Sunyani Catholic Dioceses holds party for refugee children

The annual Christmas party is to enable the less privileged children, numbering about 400, to feel at home during the Yuletide.

The  Fetentaa Refugee Camp is the home of about 1,800 Ivorian refugees who fled their country to Ghana as a result of a violent conflict that erupted in Cote d'Iviore following an electoral dispute in 2011.

The children were presented with packs of rice, sweets and assorted drinks at the party which was held at the camp on Friday, December 27, 2013, which was preceded by the celebration of Holy Eucharist.

In a sermon, the Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, the Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, urged the children not to be discouraged, as Jesus Christ, whose birth the world was celebrating, became a refugee in Egypt when King Herod sought to kill Him. 

He urged parents of the children at the camp to encourage their children to be in school at the camp.

Most Rev. Gyamfi commended the refugees for comporting themselves making the camp more than a settlement and thanked the government, United Nations High Commission for Refugees ( UNHCR), chiefs and elders of Fetentaa for making the camp a comfortable place for the refugees.

The Health Co-ordinator for the refugee camp, Rev. Sister Judith Magbity, said the National Catholic Secretariat ( NCS) was involved in providing primary health care and HIV/AIDS services, nutrition, distribution of food and non-food items, water and sanitation at the camp.

She said the school feeding programme, supported by Most Rev. Gyamfi had improved the health status and also served as a source of motivation for all children at the camp to get enrolled in school.

That, she said, had also led to zero infant mortality rate and a decrease in morbidity rate among children under five. 

Rev. Sis. Magbity disclosed that there was a comprehensive reproductive health system that had been put in place at the camp which covered the health needs of all the children and their parents. 

She added that there were 45 deliveries at the camp during the year, while another 35 pregnant women were being catered for.

The Camp Manager, Mr Felix Osei Aseidu, thanked the bishop for the gesture and for making time to celebrate the Christmas with the children at the camp.

The St Jansdal Hospital in the Netherlands also presented some medical equipment and consumables to the clinic being run by the National Catholic Secretariat at the camp.