The First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has urged businesses in the country to approach focus on sustaining their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) endeavours.
The First Lady, said this when she commissioned a Gold Fields rehabilitated 26-bed capacity Health Centre for Huni-Valley community in the Prestea – Huni-Valley Municipality of the Western Region.
The First Lady said the time has come for businesses to support the development of the communities they operate in and urged other business entities to emulate Gold Fields’ CSR approach.
“Corporate Social Responsibility has evolved beyond giving charity. It is also now about how organisations run their businesses with an emphasis on sustainability. It is good to know that Gold Fields is now focusing more on shared value projects with high impact on the society.”
“Considering the importance of this facility to the thousands of people living in this municipality, it is only appropriate for it to be upgraded and equipped with modern facilities to better serve our people, especially women and children,” she said.
The First Lady, who said her Rebecca Foundation shares the same vision with the focus of Gold Fields CSR, objectives commended Gold Fields and supported the newly rehabilitated health centre.
“I believe this is what Corporate Social Responsibility should be about; it is about an organisation’s commitment to the larger community. I am happy to announce that the Rebecca Foundation is today donating to the Huni Valley Health Centre, some medication and an ambulance to be delivered soon to help enhance service delivery at the health centre. As the Corporate Social Responsibility focus of Gold Fields aligns with that of the Rebecca Foundation, I believe there is an opportunity for partnership to address key issues on health, education and economic education and economic empowerment for women in the two Municipalities of Prestea Huni-Valley and Tarkwa-Nsuaem.”
The Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields West Africa, Alfred Baku, told Citi News the rehabilitated Huni-Valley Health Centre, from its original six beds to 26 beds facility, is part of eleven various CSR projects including roads, all put together cost eight million Ghana Cedis which were carried out under the Gold Fields Foundation.“
They are 11 in total and scattered across our host communities in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem and Prestea Huni-Valley municipalities.
All the 11 projects were completed in 2019, and we invested over eight million Ghana Cedis (GHS8 million) in these laudable projects.
The Huni-Valley Health Centre that we are commissioning today previously had only six beds. We have upgraded the health centre to a 26-bed facility.
The clinic is now well equipped with a child healthcare centre and two consulting rooms for doctors. The clinic has a good ventilation system and great surroundings.
In Gold Fields, we say our employees’ health is our wealth and same goes for our host communities. We fund host development and improvement programmes through our Gold Fields Ghana Foundation.
The Foundation focuses on health, education, water and sanitation, infrastructure and agriculture.
Since its establishment in 2005, the Foundation has invested over US$66.5 million in infrastructural development and livelihood enhancement programmes in our host communities.“