DECENT ACCOMMODATION FOR WEIJA LEPROSARIUM, COURTESY LAC &GLOBAL HAULAGE COMPANY

By Felix Engsalige Nyaaba

The Leper Aid Committee (LAC) over the weekend put smiles on the faces of Lepers at the Weija Lerporisium in Accra when it commissioned a three –bedroom house with other facilities for the vulnerable.

The   three bedroom house contained offices for nurses, a store, Kitchen and washrooms and was put up by the Leper Aid Committee in collaboration with Global Haulage Company limited.

The commissioning of the house surprised many, especially the inmate of the Leprosarium who never expected that they would ever get such a magnificent edifice since their appeal to philanthropists over their dilapidated structures which they had lived in for over 60 years have yielded no positive results.

The three bedroom house with a large hall would accommodate Lepers to enable the Committee to renovate the old structures which are all in a deplorable condition for the inmates.

In an address at a ceremony to commission the project, the Chairman for the Lepers Aid Committee, Reverend Father Andrew Campbell said, the commissioning of the three bed room for the Lepers was long overdue stressing that the inmates have been living in bad condition for years and that it was time the society should showed them love.

He said, the only thing the society could give to the lepers was to provide them with suitable accommodation and other basic necessities, so they could also live as humans.

According to Rev. Fr Cambell, through fund raising, the Committee was able to raise an amount of GH¢100 million while the Global Haulage Company Limited through an appeal also donated GH¢60 million, to put up the facility.

He noted that Leprosy is God making disease which any one could fall victim to and called on  Ghanaians , especially philanthropists, organizations and other bodies to assist the Leper Aid Committee to provide better living conditions  for the inmates in view of the fact that most of them are been neglected by their family and relatives.

The Chairman of the Lepers Aid Committee also stated that, the 26 pesewa susidey provided to the inmate by the government was woefully inadequate and appealed to government to consider increasing the subsidy so the lepers could sustain a meaningful living.

The lepers, according to Fr. Cambell, “Were given GH¢2.00 subsidy for three months by the common fund and after that the inmate would have nothing to live on either than the 26 pesewa.”

Mr. Andrew Agyekum, Human Resource Manager of the Global Haulage Company Limited, said the company was touched by the plight of the Lepers and has decided to do what it could to make them live as part of human beings.

He said, beside the company contribution in putting up the residential structure for the Lepers, it would continue to support the inmate annually as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility to make the living condition of the inmate better.

There were also good will messages and cash donation from other Churches, organizations and schools present to grace the occasion.

The Leper Aid Committee later on disclosed that, on September 1, this year it would organize a fund raising 10 km walk  to support the lepers , especially those in the Volta and Upper West regions .