The Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (ERCC) led by Ms Helen Adjoa Ntoso, Regional Minister, on Sunday, donated assorted items to an orphanage at Kotor in the Suhum Municipality.

The donation to the Baptist School Complex and Orphanage (BASCO) was in remembrance of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, whose birthday fell on Sunday, July 21.

The items, worth GHc2, 000, included second-hand clothing, foot-wares, bread, vegetables, rice, mosquito repellent, soap and assorted drinks.

Ms Ntoso said the late president had orphans and the needy at heart, and thus celebrated his birthday with them when he was alive.

“Late President Mills celebrated his last birthday with orphans and exactly three days after, he passed away. We are, therefore, doing this donation on his day of birth in remembrance of him and his love for the needy in the society,” she said.

Ms Ntoso urged the orphans not to give up hope, but to take their studies seriously so that they could become assets for the nation.

The Reverend Victor Ofori Amoah, Director of the Orphanage, expressed appreciation to the minister and her entourage for the kind gesture, and prayed for peace to prevail in Ghana.

BASCO was established 18 years ago in the Kotor Community, and it currently houses and trains 73 children from the kindergarten to the junior high school levels.

The orphanage has produced teachers, accountants, bankers and students currently at the universities and the colleges of education in the country.