Dr Bawumia cuts sod for Mother Teresa Soup Kitchen

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, last Tuesday cut the sod for work to commence on the Mother Teresa Soup Kitchen at the Sempe Cluster of Schools in the Mamprobi suburb of Accra.

The project was made possible through the collaboration of the Vice-President, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, and his foundation, which Dr Bawumia said, had been instrumental and was one of the biggest partners of the project.

When the project takes off, Dr Bawumia said, it would be the biggest action by a private individual and a non-governmental organisation against the menace of street children in the country.

He said the swift action and interest in the project by the Ga Mantse was admirable and humbling, and commended him for his passion for the needy and underprivileged.

Government policy

Describing the Christ the King Soup Kitchen as a bold move to end “streetism” in Ghana, the Vice-President said the initiative was in line with the government’s policy on gender, children and social protection where major interventions had been made by the government, and that “we hope to do even more come next year when I form a new government by the grace of God”.

He said the project would eventually take children off the street, starting from the Mamprobi community and propel it nationwide. He expressed the hope that the canker of street children would end as the government provided a conducive environment for teaching, learning and skills development for children.

“We can all take this as a challenge to help to develop our country. We can help everyone out of poverty and other challenging situations by taking up a project like Father Campbell did when he arrived in Ghana in 1971.

“He decided to help, and today, he cares for all these marginalised people in our society,” Dr Bawumia added. As a government, he said, “we are committed to facilitate the provisions of the foundation, and we can be certain that help to Father Campbell is help to Ghanaians”.

Vice-President Bawumia said Father Campbell represented the very least of the downtrodden in society, and that they had hope in him. “We cannot let him down on this mission,” he added.

Sponsorship

Dr Bawumia said he had sponsored many of the beneficiaries of the soup kitchen, and mentioned that he continued to support those who were able to sail through formal education and technical education.

“I have personally visited the soup kitchen on many occasions not only for events like this, but to interact with the beneficiaries, and I must admit that many of them are very intelligent and decent children who only lacked the opportunity some of us got,” he stated.

On the Mamprobi Sempe Mother Teresa Soup Kitchen, he said the project dovetailed into the programme of the government for the redevelopment of the enclave, and gave an assurance that ongoing GETFund projects would be expedited and completed.

He also assured stakeholders that security concerns on access to the school and project site would be dealt with by the construction of a wall around the entire facility.

Soup Kitchen

The Mother Teresa Soup Kitchen was started seven years ago at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Cantonments by Rev. Fr Andrew Campbell to provide relief to needy children on the street who regularly besieged the premises of the church to seek help to buy food and for other assistance.

It provides hot meals a day to each street child, and facilitates skills acquisition, educational and health needs. It plans in the future to build a training centre at Adentan, with additional residential facilities for street children.

The Minister of Education, Dr Adutwum, promised to transform the Sempe Cluster of Schools and its structures, announcing that the community would be hosting one of the Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics schools with a wall to secure the school.

King Teiko Tsuru urged the Minister of Education to prioritise the modernisation of the Mamprobi Cluster of Schools, as well as the Ga Sempe School, and said efforts must be made to complete that project as well.

The Ga Mantse also called for the upgrading of the Mamprobi Methodist Basic School, and assured the stakeholders of the support of the Ga Mantse Foundation, the Ga Traditional Council and the Office of the Ga Mantse towards the projects.

The Convener of the Mother Teresa Soup Kitchen, Rev. Fr Campbell, was full of praise to parishioners of the Christ the King Catholic Church for their support over the years for the soup kitchen project.

He said after leaving Christ the King three years ago, he had a vision of starting another soup kitchen in honour of Mother Teresa, and added that with the cutting of the sod, the vision was being realised.

Using his own life story as an example, Rev. Fr Campbell said he could have ended up as a street child but for the benevolence of others. He, therefore, encouraged all street children to leave the streets because they could pursue their dreams with support.