Category: Community Development
She has dedicated the past 30 years of her life to help the old, the sick and the poor even though she herself is frail and fragile and definitely not rich - and goes about everywhere carrying bags of fruits, bread and sweets and giving them out to the poor and vulnerable. Her favourite saying is ‘silver and gold, I have none - but fruits, bread and sweets I have in abundance.’
Through Mission Dine Club which she set up in 1986, she has touched the lives of a number of vulnerable persons in the UK.
Dame Betty Asafu-Adjaye
Dame Betty Asafu-Adjaye
Recently, Mission Dine Club was given a sizable plot of land in Ghana to build an Elderly People’s Home - to cater for the old and infirmed.
A few weeks ago, a young Ghanaian man hearing of what Dame does offered his 12 bedroom house in a very well sought-after area in Accra, for Mission Dine Club to launch in Ghana.
Mission Dine Club has a road map to advice the youth in Ghana on the dangers of harmful substances and at the same time educate and enlighten them of their Human Rights, so that they can contribute constructively to society.
Mission Dine has recently applied to Camden Council to approve a sheltered place around Kings Cross to feed homeless and vulnerable people and to educate them on the dangers of drugs and harmful substances.
Godwin Donkor who only met Dame Betty a few month ago and now volunteers for Mission Dine Club states that: "Dame is simply dedicated, hardworking and nothing stops her from what she wants to do. She is infectious in a way. It is barely 6 months now, I started working with Dame Betty and for that brief period, I have been collecting bread twice a week from Euphoriam Bakery in Hampstead Heath and distributing them to Salvation Army in Romford, Helping Hand in Canning Town and occasionally to The Learning Centre (TLC) in Harold Wood.
"I have always classified myself as a caring and compassionate person but since meeting Dame Betty has gone up a notch. I am neither a Pastor nor a Church goer but the name given to me Godwin is manifesting itself. I now don't walk by a homeless person or someone in distress without spending a minute or two with him or her to find out the circumstances that led the person to be in the situation they find themselves. I then try after having their confidence, to explore ways and means to get them out of their present predicament."
Last month, Dame Betty Asafu Adjaye celebrated 30 years since she founded Mission Dine Club with the Queen's representative, among others, in attendance.