Koforidua, June 1, GNA - The Academy of Education Development (AED), a US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Tuesday presented 10 million cedis, rice and edible oil to the Koforidua Matthew Chapter 25 House, which caters for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs). The presentation was made by the Vice Chairman of the Board of the AED, Ms Roberta Clarke, who led eight members of the Board of the NGO to visit the House as part of their one-week meeting in Accra to study its operations.

She expressed their appreciation to the staff of the House for doing God's work to bring care and support for PLWHAS and pledged the support of the AED.

She said nothing was more critical in Africa at the moment than the scourge of HIV/AIDS on the people, for which all efforts must be geared towards to help check its spread and to provide care and support for PLWHAS.

Ms Clarke said for 20 years the AED had been in partnership with organizations working among people in deprived conditions in about 25 Africa countries, saying it had recently been registered as NGO in Ghana to enable it intensify its work with NGOs like the House. Another Board member, Mrs Niara Sudarkasa, who was impressed by the efforts of the House, established by the Catholic Diocese of the Koforidua, pledged to mobilise support for it among US benevolent organizations.

The Care and Support Specialist of the AED, Mrs Mavis Asiedu-Asamoah Frempong, who led the group, explained that they visited the House because of the reports about its leading role in the care and support to PLWHAs and orphans in the country.

Receiving the donation, the Director of the House, the Rev. Father Alex Bobby Benson, commended the gesture of the AED Board and said the donation would be used to feed the 30 PLWHAs and 90 orphans in Koforidua and another 42 PLWHAs and 76 orphans at Akwatia.

He said the House, which began at Akwatia in 1998 provided care and support to PLWHAS and orphans, organises peer counselling under its "Youth Alive Clubs", engaged the inmates in tie and dye production and also dispensed traditional herbal drugs to them.

Fr Benson, who announced that the House would go into food production to supplement donations to feed the inmates, appealed to the delegation to help the House to market the tie and dye textiles in the US to enable it to earn more income to discharge its tasks.