Good Causes Foundation, the charity arm of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), has held a health screening exercise to mark Nkrumah Memorial Day for some residents of Somanya in the Eastern Region.
Ama Frimpong, Coordinator of the Good Causes Foundation, said the foundation which had already embarked on various corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes in the past, added communities in Somanya as part of their mandate to touch the lives of Ghanaians, especially those in deprived areas on the occasion.
She said an amount of GH¢80,000.00 was budgeted for the exercise, to provide opportunity for residents at Somanya to know their health status and receive treatments. According to her, NLA through these health screening exercises has been able to educate communities on the activities of fraudsters purporting to be workers of NLA who usually promise to give unsuspecting public juicy lottery numbers to change their fortunes overnight.
“We realised that those who are below 18 years may be tempted to stake lotto because they do know the required age with respect to our laws, so we always use this opportunity to educate Ghanaians whenever we visit any of the communities for this exercise,” she said.
District Chief Executive of Yilo Krobo, Eric Tetteh, who participated in the exercise, commended the efforts of the NLA to support residents in the area though there were equally important communities that deserved to benefit from them.
He stated that though there were myriad of issues facing the district, an opportunity for residents to check their health status was highly laudable as people could make wealth only when they were living in healthy conditions.
About 500 participants were screened on Hepatitis, blood pressure, eye test, sugar levels and also received instant medication by a medical team of Lafia Clinic.
Clara Nyarko, a member of the medical team, attributed most of the ailment recorded in hospitals to lifestyle modifications and failure by people to check their health status periodically.
She, therefore, advised Ghanaians especially the elderly to make their health a priority above any other thing as health practitioners may be able to increase the chances for treatment when diagnosed on time.
The beneficiaries thanked the Good Causes Foundation for the gesture and also appealed to them to replicate it in other parts of the district.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah