By Ayuure Kapini Atafori
Some companies, nongovernmental organizations and individuals have been honored with awards at the maiden Ghana Philanthropy Awards held in The Avenue, near Burma Camp, in Accra on 19th December, 2020.
Some of the awardees who received plaques include Givers Industries, Tsedi Foundation, Omanbapa Foundation, Mother of Many (MOM) Foundation, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), GAB Foundation, Achievers Ghana, Rare Disease Ghana Initiative and B5 Plus Limited. The others are DAS Foundation, Rural Urban Partnership for Africa, Home of Humanity, Monpe Heavy Haulage Company Ltd. and Myhelp-Yourhelp Foundation. The individual award recipients are Ernest Ahiabli and Wisdom Dordoe, the CEO of Give Me Hope Foundation.
The Ghana Philanthropy Awards was conceived and instituted by The Business Executive Magazine Ltd. to honor and reward persons and organizations engaged in humanitarian activities, charitable projects, assistance for victims in times of crises and disasters, corporate social investments (CSI) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in various categories.
In an address to welcome the attendees, a representative of The Business Executive said: “Today, the acts of charity, humanitarianism, benevolence and sharing of Ghana’s philanthropists and humanitarians have been acknowledged and recognized by the public through your nominations. The awards recipients are, therefore, enjoined to continue with their works of philanthropy to uplift the needy and vulnerable in society. The Business Executive Ltd. will be monitoring them, and promises that the Ghana Philanthropy Awards will be more rewarding next time.”
The awards are in two broad categories: Support for Socio-economic Growth and Development; and Support for Crises Management and Alleviation. For the first category, awards will be conferred on individuals, institutions and enterprises that are outstanding in their commitment to supporting the efforts of the State with regard to national and/or community specific social and economic growth and development through their structured interventions in the provision of infrastructure, public goods and services, economic empowerment and others.
Under the second category, the most recent example of such interventions is the biggest one to date – the support provided to Ghanaians by individuals, enterprises and institutions in the fight against the health and economic impacts of COVID 19. However, the awards are all-encompassing and are aimed at identifying exemplary conduct and contributions whether in response to specific situations and circumstances (Ebola, cholera; natural disasters such as floods and fire outbreaks; and civil strife, ethnic disputes, etc.).
This novel awards scheme identifies and publicly recognizes institutions, enterprises and individuals that have made outstanding philanthropic interventions to manage and resolve crisis situations or to accelerate socio-economic growth and development for the nation, and/or for specific demographic, geographic, social and/or economic segments in Ghana.
The focus is on humanitarian interventions and efforts to improve the living standards of the national or community specific populace, or to alleviate socio-economic dislocations caused by crisis situations. However, these interventions often pass unnoticed, and where they are publicly acknowledged, are either short-lived or are quickly forgotten.
The awards scheme therefore sets out to correct this situation. The awards identifies and publicly recognizes the individuals, enterprises and institutions whose contributions and interventions have been exemplary every four years.
The awards scheme is open to all Ghanaian private enterprises and institutions as well as foreign public and private enterprises and institutions. Individuals of every nationality and Ghanaian and foreign government state officials are also included.
Awardees are selected based on the following broad criteria: The value of their interventions; the amount of non-material resources provided, that is time, technical expertise; the regularity of their interventions; the impact of their interventions on the targeted beneficiaries; and willingness to partner other philanthropists and the State for maximum impact.
