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Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur, the wife of the Vice-President, has cut the sod for work to begin on a hospice at Osabene, near Adweso, in the Akuapem North municipality in the Eastern Region. The GH�1.5-million facility, which will cater for terminally ill persons until they eventually pass away, is the brainchild of Monsignor Bobby Benson of the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua. Currently, the diocese is catering for a number of persons living with HIV and AIDS in a specially constructed edifice named Mathew Chapter 25. Fourth in Africa When completed, the hospice will be the fourth of its kind in Africa after South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In her remarks, Mrs Amissah-Arthur expressed the hope that the facility would help lessen the burden on women who normally took care of family members whose medical conditions had been declared hopeless. She advised relatives of terminally ill persons who would use the facility when completed not to just dump the sick at the hospice but continue to visit and show them love until the ultimate happened. She was full of praise for the Koforidua Diocese of the Catholic Church for its initiative which, she said, would ensure care and comfort for the terminally ill before they passed on to glory. Afrifah-Agyekum The Most Rev Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum, the Bishop of the Koforidua Diocese of the Catholic Church, said the concerns of the church towards terminally ill persons were meant to provide them with love, devotion and quality health care in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ. That, to him, had become necessary because life on earth had always been associated with challenges such as sickness, pain and eventual death. �We should not neglect the terminally ill because their end should not be in pain or loneliness, and this is why we are putting up this facility to cater for such persons,� he stated. Earlier, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Mavis Ama Frempong, had praised Mrs Amissah-Arthur for her love for the sick and the underprivileged.