Some 31 talented-but-needy seamstresses/tailors and hairdressers including two persons living with disability have benefited from the second edition of the ‘Founder’s Empowerment Project’ initiative by Class Media Group (CMG), a Ghanaian media conglomerate which operates Class91.3FM, Accra100.5FM, No.1 105.3FM, Kumasi 104.1FM, Adehyee99.1FM, Ho FM, CTV, Tamale FM, Takoradi FM and ClassFMonline.com.

Businessman and philanthropist Seidu Agongo initiated the philanthropic programme with the aim to equip underprivileged artisans, including apprentices, who do not have the financial means to set up their own businesses so that they can be independent.

At an event held on 25 November 2019 at the forecourt of the Ho Central Market, 12 persons were gifted sewing machines and 19 others were given hairdryers.

The beneficiaries are between the ages of 18 and 30 and were drawn from  various communities in the region after thorough interviews, screening and shortlisting by a panel of judges who went through over 1,000 entries.

The event follows a similar donation of the first set of 86 hairdryers and sewing machines to a similar profile of people in the Greater Accra Region.

The project is being replicated across the country.

Mr Agongo’s Class Media Group (CMG) is aiming at making a positive impact in the livelihoods of underprivileged artisans in areas where his media houses operate through the benevolent gesture.

The Group CEO of CMG, Mr Kojo Ackaah-Kwarteng, thanked Mr Agongo for his benevolence and advised the recipients to use the equipment to improve their economic livelihoods as well as others who depend on them so they can break the chain of poverty.

Mr Ackaah-Kwarteng also warned the beneficiaries not to sell the items, noting that CMG will engage them in entrepreneurial training programmes to enable them make effective use of the items.

The ‘Founder’s Empowerment Project’ adds to the numerous charity programmes of CMG that the group uses to support the lessprivileged in society.

CMG organises the annual Celebrity Easter Funfair and donations to orphans in the Greater Accra Region. The Group also makes a yearly GHS50,000 donation to single mothers.

Mr Agongo, also recently, constructed an Out-Patient Department (OPD) block at a cost of GHS857,000 for the Child Emergency Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.