The Rebecca Foundation, as part of efforts to mitigate economic suffering brought about by the Covid-19 Pandemic and regulations to control its spread, today launched THE REBECCA FOUNDATION RELIEF BOXES CHALLENGE in Accra.
The initiative, which is in partnership with corporate Ghana and other partners, will work towards supporting the most vulnerable women who will have difficulties in providing food as well as basic hygiene products for themselves and their families in light of the current situation.
The Rebecca Foundation Relief Boxes Challenge will focus on giving out food and personal hygiene and sanitary items to members of identifiable groups who are adversely impacted by the current Covid-19 situation including Kayayei, the aged, the destitute and single mothers who live in the poorest communities and will be done in partnership with the private sector, civil society organisations and various state agencies.
Giving a background to the initiative at the launch in Accra today, Executive Director of The Rebecca Foundation and First Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Mrs Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo said the Covid-19 global pandemic has brought about significant changes in the way social and economic interaction is carried out which has adversely affected many, particularly women and children.
She said with the current situation where schools are closed and economic activities curbed, socio-economic burdens especially for the very vulnerable, mostly women, have significantly increased.
“Women tend to be the primary care givers in households. They need to provide extra food and allot extra supervision time for the extra hours children are at home, as well as in some cases care for other vulnerable members of their families.
Additionally, more women than men who live in the lock-down zone of Accra and Kumasi are engaged in the informal sector, earning their wages on a day to day basis in many cases. Hence the current shutdown and complete closure of economic activities for the next fourteen (14) days, will spell out great difficulties for women who are employed in the informal sector.”
She said the ultimate objective of the initiative is to provide some respite from the social and economic hardship consequent from Covid-19 firstly, to ensure that children, women of childbearing age and the aged, regardless of the current situation, have at the very minimum, one healthy meal a day for the next 14 days and secondly to ensure also that families have access to hygiene products that enable them to stay in line with the WHO recommended standards for reducing infection from Covid – 19.
Mrs Akufo-Addo announced The Rebecca Foundation’s very first partnership with Orca Décor Ltd under The Rebecca Foundation Relief Boxes Challenge who provided the first five thousand (5,000) boxes of food and essential hygiene products to needy families in Accra.
Items contained in each box include Chocolate drink, milk, sugar, biscuits, Gari, KokoPlus, Rice, oil, canned tomatoes, canned meat/fish, hand sanitisers and sanitary pads.
Mrs Akufo-Addo said the 5,000 boxes of relief items donated by Orca Décor Ltd. presents the platform for other corporate organisations and individuals to follow suit by supporting The Rebecca Foundation with equal or more boxes of relief items to be supplied to needy and vulnerable families.
The First Lady also congratulated corporate institutions and other bodies who have already made donations towards alleviating the hardships that have arisen because of the health menace stating that, “the current Covid-19 situation should guide us to be each other’s keeper in ensuring that we halt or slow down the process of spreading the infection.”
Below is a list of target beneficiaries of the first 5,000 boxes of relief items:
- KAYAYEI: CMB, Tema Station, Tudu, Arts Centre, Agbogbloshie, Darkuman, Malata Market, Madina, Dome and Nima market
- ELDERLY: Bortianor, Ayigbe Town, Osu, Accra Central, Avenor, Nima and Kumasi
- SINGLE MOTHERS IN POOR COMMUNITIES: Accra Central, Mamprobi, Chorkor, Santana Market, Kumasi and Osu.
- WIDOWS: Kumasi, Teshie, Nungua and Santana Market