The Mayor of Cape Coast, Hon. George Justice Arthur, has made this year's Christmas celebration a memorable one for persons with disability (PWDs) in the metropolis with donated items from the assembly's economic empowerment and income-generating activities (IGA) equipment support, which is a support package birth out of the metropolis disability common fund.

‎The donation saw 47 differently abled persons benefit from the donated items of 45 chest freezers, 2 fufu pounding machines and an educational cash support to persons interested in seeking higher academic qualification.

‎Speaking at the event which saw the distribution of the items, Hon. George Justice Arthur, uncovered that the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) under his stewardship in the first and second quarter of 2025, received an amount of GH¢338,034.05 under the disability common fund.

‎He expressed that since it's incumbent of him to protect the ruling government which he represents, has taken an entrench position never to in anyway mismanage, misappropriate or interfere with the use of the disability common fund. Thus, vowed to ensure that persons living with any form of disability also does well in the society by being properly taken care of, since it's unpleasant to see persons with disability beg for alms at the road side.

‎The Cape Coast Mayor again opined that inspite of the assembly's item support to PWDs, a dedicated amount of GH¢27,200.00 will be given to 21 persons with disability as educational support, with GH¢1,000 being the least and GH¢2,500 being the maximum educational benefit to those interested in pursuing higher level of education.

‎He further stressed that the donated items are given to be used to generate income and not to be sold. He, therefore, warned beneficiaries of the items to put them into good use, as a team of monitors will be set out to inspect whether the items issued are being used for the purpose to which they were given. 

‎The Cape Coast Metro Director for the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, Mr. Okine Mustapha Aryee, disclosed the criteria for which beneficiaries were selected for the donated items, having observed to be various forms of persons with disability in the society, with some having physical challenges as others have hearing and visual impairment.

‎He noted that the Social Welfare Department due to its tall list of disabled persons in the metropolis, tries to do away with those it has already reached out with the income-generating support, as he uncovered still to be a backlog of over 500 PWDs yet to receive of the assembly's IGA empowerment support, as he implored beneficiaries of the support package to put it into profitable use in other not to constantly remain a liability to their families, the society and Ghana at large.

‎Beneficiaries who couldn't hide their joy, expressed gratitude towards the Cape Coast Mayor and all who made the donation possible, as they assured to use their received items into good use to generate enough money to cater for themselves and their families.

‎Sompaonline.com//Eric Annan