Accra, Aug. 25, GNA - The Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) Church has donated a state of the art heart surgery equipment valued at about 1.6 million dollars to the Cardio-Thoracic Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. The equipment is currently being installed and would be inaugurated soon.

Dr Matthew A. Bediako, Executive Secretary of the World SDA, told President John Agyekum Kufuor at the Castle, Osu on Wednesday, when he paid a courtesy call on him. Dr Bediako, a Ghanaian is the Guest of Honour at the six-day, West Central Africa Youth Jamboree underway in Togo and decided to visit Ghana. He said the goal of the Church, which has about 25 million members in 205 countries worldwide, was to make mankind a whole being spiritually and materially.

Dr Bediako said this was being done through the establishment of schools; hospitals and through the Adventists Development Relief Agency (ADRA), which provided food aid to people. He appealed to the Government to review the bureaucracy in the delivery of equipment, machinery and goods imported by relief agencies such as the ADRA, Catholic Relief Service, the World Vision International and other Nongovernmental organisation (NGOs) for the poor in the Society. Dr Bediako said the delay and the amount charged for rentals and demurrages affected the rationale behind such goods imported into the country. He commended the Government for the religious liberty and the protection of human rights that allowed anyone to practice a religion of his or her choice.

President Kufuor said concessions offered to some relief agencies and NGOs in the past were abused but gave the assurance that efforts would be made by the Ministry of Ports and Railways to offer the needed assistance to ensure goods imported by genuine relief agencies and NGOs were cleared on time. He commended the Church for their assistance in the health, education and agricultural sectors and ADRA, which had become a household name in Ghana, to improve on the spiritual and material needs of the people.