COVID-19 brought everything to a halt, and the Obuasi community in the Ashanti Region was not left out. It was difficult for everyone, but most unfortunately, the children’s homes in Obuasi seemed forgotten, and there was the need for someone to come to the rescue.
Realising this, a young man, David Hagan – with his Galaxy Foundation, took the bold step to reach out to some children’s homes in the Obuasi community.
The foundation educated them on what COVID-19 was and how they could prevent it with the help of some medical experts.
They also made several donations to the children’s homes, churches, market women and some neglected villages in Obuasi with over 10,000 nose masks, hand sanitisers and Veronica buckets.
The donations to the children’s homes in Obuasi covered over 200 children, and those to the villages including market women covered over 2000 people.
“Reaching out to the needy and the vulnerable is the reason we set up Galaxy Foundation. Basically to help restore the deformed back into the society,” Mr. Hagan has said.
Beyond the education and donation, the foundation was also presented with four critical surgeries which through their support, saved the lives of these individuals.
“That came to us when we had no means of raising funds to help due to the impact of COVID-19. However, we could not have turned our backs on them because these cases were highly critical – a matter of life and death. So we organised four major surgeries during the COVID-19 period and the individuals are still under our care till they are totally free,” he said.
The smiles on the faces of the needy patients after their life transformation surgeries, according to Mr. Hagan, are what motivates the foundation because through their assistance, lives are being changed and people are reinstated back to their society.
The activities of the foundation in 2020 could have slowed down but the team worked harder to save the lives of many and to give hope to the homeless and vulnerable.
Mr. Hagan recounted that since the presence of COVID-19 was much-felt, getting doctors was very difficult and hospital facilities were all full and busy, so even getting a facility for the surgeries to take place was a big challenge.
“Money was not easy to come by. Since businesses had come to a halt, raising funds for the surgeries was a challenge. Also, I stood the risk of getting infected due to the up and down movement, as well as meeting a lot of people to raise support for the surgeries and donations,” he noted, adding that the challenges did not make him relent.
Looking into the future, the ultimate plan for Galaxy Foundation Ghana is to establish a Centre for Deformity Correction (CDC). It will be a specialised health facility that will correct the deformities and anomalies of the vulnerable people who cannot afford the services of plastic and general surgeons.
“The centre will be the first in West Africa when completed, where surgeons both – national and foreigners – will be present to correct the deformities. The land has been acquired and being cleared to start construction, funds are being raised,” he said.
MTN Ghana Foundation
The MTN Ghana Foundation was established in November 2007 as the vehicle to select and implement MTN’s Corporate Social Investments. MTN Ghana Foundation has three areas of focus – Health, Education and Economic Empowerment. From its inception to date, the foundation has undertaken 158 major projects across the country. This includes 87 Education Projects, 53 Health Care Projects, 13 Economic Empowerment Project, and 4 Community Support Initiatives.
