the market to sell for little amounts of money to be able to put food on the table for the family.
Additionally, she burns charcoal and sells wild fruits in the market to support the upkeep of her family.
Despite the hand-to-mouth related struggles, the family still can find good sleep especially in this period of the rainy season due to the bad leakages of the roof.
Two of her children have already dropped out of school.
The Feature was developed under the “Mobilizing Media for Fighting COVID-19 project being implemented by the Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) in collaboration with the Ghana Journalists Association”.
Source: Ghana News Agency
