Reinforcing itself as the leader in environmental sustainability, Vivo Energy Ghana, the distributor and marketer of Shell products and services, has organised a clean-up and free health screening exercise for its host community in the Odododiodoo Constituency of the Greater Accra Region to commemorate the recent World Environment Day.
The exercise, dubbed ‘Clean A Space, Save A Life’, forms part of the oil marketing company’s community investment initiatives, and it is held annually to commemorate World Environment Day. This year’s event saw both Vivo Energy Ghana staff and residents of its host community, Atupkai, defying the heavy rainfall to sweep their community, streets, unclog the gutters, among other activities.
Sequel to the clean-up, Vivo Energy Ghana’s health advisor together with health professionals from Total House Clinic screened over 150 community members for various health-related diseases, including blood pressure, heart rate and body mass index.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana, Ebenezer Faulkner, called on the community to ensure a clean environment to prevent the outbreak of diseases.
“It is important for us to know that maintaining a clean environment is vital to our survival and Vivo Energy Ghana will provide the needed resources to clean its community of filth. To demonstrate our commitment, we are presenting 20 waste bins, 10 wheelbarrows, 10 shovels, 10 rakes, 10 Wellington boots, hand gloves and other items to our host community for regular communal labour,” he said.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Odododiodoo Constituency, Nii Lantey Vanderpuije, who was represented by his constituency party chairman, encouraged the residents to be agents of change and active supporters of the environment.
“If we want to be free from cholera, we need to keep our environment clean. I implore you to desist from dumping waste indiscriminately. Let us make good use of the materials provided and ensure that we clean our homes and desilt our gutters regularly. This will go a long way to stop the perennial flooding that we face during the raining season,” he indicated.
The chief of Atupkai, Nii Tetteh Tsuru II, also expressed his gratitude to Vivo Energy for being consistent with the clean-up exercise and called for more support from the company in the area of education.
Vivo Energy Ghana is actively involved in community investment programmes where it operates. Among these are the donation of 100 writing desks to Accra Sempe Basic School, the donation of 3,000 environmentally-friendly cook stoves and solar lamps respectively to women and children in rural areas and road safety programmes for pupils, as well as commercial drivers.