The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana (EPCG) has donated assorted items worth more than Twenty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHC20,000.00) to Accra and Pantang Psychiatric Hospitals.

The items, including 20 bags of rice, 100 packs of bottled water, 100 bags of sachet water as well as quantities of cooking oil, detergents, toiletries, disinfectants, sanitizers and gloves among others were aimed at mitigating the plight of staff and inmates of the two health institutions following the outbreak of Coronavirus the disease (COVID-19).

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the immediate past EPCG Synod Moderator for Meridian Presbytery, Rev. Dr. Lt. Col. Bliss Agbeko (Rtd) noted that the donation forms part of the Church’s corporate social responsibility to respond to the plight of disadvantaged institutions and individuals in deplorable situations such as the COVID-19 outbreak and its negative impact.

“We, therefore, expressed grave concern about the predicament of staff of the two hospitals, most of whom serve as frontline workers as well as the inmates who could possibly fall victim to the disease due to difficulty in regulating their movement, hence our intervention to make this modest contribution,” he remarked.

Rev. Dr. Agbeko explained that the presentation of the items was been done by the leadership of West Volta and Meridian Presbyteries on behalf of the General Assembly Moderator and other members of the EPCG Standing Committee.

Receiving the items on behalf of the two institutions, the Psychiatric Specialist and Head of Public Relations at Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Susan Seffah, thanked EPCG for its timely intervention at the period the plight of psychiatric health institutions in the country was worsening following the outbreak of COVID-19 and its unanticipated consequences.

She appealed to corporate institutions and other religious organizations to complement efforts of EPCG and government to enable psychiatric hospitals to effectively discharge their clinical duties and as caregivers to persons suffering from a mental disorder.