The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Tema Regional Secretariat at the weekend marked the National Chocolate Day with a donation to the “Save Them Young Mission,” an Orphanage at Ashaiman.
The GTA-Tema Team interacted with the children and caregivers of the orphanage and presented 200 artisanal chocolate products, boxes of cocoa drinks, Personal Protective Equipment, sanitizers, pampers, toiletries, and other confectionery.
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The donation was sponsored by Niche Cocoa Industry Limited and Golden Pod, both private cocoa processing companies in the collaboration with the GTA-Tema Office.
As part of the interaction and to build the essence of the National Chocolate day commemoration in the children; a question and answer session was held on cocoa and the health benefits of cocoa-based products.
Mr Charles Buabin, the Tema GTA Regional Director explained that the ceremony was to climax the week-long National Chocolate Day celebration.
He said Chocolate Day was to draw attention to the need to consume chocolate and other cocoa products as it was the backbone of the country’s economy.
He said hitherto, Valentine’s Day was characterised by social vices, including promiscuity, to minimise such vices associated with the celebration and rather increase awareness on the benefits of consuming chocolate, Ghana adopted the National Chocolate Day.
Mr Buabin said the initiative was commendable and called on Ghanaians to consume more cocoa products to grow the economy and help boost their immunity as it contained an exceptional nutritious value for the human body.
As part of the week-long celebration, he said the Tema Regional Directorate embarked on a sensitization drive through radio programmes, to educate Ghanaians on the health benefits of consuming cocoa products to help boost domestic tourism and promote Ghana as a preferred chocolate destination.
Madam Linda Opoku Amoabeng, Administrator, Save Them Young Mission-orphanage, who received the items expressed appreciation to GTA and noted that the orphanage which was founded 25 years ago, sheltered and cared for about 80 children some of whom have special needs.
She said, “some of the children have special needs and only a few of them have medical insurance making it extremely difficult to care for them in the event of injury”.
She said the goal of the orphanage was to get the children registered onto the National Health Insurance Scheme, notng that with the increasing number of children at the home and their unwavering strive to provide a home and quality care for them, the orphanage was barely able to meet the basic needs of the children.
The orphanage’s current needs include: food, payment of utility and medical bills, fumigation of children’s quarters against mites and bed bugs on a sustained basis, toiletries, educational support, and materials amongst others.
Madam Amoabeng, therefore, called on individuals and benevolent organisations to support the orphanage.
The National Chocolate Day which falls on February 14 each year was instituted by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in collaboration with Ghana Tourism Authority and other stakeholders to create awareness on the need for Ghanaians to patronise cocoa products and to help generate more revenue for national development.
Under the auspices of the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry, this year’s celebration was on the theme: “Eat Chocolate, Stay Healthy, Grow Ghana” and was purposely planned to coincide with Valentine’s Day – on which occasion more people are thought to consume chocolate and other cocoa products.
