SIC LIFE DONATES TO FLOOD VICTIMS (MIRROR, SEPT 19, 2009, PAGE 35)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover,
Bolgatanga

SIC Life Company has donated a cheque for GH¢3,000 and food items as well as clothing valued at GH¢4,000 to support relief agencies to assist people in the Balgatanga Municipality who were affected by recent floods that hit the Upper East Region.
This was in reponse to an appeal made to it by the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Mr Akolbire Opam-Brown.
The items were 10 bags of rice, 25 bags of maize, five bags of millet, nine bales of second hand clothing and two boxes of assorted clothing, shoes, slippers donated by staff of the company.
The Managing Director of SIC Life, Mr Abdul-Rahman Anafure, said the gesture was part of the company’s social responsibility to assist those who were affected by the floods.
He commended the management of the Metro Mass Transit for transporting the items free of charge from Accra to Bolgatanga.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Amuni, receiving the items, thanked the Company and appealed to other companies to emulate the example.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Bolgantanga, Mr Epsona Ayamga, said about 500 people have so far been displaced by the flood in the Binduri community after the Nafkoliga River broke its banks and were staying with relatives and friends.
Large acreage of farm lands have been submerged.
Speaking to The Mirror after a tour of the area, most of the farmers said they were taking advantage of the fertile nature of the soil to farm close to the river, as a result of difficulty in accessing fertilizers to support their farming activites.
They said foodstuffs mainly maize, sweet potato and millet were inundated, adding that they would have nothing to harvest under the current condition.
They therefore appealed for seedlings to enable them start dry season farming.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Ministe, Mr Abdulai as well as the Regional Director of NADMO, Mr Patrick Akake, have toured the affected areas to assess the damage caused by the flood.
The Deputy Regional Minister assured the people that government will do everything possible to assist the farmers.
Mr Abdulai also said as a result of high demand for fertilizers the three assemblies in the Bawku area - the Bawku Municipality, Bawku West District Assembly and the Garu-Tempane District Assembly - have met the Minister for food and Agriculture to ensure that more coupons are released to the farmers to assist them in their activities.