Furtherance to its avowed commitment to leave an indelible footprint in communities that nestle in and around its Damang operations, the Gold Fields Foundation has commissioned four community projects valued at USD 1.5 million for the Prestea Huni Valley and Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipal assemblies in the Western Region.
The projects, a renovated maternity block and other facilities at the Abosso Health Centre, a community centre at Bompieso, a doctors’ and Nurses’ accommodation at Huni Valley and a 1.7km tarred town roads in Damang, an investment at the behest of the Gold Fields Foundation, also finds expression in the mining company’s exemplary corporate citizenship ethos.
All five companies, Jumenkuf, Wilhelm, Danmark, Joe Quaicoo and Emmatech, that executed the projects were locally sourced, in line with “our objective of supporting local content and boasting economic activities in our operational areas,” a drive seen as a panacea in preventing the locals from engaging in illegal activities especially “galamsey.”
Joshua Mortoti, Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields West Africa, at a Thursday, February 29 official handing over ceremony of the projects at Damang, said Gold Fields will, continue to invest in the socio-economic development of host communities and the country.
“An important aspect of the foundation’s programmes and initiatives is ensuring that they are relevant, impactful, sustainable, and can change and enhance lives.”
Gold Fields Foundation is 20 years old, and its investments in education, water and sanitation, health, agriculture and infrastructure, including training, scholarships and enterprise development, as of January this year, had crossed the USD 100m mark.
To give further impetus to “our commitment to sustainable development,” Ing. Mortoti announced that “Gold Fields Ghana Foundation will soon launch its five-year strategic development plan.” Already, in 2023, Gold Fields commissioned “a baseline needs assessment of the Tarkwa Nsuaem and Prestea Huni Valley Municipalities,” which objective identified a legacy project that would tie into the company’s purpose of creating an enduring value beyond mining.
“The study recommended expanded access to quality health care.”
Abdel Razak Yakubu, Executive Secretary of Gold Fields Ghana Foundation, explained that each intervention, is specifically tailored to meet the core needs of persons in their operational areas.
A classic example is how a collaboration between the Foundation and the Huni Valley Senior High School led to the school recording its most impressive WASSCE result since its inception.
Seven, out of the ten students the Foundation had prepared for the National Science and Maths Quiz got between 8 and 5 A1s in the WASSCE.
For Mr Razak Yakubu, the excellent results by the students and other life-changing stories from beneficiaries of their interventions buoy Gold Fields and its Foundation “to do more for its host communities.”
In 2023, Gold Fields Foundation, was decoupled from the community relations functions of the company.
With a new structure composed of talents from the company’s Graduate Training Program, with beneficiaries from host communities, the foundation, for the first time in a long while, has been able to complete 88 per cent of projects approved by its trustees as against 56 per cent in previous years.
