No fewer than 120 victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage have benefited in a life-transforming way from the 40th birthday celebration of one of Ghana’s favourite actresses, Jackie Appiah.

As part of her celebration, she sponsored weeks of intensive vocational and technical skills training in diverse fields, including catering, metal works, hairdressing, fashion designing, cosmetology, tie and dye production, and cake crafts for the victims.

On Tuesday, December 6, 2023, the day after her birthday, the beneficiaries of her benevolence were presented with accredited certificates and full start-up kits at a graduation ceremony in the Mepe St. Kizito Displaced Camp in the North Tongu constituency.

Member of Parliament for the constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who shared Jackie’s remarkable kind gesture, disclosed that her “skills facilitators were chosen from the best institutions across the country.”

“Jackie’s timely skills training and empowerment initiative will go a long way to benefit many distressed dependents, including children and the aged,” the lawmaker said. “By this unique compassionate gesture, Jackie Appiah is proverbially teaching our VRA-induced flood victims how to fish instead of merely giving them fish.”

Ablakwa further disclosed that out of awe at Jackie’s gesture and his undying love for his constituents, he supported her gesture with cash grants to the facilitators and all apprentices, which could serve as start-up capital.

Also, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey, visited the North Tongu constituency and donated assorted food items to the victims of the flood. He also offered scholarships to some of the brilliant victims, Ablakwa disclosed on his social media pages.