ML4Lyfe Foundation, a non-profit organisation, has launched a project to construct an ultramodern rehabilitation centre to help address mental health challenges in the country.
The project, called Clubhouse Ghana Mental Health Rehabilitation Centre, will help revamp and re-integrate mental healthcare delivery into the fabric of society. It will admirably be the first-ever rehabilitation center to be established in the entire West-African region.
Commenting at the launch held via zoom, Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard Taylor, commended the founder of the project, ML Brookshire née Blay-Miezah, for such a vision, saying it will significantly improve mental health in West Africa.
She welcomed the project in Liberia and provided assurance that her government will do all that is necessary to assist her to introduce the same concept in the West African country.
Ms. ML Blay-Miezah said her motivation for the project is based on the situation in Ghana where mental health patients loiter day and night without proper clothing, food, and medication. Mental Health patients are oftentimes unable to access the needed social or medical support.
She said the aforementioned have devalued the dignity, worth, and rights of the patients living with a mental health condition, an experience, she said should not be encouraged in the 21st century in a fast-developing country like Ghana.’
She called on individuals and corporate organisations to generously donate towards the project through the official mobile money accounts and bank accounts it will be sharing with the public soon.
Also speaking at the launch, former Deputy Minister spoke about the strides government has achieved in healthcare in the country, adding that the Clubhouse Rehabilitation Centre will augment efforts to improve mental health in Ghana.
He reinforced the need to integrate a Mental Health Strategic Plan in Ghana to spearhead comparable efforts by Clubhouse Liberia for the upcoming year.
The Ministry of Health, as well as the Ministry of Education, will work hand in hand to propel the ML4Lyfe Foundation, as well as its non-profit NGO-arm, to succeed with the project.
The Ministry of Education will afford recovering patients an opportunity to gain free basic SHS education.
The Ministry will also focus on training ‘functional’ patients to become artisans and learn a skill or trade in the areas of carpentry, plumbing, painting, welding, hairdressing, sewing, and many more skills in order to ensure that the selected recovering patients will become self-sufficient and independent.
Another speaker at the launch, Dick Kuriger, former Assistant District Governor of Rotary Club in Texas, expressed excitement about the successful collaboration between Clubhouse Ghana and the Rotary Club, saying it is the beginning of good things to come.
Rotarian Karol Kunko of Rotary Club of Accra Industrial also spoke about the ML4Lyfe Foundation and Group having entered a partnership with several Rotary Clubs in Accra to positively and substantially impact health and well-being of people with serious mental illnesses in by aiding their rehabilitation and therapeutic processes.
She said the engagement between all parties will be a significant step towards the ultimate aim of giving mentally challenged individuals an opportunity to live a self-sustaining independent life, no matter what.
Clubhouse Ghana is a registered NGO in Ghana with corporate tax exemption status that will allow all donors to donate with ease.
