Thank you Message from the President and Founder of FOCOS
Dear friends of FOCOS,
On behalf of the board of directors, the hospital staff and our patients I would like to thank all our guests who attended the 3rd Annual Fundraising Dinner on 18th May 2019 at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra. To those who could not attend but made substantial contributions we say a big thank you too. We had over 300 guests in attendance and raised Ghc1, 016,120. The theme for this years event was “Let’s make a difference together”
Sir Sam Jonah our special Guest of Honor gave a powerful message about philanthropy and the need to give back to support worthy causes such as FOCOS. He applauded FOCOS benefactors like the Bloomberg Foundation, Wayne and Claire Heyland, Michelle and Marty Cohen, and the GNPC Foundation. He reiterated the appalling statistics of Health care disparity in Ghana with the poor numbers of specialists and the inadequate financial health care coverage offered to citizens.
He went on further to praise the Founder, Prof Boachie-Adjei for his exemplary service to the Ghanaian community and setting the example of generous giving and blazing the trail for the establishment of state of the art orthopedic hospital in Ghana which is now the best orthopedic facility in West Africa.
Prof Boachie expressed his gratitude to the attendees especially Dr. Ernest Addison, the Gov of the Bank of Ghana, and his wife and our major Corporate sponsors, especially GNPC, KOSMOS Energy, FIDELITY, GLICO, and Multimedia group.
He appealed to all and sundry in the country to recognize the achievements of FOCOS and become partners with the organization, which is a non-profit entity that depends significantly on donor support to treat the thousands of children and adults on its surgical waiting list.
The attendees were presented with patients who had benefited from previous FOCOS Sponsorship efforts. 29-year-old Millicent, who was treated for severe scoliosis when she was 12 years old recounted her story of how she was written off by her treating physician and later told to stop going to school because her condition afforded her no hope of achieving anything in life. She touched the hearts the listening audience when she narrated how with the support of FOCOS and a subsequent scholarship she was able to continue her education and has now completed her graduate studies, earning a master degree in education.
Prof Boachie echoed Sir Sam Jonah’s appeal to the public and invited those present to heed our call to support similar patients on the waiting list. He also presented the FOCOS sustainability agenda to establish an Endowment Fund of $50million to support ongoing operations, sponsor needy patients, and train the next generation of professional staff. He requested attendees to join this campaign and commit to recurring donations of any kind over the next 5 years to reach the proposed goal.
The evening was spiced with awards presented to 3 individuals who have made significant contributions to the organization ie. Dr. Henry Holdbrook Smith (the Lifetime Achievement Award), Ms. Mazarelo Wing NG (the Distinguished Service Award) and Ms. Veronica Ayele (the Employee of the Year Award for 2018).
The evening was capped with a performance by acclaimed artist Becca and the Hy-skuul band and ended with much exuberance and dancing.
I welcome all our friends to join us for another evening of giving and celebration in 2020, God willing. You can view the event photo gallery on the link below:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1a6x_GMuIRkiUYQq1R4kieT-I6CwdHX1R?usp=sharing