The Greater Accra Regional Office of the Ghana Red Cross Society has distributed food items to 150 households with degrees of vulnerability in the Ashaiman Municipality as part of efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The distribution, which targeted persons in the Zongo Laka neighbourhood in Ashaiman, was sponsored by the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society with focus on the vulnerable in Muslim communities.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the programme, the Greater Accra Regional Manageress of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Madam Catherine Adasu, said the gesture was necessary because the COVID-19 pandemic had brought hardship to the vulnerable.

Madam Adasu informed that with the help of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, “We identified Zongo Laka as one of the areas to be supported. We are giving them rice, oil, mats, soap, tin tomatoes, canned fish, etc. to support them.”

“Many of the women you see here are old, some have lost their jobs, some are not able to trade and some are equally unemployed, and with the COVID-19 lockdown and many things that went wrong, the impact on families have been enormous,” Madam Adasu said.

She said this was the third time the Ghana Red Cross was embarking on such exercise across the country which had helped to alleviate the suffering of many families.

Madam Adasu called on organizations to partner them to help the vulnerable, adding that, “We know where they are; we know where they live, so let’s help them to make sure that the COVID-19 impact on their household would be minimized.”

The Disaster Manager, Ghana Red Cross Headquarters, Mr. Jonathan Hope, informed that in determining who was qualified for the aid, they conducted a vulnerability capacity assessment with the help of the Zongo Laka Imam who knew the people in the community, and then they did a validation to see if the selected persons met the criteria.

Mr. Hope said during the lockdown, Ghana Red Cross Society in collaboration with Nestle Ghana Limited supported 50, 000 households with Nestle products and hoped to reach more people with assistance from corporate organizations.

In this particular exercise, the Red Cross distributed food items to 150 families with 960 household members and veronica buckets to some of the local mosques.