The Greater Accra Regional Office of the Ghana Red Cross Society has distributed food items to 150 households with degrees of vulnerability in the Ashaiman Municipality as part of efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The distribution targeted persons in the Zongo Laka neighbourhood in Ashaiman and was sponsored by the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society with a focus on the vulnerable in Muslim communities.

Greater Accra Regional Manager of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Madam Catherine Adasu, said the gesture was necessary because the Covid-19 pandemic had brought hardship to the vulnerable.

"We identified Zongo Laka as one of the areas to be supported. We are giving them rice, oil, mats, soap, tin tomatoes, canned fish, etc. to support them."

This, she said, was by the help of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu.

According to Madam Adasu, "Many of the women here are old and unemployed.

"Some are not able to trade and with the Covid-19 lockdown and many things that went wrong, the impact on families has been enormous."

This is the third time the Ghana Red Cross has embarked on such exercise across the country to help alleviate the suffering of many families.

Madam Adasu called on other organisations to partner them and help the vulnerable, adding that, “We know where they are; we know where they live, so let’s help them to make sure that the Covid-19 impact in their households would be minimized.”

Disaster Manager of Ghana Red Cross Headquarters, Mr Jonathan Hope informed that in determining who was qualified for the aid, they conducted a vulnerability capacity assessment with the help of the Zongo Laka Imam who knew the people in the community.

A validation was carried out to see if the selected persons met the criteria.

Mr. Hope said during the lockdown, the Ghana Red Cross Society in collaboration with Nestle Ghana Limited supported 50,000 households with Nestle products and hoped to reach more people with assistance from corporate organizations.

In this particular exercise, the Red Cross distributed food items to 150 families with 960 household members and veronica buckets to some of the local mosques.