ADABRAKA RESIDENTS BENEFIT FROM GRAPHIC/ABL HEALTH SCREENING EXERCISE

 STORY: ZAINABU ISSAH

Hundreds of residents of Adabraka and its environs on Saturday thronged the Additrom School Complex to participate in a free health screening exercise organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited, in collaboration with the Accra Brewery Limited (ABL).

It was the eighth in the series of the annual health screening exercise as part of the corporate social responsibility of the two companies.

Medical doctors from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and the University of Ghana Dental School were on hand to screen the patrons of various diseases, including malaria, typhoid, jaundice, cholera, hypertension and diabetes.

Other parts of the body, such as the ear, nose and throat (ENT), as well as the eye and teeth, were also screened.

Addressing the gathering, the Managing Director of GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, said in addition to the screening exercise, the residents would be registered for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) free.

He said GCGL believed that the mark of any good corporate citizen was its willingness to contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of every society that helped it to make profit.

“That is why we have found it appropriate to work with ABL to share our profits with you the people of Adabraka,” he said.

He said residents of Adabraka had also helped GCGL to grow from strength to strength, adding that this enabled the company to make profit and declare dividend of GH¢500,000 to the state at the end of the last financial year.

Mr Ashigbey said the GCGL would continue to help society through the Graphic Needy Trust Fund, which has sponsored about 160 needy patients to undergo expensive medical treatments since 1989.

Furthermore, he said, the GCGL had been providing support in education to help build a pool of knowledgeable human resource for the country’s development.

“In this regard, we run a scholarship scheme for the children of our employees and those of vendors and agents in the second cycle institutions. More than 154 children have benefited from the scheme since its introduction in 2004, and we keep adding on every academic year,” he noted.

Mr Ashigbey said the GCGL was committed to supporting the most deprived school in Adabraka with free copies of the Junior Graphic newspaper weekly and jotters for a year.

He advised the youth and residents of Adabraka to desist from violence as the December election approaches.

In his remarks, the acting Managing Director of ABL, Mr Graham Henry Lurie, expressed the company’s commitment to invest in the well-being of the communities in which it operates, adding that the prosperity of the community and the company was co-dependent.

“We are committed in several ways to the development and the sustainability of the communities in which we operate,” he said.

Mr Lurie further pledged ABL’s support in providing and actively participating in the sustainable development of the Adabraka community.

 For his part, the Chief of Adabraka, Nii Tetteh Adjaben I, expressed his sincere gratitude to ABL and GCGL, and urged them to keep up the good work.