The Ghana Report Foundation supports Ghana Journalists Association with Covid-19 safety materials

The Ghana Report Foundation, the corporate social responsibility wing of theghanareport.com, has donated items worth GH₵ 70,000 to the Ghana Journalists Association.

The items included 2,500 face masks; 1,000 FDA-sanctioned hand sanitisers; 100 face shields; 100 pieces of the now-famous Veronica buckets; 100 washing bins and waste bins plus 100 pieces of liquid soaps.

The items were presented to the GJA President, Affail Monney, on Tuesday in the presence of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) executives at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra.

They are to be distributed to media houses and journalists for their frontline reportage in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far infected 1,042 persons in Ghana, with 99 recoveries within the past few days. Nine have died, including the Rector of the Ghana College Physicians and Surgeons.

Aware of the dangers associated with coronavirus, the Managing Director of The Ghana Report Foundation, Rashida Saani Nasamu, told a pool of reporters that the Foundation intended to donate to hospitals in need of some safety materials to help observe protocols such as wearing nose mask or face shields at all times as directed by the president.

She explained that the Foundation, springing from a media portal theghanareport.com, wanted to solidarise first with colleague professionals in the media industry who risked their lives in the face of the 2020 biggest health and socio-economic crisis.

“You are the frontline as well…so we thought we should offer some kind of protection through our corporate social responsibility.”

She quantified the support to the GJA and other institutions to about GH₵ 150,000.

Apart from the GJA, hospitals like the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and the  Ashaiman Polyclinic in Accra are next in line to receive the donations.

“We believe that we do not just have to tell the stories.We have to go beyond the reportage to help society and give solutions to the marginalised,” she explained the motivation.

She mentioned theghanareport.com which did a story on a WASSCE leaver, Mavis Ayamdo, who had to shelve her education to work in a bakery because of financial difficulties.

But through theghanareport.com highlight of her plight, teeming readers have supported her on her way to pursue a university education.

She also mentioned donations to help a Ghanaian, Michael who was in the Upper East Region, who needed support to remove a tumour.

While these corporate social initiatives have been on the quiet, coronavirus has proved Ghana is not in normal times hence the need to step up the level of corporate support.

Rating the items, GJA President Affail Monney said he felt “dazzled” by the sheer quantity of materials presented by The Ghana Report Foundation.

“We have a lot of people who pretend to be our friends, and many are those who turn their backs on us when we need them most.”

He weighed in on the government’s removal of partial lockdown restrictions and said it should not mean a relaxation in attitudes towards the safety measures in fighting the pandemic.

Mr. Monney said, “the lifting of the ban does not obscure the fact that COVID-19 is still devastating…if we do not rise up to face it squarely.”

He warned against complacency and a backsliding in the media responsibility to keep an eye on the COVID-19 ball.

He praised The Ghana Report Foundation for making the donation to reinforce the need to ensure that coronavirus was defeated in Ghana.

Mr. Monney described the donation as “extraordinary” gesture to galvanise and rally other media houses to do more in informing the public while also lending support to vulnerable persons and organisation.

“Indeed, not all of us are infected, but all of us our affected,” he pointed out.

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