KEEA, Netherlands partnership expanded

Story: Joe Okyere, Elmina
14/03/08
THE scope of the partnership between the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) District and the Municipality of Gouda, The Netherlands, has been expanded to include a monthly pension scheme for needy aged women between 70 and 80 in the district.
The first 50 beneficiaries from Berase in the Abrem Traditional Area are receiving GH¢11.00 per month as their pension.
The beneficiaries need not contribute under the scheme, which is being implemented on purely humanitarian grounds.
To qualify for the scheme, one must have attained 70, besides proving that the beneficiary has no breadwinner.
Dubbed "Adopt a Granny Foundation", the project introduces the needy aged ones to interested sponsors in The Netherlands for adoption and monthly support.
Speaking at Berase where the first 50 beneficiaries received their pension, the initiator of the scheme and Mayor of the Municipality of Gouda, Mr Wim Cornelis, who led a three-member delegation, said the partnership would be expanded to embrace more aged women.
The Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, commended Mr Cornelis for initiating the scheme, and advised the recipients to use the money judiciously.
He also praised the District Chief Executive (DCE) for KEEA, Mr George Frank Asmah, for striving hard to sustain and expand the partnership arrangement that began during the tenure of office of Nana Ato Arthur as the DCE.
Mr Asmah, said that currently, the partnership was yielding positive results in areas of sanitation and improvement in health with the provision of hospital equipment.
A 1.2 million euro plastic recycling factory is expected to be built at Essaman to tackle the plastic waste menace in the district and provide employment for about 3,000 people. The Omanhen of the Abrem Traditional Area, Nana Kyiriwia Kordie, thanked the KEEA District Assembly and the Municipality of Gouda for the introduction of the scheme and said it would go a long way to assist aged women in the area.