Miss Ghana 2010, Stephanie Karikari has in a show of solidarity and support for mankind spent part of the holiday season with children and supervisors of a dilapidated Day Care Centre in the slums of ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ in Accra.
The initiative, jointly made possible by the management of television network e.tv Ghana and Media Whizz Kids, organizers of the Miss Ghana beauty pageant competition, was to afford the 18 year old an opportunity to put smiles on the faces of the children and their adopted mothers, all in the spirit of the festive season.
Stephanie, through the help of well meaning individuals and corporate bodies, donated hampers to each of the children as well as their mothers and also took note of some of their concerns.
The Day Care Centre, one of many dotted all over the slum, can best be described as a sad story. Operating from a virtually no-ventilated single room with a make-shift kitchen, some hundred and over children are on daily basis taken through the sordid experience of sitting through the heat, sleeping on bare floors, some almost naked with no clothing on and just about anything inhumane.
Mostly children of female head porters otherwise known as “Kayayei”, the students, aged between 1 ½ to 10 years, are left in the care of these mothers, who time and again have proved how overwhelming the task of taking care of these children and its associated health and environmental challenges can be.
A visibly crestfallen Stephanie, who at a point couldn’t hold back her tears, told the mothers of the facility that she, together with well-meaning Ghanaians will ensure that the Centre gets the needed facelift, promising to start some works early this year. The mothers in turn, thanked her for the gesture and promised to put to good use the items donated.
The Sodom and Gomorrah Christmas outreach programme is one of many embarked upon by Stephanie since she was crowned Miss Ghana 2010 some three months ago. The very witty and down-to-earth lady has through her various public engagements, continues to put smiles on the faces of the poor and dejected in Society.