The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated new facilities and educational programs in two remote villages of the Volta Region in Ghana to help students overcome learning challenges.
On March 21, students, teachers and education officials in the West Africa nation celebrated the donation with dance and speeches.
Then, on April 24, the Church donated equipment to six medical facilities in the Eastern Region of Ghana to augment training from the Church in maternal and neonatal care.
The efforts are a part of the Church’s global initiative for women and children as led by the Relief Society. This initiative seeks the greatest possible impact by putting money into efforts that particularly bless the lives of women and children younger than 5 — through the areas of maternal and newborn care, child nutrition efforts, immunizations and education worldwide.
For the educational donations, the Church worked with Right To Play, a global nongovernmental organization.
In his remarks to the audience at the official ceremony, Elder Samuel Annan-Simons, an Area Seventy, quoted Church President Russell M. Nelson: “In the Church, obtaining an education and getting knowledge are a religious responsibility. We educate our minds so that one day we can render service of worth to somebody else” (“Focus on Values,” February 2013, New Era magazine).
Elder Annan-Simons concluded, “We want you to know that we love you, and this is our effort in trying to live the teachings of Jesus Christ, which is to love God and to love our fellow man.”
For the project involving the six medical facilities with Ghana Health Services, the Church gave funding to Jhpiego, a nonprofit organization focused on international health, which has a presence in the country, reported the Church’s Africa Newsroom. Donations included hand-held Doppler scanners to check babies’ heartbeats in the womb, ultrasound devices, stethoscopes, bag and mask resuscitators and oxygen tanks.
Representatives of the Church provided oversight of the training, including Elder Michael Visick, a pediatrician who is serving as a senior Humanitarian Services missionary.
At the handover event, Elder Visick spoke about the offerings Church members make all over the world to care for their brothers and sisters in need.
“This capacity building and this equipment doesn’t come to you from a government with an agenda. This comes to you from members of the Church — mothers, fathers, who have sacrificed because they feel that our God does not want mothers to die, and He doesn’t want babies to die. We want you to know that these members care about you in Ghana,“ Elder Visick said.
President Kenneth S. Okonkwo, second counselor in the Koforidua Ghana Stake presidency, told the audience that the equipment donation is a symbol of the Church’s core values of love and the importance of life.
“We believe that the worth of the soul, or the worth of life, is very important to our Father in Heaven,” he said.
Donations to a prison and dispatch center in Ghana
Other donations throughout Ghana also sought to improve the lives of those in need.
The Church donated a solid waste incinerator to the Ho Teaching Hospital on March 4, in the Volta Region of Ghana, to help the hospital meet the community’s growing needs.
Then on March 17, the Church gave computer equipment, sewing machines, weaving looms and more to Wa Central Prison in the Upper West Region of Ghana. This will allow inmates to acquire skills to earn a living upon their release, reported Africa Newsroom.
On April 4, the Ghana National Ambulance Service welcomed the donation of a renovated and refurbished emergency dispatch center thanks to funding from the Church and efforts from The Hunger Project.
Earlier in March, the Church donated special ambulances to help thousands of people in 10 districts in Ghana. The modified motorized tricycle ambulances are all-terrain mini-ambulances, and can reach communities that traditional ambulances can’t.
President Desmond O. Anom, president of the Koforidua Ghana Stake, referenced James 2:8 saying, “‘If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well.’ So today we are here to fulfill the law that every Christian is supposed to fill to help the children of God. This is what the Church stands for, to help our neighbors. Helping the ambulance service is not helping the company, we are helping the individuals.”
