By Janet A Sesay
Golden Heart Sisters Foundation (GHSF), an organization formed to aid the challenges faced by the less privileged women and girls around the country, on Tuesday 23rd June, 2020 celebrated its one year of existence in a grand style.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Coordinator, Mrs. Patricia Evette Owuso said the organization was founded on the aforesaid date in 2019 by Women with Golden to empower and encourage their counterparts who have been marginalized in society.
The Coordinator furthered that the objective of the organization is to let women and girls realize their importance and potential in life, and to understand that besides the kitchen, they can also participate in meaningful jobs like those in higher offices and other places of work.
Highlighting some of their success stories, the Coordinator said since the establishment of their organization, they have been going around meeting women at the old people’s homes, romancing and dining with them in order for them to feel like they belong, even at these trying times.
She added that they have also visited fire victims including the recent one that took place at Green Street off Kissy Road, where she said they donated food stuffs and clothing to women and girls who were victims of the fire incident.
Touching on the programme for girls, Mrs. Owuso said they are planning to make the Roman Catholic Primary School at Makolor, Songo as their baby project in order to encourage the girls within that community to be educated.
She said during their first visit at the school, they were dismayed to see the pupils sitting on Jelly cans in their different classrooms, a situation she said urged them to put their resources together and provide over fifty school benches and tables for the school with their organization’s initials stamped on them. Mrs. Owuso furthered that they also provided several other items for the teachers to enhance the learning process of the pupils.
The Coordinator disclosed that similar goodwill gestures were also extended to the pupils of both Gloucester Rural Primary School and Young Women Christian Organization (YWCA) Nursery with the provision of learning materials.
Dilating on the efforts made towards the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the Coordinator said before cases were recorded, they took the venture to lecture people about the importance of hand-washing and the wearing of facemasks to prevent the spread of the disease.
She added that at some point, in order to avoid the clustering of people and to maintain social distancing, they decided to make unannounced visits Suxcess, Mambo and Hamilton along the Peninsula, where they donated packages containing food items and toiletries to the less privileged women, who were taken by surprise. Mrs. Owuso said on that same day, the branch of the organization at Lungi also extended the same goodwill gesture to women in that community.
On the first anniversary celebrations, Mrs. Owuso averred that they modestly observed their anniversary by honouring one of their members who recently passed away.
“The late woman was like a mother to us and has worked relentlessly to make the Foundation what it is today,” she lamented.
She said after the celebrations, they would be embarking on different projects for women and girls in order to make life meaningful to them.