By Innocent Samuel Appiah

THE Management of Kasapreko Company Limited (KCL), leading alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage producers in the country, has pledged its continued support towards People Living with HIV/AIDS, especially those at the Matthew 25 House in Koforidua in the New Juaben Municipality of the Eastern Region to eliminate or reduce stigmatization they face as a result of the disease.

Management gave the assurance at this year’s “Christmas Soup Kitchen” for the inmates of Matthew 25 House, where KCL was well represented and ‘run the show’ by providing almost everything needed for the event. The staff of the Company took over everything involved in the programme, thus providing basically the food, entertainment, canopies, transportation, among others. In all about GHc25, 000.00 was virtually expended by KCL in organizing the event.
In addition to that, an amount of GHc11, 000. 00 was donated to the House for the upkeep of the inmates. Out of the amount, the staff of the Company raised of GHc2, 500.00, while management added GHc8, 500.00. They equally donated household items, food items and clothing to the inmates.
Matthew 25 House is a Non-Governmental Organization in Ghana established in 1998. The Project, which helps persons infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, currently operates from a rented home in Koforidua. The House welcomes all persons regardless of race, tribe, creed and political persuasion. The mission statement is fulfilling Matthew 25: 31-40 of the New Testament.
Some of the services the house provides are care and support for PLHIVs as well as orphans and vulnerable children, sexual education programmes for the youth in second cycle institutions, Education and Communication materials to the general public and skill training for women and youth.
For the past eight years, PLHIVs from the New Juaben Municipality and its environs as well as orphans and vulnerable have been brought together by Management of Matthew 25 House to celebrate the annual event.
The Director of the House, Rev. Msgr. Alex Bobby Benson said “we must be committed to fighting poverty, loneliness, and stigmatization that Mother Teresa encouraged us to be concerned about. We must endeavour to reach out and become the healthy family support system that so many poor families need from us, especially during Christmas.”
The Marketing Manager of KCL, Mr. Clarence Amenyah in an interview said that after receiving a letter requesting for assistance from Matthew 25 House to support the annual Christmas Soup kitchen, Management of the Company realized that it was something that was touching and for that matter, worth supporting, and that, it was for this reason that the Company wholeheartedly went on board to ensure that the inmates that the House caters for, had a nice and memorable Christmas celebration.
“Supporting this event is basically to realize that People Living with HIV/AIDS are also human beings but unfortunately the stigmatization against them is very disturbing. There is no way society can eliminate them. Some of them are breadwinners but once the unfortunate thing happens to them and they find themselves carry the virus, they automatically lose their jobs and as such it affects the family in general,” he noted.
He said what KCL did for Matthew 25 House was to throw some light on the state of affairs of the inmates to let other corporate entities know that such people need help and that it was not bad to lend a hand in touching their lives and letting Ghanaians know that people may be living with the virus but they are still much relevant in society.
Mr. Amenyah stated that, KCL as the first indigenous Company in the beverage industry, was always committed to the welfare of PLHIVs, and so would ensure that henceforth, the Company would invariably lend its assistance towards the inmates.
He said KCL was keen to supporting health-related programmes such as HIV/AIDS, saying that the Company would ever be ready to support of caring for those living with HIV/AIDS, and hence, called on the general public to go and check to know their status than not to know at all and be carrying the disease. The Company would also support road safety campaigns to ensure that motorists, especially the commercial ones do not drink and drive.
It would as well engage in educational programmes by providing entrepreneurship and skills training and for that matter, supporting educational initiatives that would drive and churn out skillful persons for employment in the country; provide pipe borne water for communities that do not have water and launch a road safety campaign to educate motorists on the risk of drinking and driving

The Marketing Manager mentioned that since KCL is a Ghanaian Company, it would always give back to the people what it has received from them and for that matter, urged them all to continue doing business with the company.

He assured the Company’s cherished consumers that they would always have value for their money and as such, would never regret doing business with them, saying that there are more good things to come from the Kasapreko.