The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) has presented relief items worth over ¢250,000 to the victims of the Appiatse dynamite explosion in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipal area in the Western Region.

This is in addition to a ¢200,000 donation made to the Appiatse Support Fund, the government fund set up, purposely to receive cash donations towards the support and restoration of the victims. 

The relief items included; tents, foodstuffs, clothes and other provisions constituted a pledge made by MIIF on a needs assessment visit to the Appiatse Relief Camp and the ground zero of the explosion earlier in February 2022.

Residents at the camp during the visit told the MIIF team that their primary needs were shelter which required more tents and long-shelf foodstuffs among other pressing personal items.

“Today, we have brought what you requested of us when we came to see you,” Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Income Investment Fund, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, told an enthusiastic gathering at the camp. 

“At MIIF we believe that whatever happens to you happens to all of us. In that spirit which is referred to as Ubuntu, we are because you are. It is our prayer that this token would help reduce your burden and bring you some restoration.”

13 people died and hundreds got injured in Appiatse, a small Western Regional town along the Bogoso-Tarkwa road when a truck carrying explosives to a mine site exploded after a collision with a motorcycle. 

Several companies and organisations have responded to the humanitarian emergency by contributing to the Appiatse Support Fund.

MIIF on February 22, 2022, presented a cheque of GH₵ 200,000 to the Appiatse Support Fund chaired by D. Joyce Aryee.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the Fund, Dr Aryee said, “I am particularly happy about the donation from MIIF. I know you have been there on the ground to do some needs assessment. The Appiatse Support Fund’s main duty is to restore hope and facilitate the construction of a new community for the victims".

"I wholly applaud your decision to also make a physical donation as a top-up on the cash. This is brilliant. We want other companies to emulate your example,” she said.

Municipal Chief Executive of Prestea Huni-Valley, Dr Isaac Dasmani told the victims during the presentation of the relief items, “We were here when they came. We told them we needed tents. We needed food. They have brought all of that and are still given a donation in Accra.

"Many companies have come to donate to us and for that we are grateful. We will however not forget MIIF for the way they approached us, heard our concerns and then proceeded to come back with his huge donation,” said the MCE whose responsibility is to run the daily activities of the camp."

The relief items donated by MIIF included 50 tents, capable of sheltering 200 people, clothing, plastic cups, tubers of yam, bags of gari, various canned foods and beans, and other provisions and spices. 

“For us at MIIF, we made a promise and we have delivered. We are proud that we could bring some measure of hope and restoration to this community. Having experienced what they did, it is a victory of the human spirit for them to be able to even laugh and have hopeful expectations for a better tomorrow. I know the government will build a shelter for them. We will contribute our own quota to making life better for each and everyone,” Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng concluded.