The National Council of Catholic Women, in partnership with the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women of Navrongo-Bolgatanga, has donated food and other items to asylum seekers at Tarikom, a refugee reception and resettlement centre in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region.
The donation, worth about GH₵11,500 consisted of bags of rice, maize, millet, groundnut, gallons of cooking oil, vegetables and other local ingredients.
Other items included liquid soap, bathing and washing soap, footwear, clothes including African print, toilet rolls and toothpaste.
The donation, which coincided with the celebration of the Eid-ul-Fitr, was part of the activities and mission of the Catholic Women to support vulnerable and displaced persons, particularly women and children to live dignified lives.
Currently, about 1,129 asylum seekers are being hosted at the Centre due to fctivities of violent extremists in some parts of Burkina Faso, which compelled many to seek refuge in Ghana.
Most of them are women and children.
The Council of Catholic Women comprises representatives of the various women groups in the Catholic Church who work to support, empower and educate Catholic women in spirituality, leadership and service and provide relief to vulnerable people in society.
On the sidelines of the exercise, Dame Cecilia Asobayire, the National President, National Council of Catholic Women, told the Ghana News Agency that one of the thematic areas of the Council was to support women and the less privileged.
Most of the asylum seekers were Moslems, and it was refreshing for the Council to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr with them, she said.
“We know they are really traumatised because they have left their homes forcefully and some of them are separated from close relatives and don’t even know when and where they can find them.
It is really difficult to live in a strange place,” she said.
“So, we the Council of Catholic Women think that by doing this we will be able to transform some lives, bring some joy and inner peace to them so that they will know that they are not alone.”
Dame Asobayire reiterated the fact that women and children suffered the most in times of violence, which the youth were often used to perpetuate.
“We need to speak to our fellow women, to speak to our children so that they do not allow people to use them to perpetuate violence,” she added.
She appealed to other humanitarian, civil society and non-governmental organisations and philanthropists to assist the asylum seekers to live dignified lives.
Mr Adam Mohammed, the Camp Manager, Tarikom Resettlement Centre, thanked the Council of Catholic Women for the gesture and said it would complement the humanitarian efforts made so far.
