Effiduase-Koforidua, May 7, GNA - Two US-based organizations had presented 30 millions cedis worth of various items and 1,000 US dollars cash to the Dynamic Alliance Foundation (DAF), a non-governmental organization (NGO) catering for HIV/AIDS orphans at Effiduase-Koforidua on Friday.

The presentations which were made through the initiative of the Hackman Foundation, involved the APF Ministries Incorporated, which donated 260 boxes of the items, including stationery, clothes and toys and the Institute for Behavioural Change and Research (IBCR) which donated the cash.

The Executive Director of the Hackman Foundation, Mrs. Comfort Owusu Agyeman, received the donations on behalf of the DAF from Mr and Mrs Allan Fulton, National Directors of the APF, while the Chief Executive Officer of the IBCR, Dr Howard Mabry presented the cash on behalf of his Institute.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs Owusu Agyeman commended the two bodies for responding to the appeals from her Foundation towards the upkeep of the orphans and vulnerable children. She asked the people to eschew promiscuous lifestyles to avoid contracting the HIV/AIDS while parents should live up to their responsibilities towards the education and upkeep of their children to enable them to grow into useful citizens.

Mr Allan said his organization had so far donated over 7,000 boxes of gifts to about 90,000 children in the country for the past seven years, under its "Operation Christmas Child" programme. The Executive Director of the DAF, Mrs Margaret Asare, said the Foundation, which began operating last year with 20 HIV/AIDS orphans in the New Juaben Municipality, had recently registered up to 380 of them due to the rising deaths from the pandemic.

She said the Foundation, with funds from the Ghana AIDS Commission, was catering for the orphans in the payment of school fees from the Kindergatten to Senior Secondary School and provision of stationery, uniforms, feeding and medical care.

Mrs Asare who said the children had been registered for the Municipal Health Insurance Scheme, appealed to benevolent organizations and individuals to assist the Foundation to meet the varied needs of the orphans in view of the escalating numbers.

The chief of Effiduase, Nana Omane Acheamfour who chaired the function, called on the people to change their sexual behaviour to help check the spread of the pandemic in the municipality.