Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader in Parliament, has donated 100 bags of cement valued at GH¢12,000 to the people of Buguboi in the Sissala East District for the construction of an orphanage. He said people in the Sissala East District were good farmers who produced to feed the region, but the area was not accessible and also lacked welfare and social facilities to help improve the living standards of the people. Mr Bagbin, who is also a Member of Parliament for Nadowli West, said the area has inadequate health facilities and poor roads and because of the high maternal death rate in the region, many children whose mothers died during delivery and of HIV/AIDS were receiving little care due to the lack of an orphanage. Besides, parents in that district have to travel many miles to seek care at the St. Joseph Orphanage at Jirapa, the only orphanage in the region, he lamented. “This unpalatable situation touched me during my rounds to that district and as a native of the Upper West Region, I feel I should come in and help the people to have an orphanage”, Mr Bagbin said. The Minority Leader said it has been his wish to always help the vulnerable in society as well as secure development for poor people. Mr Yanaa Yahaya, Executive Director of Rural Organisation of Women Farmers (ROWFAD), a local NGO, appealed to Mr Bagbin for support to undertake the project. He said the absence of such a facility in the area had caused the death of so many children, whose lives could have been secured. He thanked the Minority Leader for his love and compassion for children, saying even though Mr Bagbin is not a Sissala and also not the Member of Parliament for the areas, “he has demonstrated that he is the people's man”. Mr Yahaya appealed to other politicians as well as philanthropists to emulate Mr Bagbin and support the project to help alleviate the suffering of orphans in the Sissala communities. Source: GNA