News Release

Mormon Helping Hands Program Yields Scores of Service Projects in Ghana

Building Communities Hand In Hand

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined together in many areas throughout Ghana on August 16, 2014, to provide community service in the neighborhoods where they live. The Mormon Helping Hands program is held annually throughout Africa and reflects the desire of members of the Church to follow the example of Jesus Christ by serving others.

Projects, large and small, were undertaken that day as volunteers in the trademark yellow vests gathered brooms, rakes, cutlasses, pick axes, shovels, paint brushes, buckets, wheelbarrows and gloves to help in the improvement and beautification of their communities.

  • “We appreciate the spirit of love and togetherness felt among the people of your church,” said a member of the Love Redemption Church, a partner in the service project held at the Royal Hospital in Ho. Members of both congregations worked side-by-side in weeding, raking, and scrubbing the hospital grounds and facilities.
  • Volunteers donated blood to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, and several hundred more members collected rubbish, cleared gutters, removed sand and weeds from roadsides, and whitewashed curbs and roundabouts in various areas of town.
  • Issah Alhassan, from the Ghanaian Chronicle, reported that volunteers from the Church gave a major facelift to the Kumasi Airport as they painted curbs and cleaned the premises of the airport and the major road leading to the facility, giving it an “aesthetic look.”
  • Large groups of volunteers worked for several hours digging soil to fill deep potholes on a road in Assin Foso, which now is “very motorable,” according to Akuamoah Boateng, Jr. NKWA FM aired the service project live, expressing appreciation to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its partners for coming to the aid of the community. Callers who phoned in to the station also thanked those involved for their service.
  • Several projects in the Central Region of Ghana provided opportunities for Church members to offer service. The wall around Twifu Praso’s post office was white washed; cleaning projects took place in Odoben’s Health Centre and Winneba’s Government Hospital; Swedru and Asikuma’s roads were cleared of trash.
  • Besides the volunteers who donated blood at the Regional Hospital in Koforidua, Church members and friends also formed a labor force, clearing weeds and cleaning drains on the hospital premises. Mothers of children staying in the children’s ward were happy for the cleaning, saying they would “sleep well tonight due to the clearing of the weeds to prevent mosquitoes.”
  • Through the Mormon Helping Hands program, hundreds of members of the Church in Takoradi and Sekondi cleaned along several streets and junctions, at market places, at a school, and around a hospital’s grounds. Matilda Kuddey, assistant environmental officer for the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly said the service project was a great idea and praised the Church for initiating and undertaking such an exercise.  
  • Church members in Ghana often work with local leaders to select projects that will be most beneficial to their communities. In Accra, gutters near the La Police Station and at Opera Post Office Square were cleared, classrooms in the Cantonments New Horizon School for children with disabilities were cleaned, walls and trees at the Nungua Police Station were whitewashed, and the walkways at Lekma Hospital in Teshie received a new layer of paint.
  • People, young and old, were among the volunteers who helped at the Achimota Hospital, the Ayimensah Police Station, and the newly-built Ayikuma Police Station, where volunteers weeded, cleaned and trimmed trees, collected rubbish and removed it to appropriate dumping sites. Mamfe Daily Word Clinic received a general overall cleaning to improve and beautify the property.
  • There was a sizeable turnout of Helping Hands participants in the Tesano area of Accra willing to clean at several markets, the Adabraka cluster of schools, Amasaman Hospital and Police Station, Nsawam Hospital and its surroundings, and Adoejire Zongo Hospital.

Mormon Helping Hands is a worldwide service arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that unites members with their communities. The program was established in 1998, and since then hundreds of thousands of volunteers have donated millions of hours of service. The program started in South America but has since spread to nearly every corner of the world.

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