Former GRIDCo boss launches foundation to honour late son

A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), William Amuna, has launched a foundation in memory of his son, Andrew Amuna, who passed on in 2021 in a drowning incident.

Known as the Andy Amuna Foundation, it is aimed at making an impact on deprived communities by embarking on key educational infrastructure and learning support projects.

The foundation has the aim of creating an efficient, effective, and sustainable vehicle of support that touches and helps transform the lives of the youth in needy communities.

In doing that, it would provide scholarships for brilliant, but needy students which is in line with Andy Amuna’s dream of helping to produce engineers from needy communities through funding.

Present at the event last Saturday were family members, friends, colleagues and well-wishers of Andy, who donated generously to the foundation.

Passion

Mr Amuna said the family honoured his son’s memory with the foundation to help young people because he was passionate about the welfare of others, particularly children.

Therefore, the foundation, he said, was built on the principles and values of Andy who influenced individuals to embark on initiatives to help alleviate the pains of the destitute in some communities in the country.

As part of the launch, a nine-member board was inaugurated to steer the affairs of the foundation and help achieve its mission.

Justice Sulemana Gbadegbe (left), former Justice of the Supreme Court, explaining a point to William Amuna (right), former Chief Executive of GRIDCO, after the launch. Picture: EDNA SALVO-KOTEY.

Chaired by William Awindor-Kanyirige, members of the board are William Amuna, Monica Senanu as board secretary, Dr Andrew Akola, Prof. Mark Adom-Asamoah, Gina Odoi, Alex Asinura, Israel Laryea and Ben Asante.

The chairman, in this acceptance speech, thanked the family for the confidence and trust placed in him and the rest of the board to direct the foundation towards its goals.

To that end, he pledged to do whatever it took to ensure Andy Amuna’s dream of producing engineers from deprived communities would be realised “We will not let Andy down,” Mr Awindor- Kanyirige added.

About Andy

Andrew Mbabilla Amuna, who passed away aged 27, had his basic and secondary education at the Tema Parents’ Association School and Achimota School, respectively.

Andy, as most people referred to him, then went on to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he graduated with a First Class honours degree in Electrical Engineering.

He continued at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and graduated top of his class in 2020, after which he worked as an associate engineer at Scheweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) in the United States from May 2020 to July 2021 when he died.

Andy passed on after drowning at the Granite Point Snake River where he had joined a colleague on a fishing expedition.