Former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has commissioned the newly built St Jude’s Catholic Church at New Weija in Accra, a project he personally supported to completion in fulfilment of a promise to his friend, Rev. Fr Andrew Campbell.

The commissioning adds to a long list of philanthropic and faith-based initiatives supported by Dr Bawumia across the country.

At the commissioning ceremony in New Weija on Sunday, Fr Campbell, the resident priest at St Jude’s Catholic Church and head of the Weija Leprosarium, expressed his gratitude to Dr Bawumia for his consistent generosity and support.

“I am a beggar priest and I am not ashamed of it. I beg for the poor,” Fr Campbell said.

“Anytime I am broke, I go to Dr Bawumia and he always comes to my aid for my people,” he added, recounting several occasions on which the former Vice President had supported his projects for vulnerable people.

Fr Campbell recalled that when he was defrauded last year, Dr Bawumia stepped in to provide food for the aged and vulnerable at the Lepers Aid Centre.

“Bawumia always helps me. Last year when I was defrauded, he gave me food to feed the aged. God has blessed him and I thank God for his life,” he said.

Fr Campbell also used the occasion to remind Ghanaians of the dignity of cured leprosy patients, stressing that they should not be discriminated against.

“They are not third or fourth-class citizens; they are God’s children,” he said.

The new church, he noted, is not the first time Dr Bawumia has supported him and the cured leprosy patients at Weija.

Dr Bawumia, who is the Life Patron of Lepers Aid Ghana, has for more than a decade supported initiatives aimed at improving the welfare of people affected by leprosy in Ghana.

His support, according to Fr Campbell, has included cash and food donations, as well as spending special occasions with the beneficiaries.

In one of his notable interventions, Dr Bawumia sponsored the treatment of Priscilla, a four-year-old girl who was abandoned at birth at the Weija Leprosarium because of a severe leprosy-related deformity.

After undergoing an amputation in Ghana, Dr Bawumia funded her travel to Italy, where she received treatment for five months and was fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Fr Campbell said Dr Bawumia’s support had been consistent over the years.

“Dr Bawumia has never said no to us. Anytime we have called on him, even at short notice, he has responded positively. He comes here all the time to spend time with us, interact with us and eat with us,” he said.