Tullow staff supports Orphans Cry International…with GH¢2,000 from Quiz Night

MR. Brian Nicoll, Health and Safety Advisor, for Tullow oil in Takoradi, one of the oil drilling companies in Ghana, with support from his colleague, Charlie Lawrie, organised a fun game dubbed 'Quiz Night' at the Sahara Bar in Takoradi, for staff of Tullow, to raise funds out of the quiz competition to support an orphanage home.

Fortunately, Orphans Cry International, based at Apowa in the Ahanta West District, was selected after the fundraising became successful and yielded an amount of GH¢2,000, which the organisers decided to use to support Orphans Cry International (OCI), to enable them complete a new building block commenced by the orphanage home, which is to replace a dilapidated wooden structure, currently being used as a kitchen. A church in the school is also being used as a classroom block.

Making the presentation, Brian Nicoll and Charlie Lawrie pointed out that it was part of their social responsibility, and commitment towards helping the needy in the society in which they operate, and expressed satisfaction with the excitement that greeted their support to the orphanage home. “We are thrilled absolutely, about the meeting with this children and the reception that greeted our support to their plight,” Brian pointed out, indicating that some local agents of Tullow had earlier on donated football jerseys and other sports kits to the school, to help them in their sporting activities. The news of the support to the school was received on behalf of the management of the school by Mr. Richard Kweku Sam, on behalf of Bishop Emmanuel Young, Patron of the Orphanage, and noted that after completion of the school's cafeteria, a wooden structure which is currently in a deplorable state, the fencing of the school, coupled with the general expansion of the structures of the school, it would make more classrooms available for the pupils and ease congestion in the classrooms.

He said the pupils would also heave a sigh of relief, since the facilities of their kitchen, dining, and academic environment, would all be in good shape to ensure the wellbeing and proper upbringing of all the orphans living and schooling in the home.

Currently, the school has about three class room blocks, in addition to a church, which has been converted by the management of the school as a classroom block, to take care of the children who are in kindergarten and nursery. One of the volunteers working at the orphanage, Nicki Marshall, who welcomed the Tullow team to the home, commended the team for the kind gesture, and bemoaned the poor facilities being used by the home, while explaining the difficulties which the pupils and their caretakers were going through, as a result of the lack of support.

She described the Tullow team's support as noble, and emphasised that it would go a long way to help reduce some of the difficulties.

Marshall and the management of OCI were grateful to Tullow and its staff, expressing optimism that other reputable organisations in the country would follow suit, to show the same kind gesture to the home, in order to make life there worth living for the abandoned children and orphans. Many orphanages in the country, particularly those in the Western Region, are suffering silently, because of the difficulties under which some of them operate, with a lot of concerns being raised over how the public could support them take care of the abandoned children and the orphans.

These orphanages either lack good facilities, or basic social amenities that should be able to take care of the numerous orphans housed at the various orphanage, therefore making life unbearable. Consequently, some benevolent individuals, institutions and organisations, have taken it upon themselves, working extremely hard, to support in making life worth living for the orphans. In the light of this, Tullow came to the aid of one of such orphanage homes, Orphans Cry International.