• A British national got stranded in Ghana in 2019
• Tom Russell has now been able to feed thousands through his charity work
More than a year after his initially-planned week-long visit to Ghana was unceremoniously extended due to the novel Coronavirus, pushing him to start giving back to the vulnerable in Ghana, British national, Tom Russell, will by the end of the year, have given out 7000 giveaway boxes to the poor.
His story got featured on GhanaWeb on July 17, 2020, highlighting how his Give Back Ghana initiative at the time had targeted a total of 2750 people in 12 areas in Central Accra.
His motivation, as he explained, was that while he was here, he saw an opening to use his “entrepreneurial skills and passion for helping people to help the vulnerable.”
With that, each person received aid boxes which cost GH¢50($8.70), containing rice, spaghetti, tinned mackerel, tuna, sardines, tomato paste, as well as toilet roll and hand sanitizer.
Speaking with GhanaWeb on the new developments with all that he has been doing through his organization, Tom Russell, whose work is in the export sector, explained that giant strides have been made to reach even more people before the close of the year.
“We’re now almost two years into the project and we’ve now managed to secure a long-term funding from the Grundfos Foundation. They have now funded us to build a further 4000 boxes.
“So, by the end of this year, we would have delivered around 7000 boxes since we started this project,” he said.
He explained that as a way of ensuring that the food items that go into their boxes are not imported, they have been closely working with local companies to facilitate that.
“We’re working with a lot of Ghanaian companies to source a lot of these foods. Before the end of the year, we would have distributed 8 tonnes of Gari, 13 tonnes of rice, 1.2 tonnes of Tuna, 500 gallons of Hand Sanitizer sourced from here because I don’t want to use so many imported goods,” he said.
With an office to operate from now, Tom Russell is already projecting for 2022, hopeful that his collaborations with German Ghanaian singer Y’akoto and other businesses in Ghana will help push this initiative that continues to feed the needy.
“We look forward to funding and educating selected female-owned local start-up micro businesses such as waakye sellers, local provision stores, seamstresses and hair stylists. We look to giving them the tools they need to start and mentor them through workshops to create sustainable, long-lasting businesses,” he said.
