Regional News of Saturday, 2 April 2005

Source: GNA

80-year old rainstorm victim gets support

Wa, April 2, GNA - The Upper West Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) on Saturday, provided building materials valued at about three million cedis for the rehabilitation of the house of an 80-year old woman, which was destroyed by the recent rainstorm which hit Wa. The materials included roofing sheets, boards, roofing nails, doors and windows.

Madam Azimi Grushie was rendered homeless by the rainstorm and had been living without shelter for the past one week.

The gesture was in fulfilment of a promise by Mr Ambrose Dery, The Upper West Regional Minister, to assist her to live normal life, when he toured the town to inspect the extent of damage to properties caused by the storm and also console the victims.

Mr Dery said they were treating the poor old lady as a special case because she was old, frail and vulnerable and had nobody to take care of her.

Madam Grushie thanked the Regional Coordinating Council for coming to her aid, saying their kind response to her plight had given her a new lease of life.

Meanwhile, for the second time within a week, another rainstorm hit the town on Friday evening, caused extensive damage to properties and displaced more people.

During an inspection tour of some of the affected areas in the town, Mr Dery appealed to well-meaning citizens to support in rehabilitating the victims.

He said although, the RCC was assessing the situation to see how best they could assist the poorest among them to live normal lives, the level of destruction was too grave for the government to shoulder. Last Sunday, a rainstorm described by residents as the severest in recent memory, hit Wa and destroyed public and private properties, including, schools, churches, electricity poles and cables and also rendered several people homeless.

Victims were still counting the cost of damage to their properties while some of them began rehabilitating them, when another rainstorm struck on Friday evening.