Kosmos Energy supports vulnerable groups with $50,000
As part of its COVID-19 support programme, oil producer Kosmos Energy is distributing $50,000 worth of items and incentives to help the less privileged.
Institutions that are receiving support include the James Camp Prison, the Senior Correction Facility, formerly known as Borstal Home, and the Light Outreach Orphanage, all in Accra.
Under its Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC), the company will also train inmates of the two correctional centres in mushroom, snail and vegetable farming.
As part of the package, Kosmos Energy, in collaboration with the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme, is supporting 400 vulnerable families with food items and incentives to ease their predicament as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 support programme is the second phase of a $100,000 social investment initiative by the company to fight the pandemic.
In the first phase of the initiative, medical supplies, test kits and personal protective equipment were donated to the Ghana Health Service.
Donation
In line with the programme, Kosmos yesterday donated food items to the James Camp Prison and the Light Outreach Orphanage.
The items donated included bags of rice, maize and beans, eggs, cooking oil, tomato paste, onion and noodles.
A sod-cutting ceremony was also performed to launch a sustainability project under the KIC to train the inmates of the prison in mushroom, snail and vegetable farming.
A Senior Vice-President and Head of the Business Unit of Kosmos Energy, Mr Joe Mensah, who led a delegation from the company to present the items, said since the company began operations in 2007, it had embarked on numerous social initiatives as its contribution to the uplift of society.
He said during the outbreak of Ebola in 2014, Kosmos Energy built Ebola treatment centres and was again at the forefront of providing support when the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Rationale
Mr. Mensah explained that the company decided to focus on vulnerable groups because the pandemic had impacted negatively on all and sundry, with the vulnerable in society having suffered the most.
According to him, Kosmos was not only providing relief items for vulnerable groups but also training them in agriculture to help them have a sustainable source of livelihood.
“We are giving the inmates of the correctional institutions training in agriculture, so that they will have something sustainable to live on when they go out. This will make them beneficial to society and to themselves,” he said.
Appreciation
The Greater Accra Regional Commander of the Ghana Prisons Service, Deputy Superintendent of Prisons (DSP) Samuel Agyei Arthur, lauded Kosmos Energy for the support.
He said it would boost the Prison Service’s reformation and transformation programmes.
“I assure you that this agricultural training programme will succeed and be replicated in other prisons. We hope that other undertakings in poultry and aquaculture will be brought on board,” he said.