Albert Dwumfour, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has charged media practitioners to use their platforms to highlight the challenges and court support for the less advantaged in society.

He said that would ensure that their challenges were made known to the appropriate authorities and benevolent groups to help address them.

Dwumfour made the call when he donated GH¢80,000 worth of items to two children’s homes in the Awutu Senya West District of the Central Region, over the weekend.

The beneficiary orphanages were the Faith Needy Children’s Home at Awutu Bewuanum and the Countryside Children’s Welfare Home at Awutu Bawjiase.

Items donated included cartons of milk, washing powder, detergents, toiletries, toothpaste, sachets of water, gallons of cooking oil, drinks, bags of sugar, sanitary pads, rice, gari and medicines.

A cash amount of GH¢5,000 and GH¢6,200 were also presented to the Faith Needy Children’s Home and the Countryside Children’s Welfare Home, respectively.

Dwumfour bemoaned the poor conditions under which the people in those towns lived, observing their rejection and dejection, and called for more support for them to alleviate their plights.

“Look at a town like Bewuanum. This is a location where if you don’t get somebody to drive you in or direct you, you will never find it. There is no way you can locate such persons. These people need us, these people feel alienated, these people feel dejected, and they actually don’t feel part of humans or part of the people (society). They feel ignored and abandoned,” Dwumfour bemoaned.

He, therefore, charged journalists to highlight the plights of such persons to ensure they received the needed attention.

“As the president of all the journalists in the country, I call on all media practitioners, especially morning show hosts, that they should give more attention to the less advantaged.

“As media, our platform is the pen and the microphone. Let’s use these platforms to champion and propagate the plight of the less advantaged in society, those who may have been rejected or shunned by society. Let’s look out for them and ensure help reach them,” he said.

Dwumfour was accompanied by family members, some members of the Association, veteran journalists, friends and well-wishers.

He said the donation was a directive from the Bible, which required Christians to share love and happiness, especially with the less privileged in society during Christmas.

“It is written in the Bible that he who shows love to the poor will never be poor because God loves a cheerful giver. And it has also been written in the book of Proverbs that, he who donates to the poor lends to God. So, whatever we have done, it is a directive,” he said.

“Per the spirit as Christians, we know that Christmas is a season of love because Christmas is a season of remembrance of the Saviour Jesus Christ. It (Christmas) is a time and period of the season where we all dine with families, and loved ones and also share whatever we have, put smiles on the faces of others,” he added.

Dwumfour added that the gesture was just the first of many to come in the years ahead, saying “This is not going to be a one-off path, but a path which is going to be an annual ritual, something we are going to do annually, to show love to the needy and to show love to the orphans.”

He appealed to benevolent individuals, groups and corporate organisations, to extend their help beyond the notable orphanages in the cities to reach those in the hinterlands to alleviate their plights.

Managers of the two orphanages thanked the GJA President for the kind gesture and assured him that the donated items would be used for the right purposes for the betterment of the children.

Mary Acquah, Manager of Faith Needy Children’s Home, said the items would help alleviate the plights of the children beyond the festive period.

She appealed to benevolent individuals and groups to assist the orphanage in improving its infrastructure to better deliver on its mandate.

Ernest Osei Owusu, Administrator of Countryside Children’s Welfare Home, disclosed that the Home had been blessed with a water treatment plant, which enabled it to produce sachet drinking water in commercial quantity.

However, he explained that the Home was unable to meet the increased demand due to inadequate delivery trucks.

He, therefore, appealed to corporate institutions and individuals to assist it in acquiring additional trucks to enable it to expand its delivery operations and generate more income to fund the operations of the Home.