Bank Staff in Ghana Help 40+ Families Leave Hospital

New mothers at Ghana's Korle Bu Teaching Hospital faced an impossible choice this December. Their babies were healthy and cleared for discharge, but unpaid medical bills kept families trapped in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

That's when 75 employees from Development Bank Ghana stepped in with their own money. They organized into three volunteer teams and set out to turn heartbreak into hope during the holiday season.

Team B visited Korle Bu and paid outstanding medical bills for 20 mothers and their newborns. The team also delivered 60 care packages to other mothers struggling with expenses. At Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital across town, Team G cleared bills for another 20 families and provided food and medical supplies to over 100 families.

The bank staff didn't stop at hospitals. Team D brought education resources to four schools serving children with diverse learning needs, including schools for blind and deaf students. They delivered 50 STEM learning kits, 200 sanitary pads, and over 300 school supplies like pencils and notebooks to Awoshie Islamic Community School, Odorgonno Basic School, Akropong School for the Blind, and the Demonstration School for the Deaf in Mampong-Akuapem.

The volunteers spent time eating meals with students and playing games. Their donations came entirely from personal contributions, building on a three-year tradition of holiday giving.

The Ripple Effect

Barbara Anawonu Wricketts, who leads corporate social responsibility at the bank, says the volunteer effort shows how collective action creates lasting change. When employees give their own time and money, they inspire their workplace to embed community care into its mission.

Development Bank Ghana supports small and medium businesses through financing partnerships. The four-year-old institution receives funding from the World Bank, European Investment Bank, and African Development Bank to help Ghanaian entrepreneurs access affordable capital.

Forty families who thought they'd spend the holidays separated from their newborns went home together instead.