The Chairman of the Appiatse Support Fund, Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee, has disclosed that so far, the Support fund has received an amount of GHC62 million as donations from various institutions, organizations and individuals.

According to her, the funds are all in support of the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Appiatse township which was razed by fire explosion early last year. She revealed this when she received a GHC200,000 cheque donation from Goil as its contribution towards the reconstruction of Appiatse.

Rev Joyce Aryee explained that aside contributions received from various organizations, Maxam Company, the Mining Firm implicated in the accident, has also been consistent in paying its fine and that she noted, has contributed to the GHC62 million amount raised.

On behalf of her team and the people of Appiatse, she expressed their profound gratitude to Goil for such a generous donation saying that this will go a long way to help them make timely payments to contractors and hoped that the gesture of love will be the launch of a second wave of donations from institutions that are yet to donate to the fund.

Additionally, Rev Aryee emphasized that more money is needed to complete the entire project.

Progress of Appiatse reconstruction

Rev. Joyce Aryee outlined a number of challenges contractors face at the site, particular among them, she mentioned the consistent rainfall in the area which slows down progress. Nonetheless, she was hopeful that by September, most of the buildings would have been fully completed for the residents to move in.

The Managing Director of Goil, Mr. Kwame Osei-Prempeh, in his remarks, revealed that having heard of the unfortunate incident that happened in Appiatse, Goil as a socially responsible corporate entity, decided to also join and contribute towards the reconstruction of the model green community.

He however explained why the donation to the Fund seems to have delayed. With this, he revealed that the institution issued a cheque when the incident occurred last year but was not able to deliver it on time but noted that it’s “better late than never”.

The Managing Director of Goil equally mentioned that Goil at the initial stages of the incident made some donations to Appiatse directly even before the fund was instituted. To this end, he applauded the efforts of Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee and her team for the good work being done for the people of Appiatse and humanity.

Prior to this, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, revealed that the first phase of the Appiatse community is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

According to him, the reconstruction of the community is on schedule and government hopes to complete the project as scheduled.

The Minister noted that at the end of the construction, the community will have schools, hospitals, clinics, community centers, markets, roads and access to potable water and electricity.

Speaking at a ceremony to inspect the progress of work at Appiatse, the Damongo legislator stated that he was impressed with the progress of work. He noted that 124 housing units ranging from two to seven-bedroom houses are under construction whilst 104 are at foundation level, among others.

Mr. Jinapor described the project as a community that he believes will become a model for other rural communities in the country. He further appreciated the government for its efforts to ensure that the people of Appiatse return to their normal livelihood.

The Minister iterated that the government is fully determined to make sure that they complete the reconstruction and ensure that people are resettled properly.

In the interim, he donated GHC15,000 along with relief items which included 50 bags of 25kg rice, 20 cartons of tomato tins, 8 cartons of tinned fish, 5 cartons of oil and 20 packs of water.