Freemasons donate equipment to Noguchi for covid-19 fight

The District Grand Lodge of Ghana has presented medical equipment comprising two specialised ultra-low freezers and one thousand PCR test Kits to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.

The equipment valued at about GHc 280,000 was presented by representatives of the District Grand Lodge of Ghana led by the District Grand Master, Isaac Owulaku Hood.

The equipment and test kits are meant to empower the research centre to help combat the dreaded coronavirus.

In a brief address, Right Worshipful Isaac Owulaku Hood explained, ‘the District Grand Lodge is part of a worldwide body of Freemasons who operate under the United Grand Lodge of England, the Premier Grand lodge.

This Ghana district was inaugurated 89 years ago and is made up of members from a cross-section of the Ghanaian Society.

The District, he explained, boasts of the oldest lodge in the country, Gold Coast Lodge, formed in 1863’.

“Seeing the threat that Covid-19 posed to our dear nation Ghana, Freemasons of the Ghana District set up a charity fund. Since the principal tenets of Freemasonry is charity, specifically aimed at supporting the Institute, which is at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19.”

For his part, the Director of the Institute, Prof Abraham Kwabena, who represented Noguchi with the head of Virology Prof William Kwabena Ampofo, expressed their gratitude to the District Grand Lodge of Ghana, explaining the PCR test kits “will go along way to boost testing for covid-19 and critically needed Ultra-Low Freezers will be used to store biological samples”.

He then stated that given the generosity of the Freemasons, the NMIMR would be happy to share the donation with its sister research organizations, the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research (KCCR) as arrangements are on hand to deliver one ultra-low Freezer to KCCR.