Easter Soup Kitchen - In The Spirit Of Given

This Sunday I had the privilege of working as volunteer on Easter Soup kitchen which was both an eye opener for me and also brought some disappointment to me in observing the attitude of our politicians. Please not one should take this to mean a criticism of the Government rather this piece should be seen as our collective failure to prevent a situation which can snowball into catastrophe the future. We all agree that social support for the underprivileged in the country is non existence this can be seen by the share number of people who turn up at the Afua Southerland Park to partake in the soup kitchen. I give thanks to Joy FM and their sponsors and donors who contribute to this year soup kitchen. The exercise provided meal for over twenty thousand and at the end of the day more people went back to the street hungry because this is not an exercise which JoyFM alone can handle.

So what makes me disappointed? I will tell you, what has been successive government PLAN to stem the flow of young girls from the Northern Ghana to Accra to be enslaved as kayayo? It pains my heart that we cannot find lasting solution to cater for people whose only reason for coming to Accra is to make some money to purchase perhaps a sewing machine. There has been argument that government and NGOs has attempted to provide such facility to those in Accra and still they recipients have fail to use the machines to learn trade. The true situation is that once you allow them to come to Accra and get used to making money they will not want to learn the trade. Get them to learn the trade before they attempt to come to the City. There are so many of these girls WHO are themselves babies yet they have kids at their back. What a shame? Maybe Joy FM will continue to provide the soup kitchen for those in Accra but it time to change Government tactics in dealing with the situation.



Another observation on Sunday event is that three government ministers came to the place to make night speeches. I hope the Minister for Communication and the two deputies who showed up the place have had a second taught about not coming to such a place with just speeches. 1000 takeaway packs from each one of them will have gone a long way to provide enough food for the victims of our lack of social safety net.



For the past 10 years Joy Fm have undertaken this laudable event without any government assistance, Social Welfare Ministry and more corporate organizations should get involved to at least provide a one day joy for the street people. I will personally contribute for the next December soup Kitchen.

Thank you JOY FM, your sponsors and all volunteers for supporting a good cause.



Joseph Ampomah Adu