MTN Heroes of Change is set to showcase the works of Prof. William Kwabena Ampofo, Coordinator for the National COVID-19 Testing. As a trained virologist, Prof. Ampofo brought his expertise to bare at the on-set of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. He and his team procured logistics and reagents to set up and start testing for COVID-19 within the first week the virus was detected in the country. Prof. also led his team to innovate the pooling sample system to test about 10,000 samples a day.
Prof. Ampofo was nominated by Abass Abdul Karim, Head of Public Health Reference Laboratory, Kumasi. Mr. Karim believes that Prof Ampofo’s initiative and training of professionals to test for COVID-19 in every region without having to transport samples to Accra makes him a hero worthy of being acclaimed a national hero.
The story will be aired this weekend on GTV, UTV and TV3. The episode will highlight Prof. Ampofo’s achievements and the challenges he overcame during the course of his work at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
MTN Heroes of Change was launched in July 2013 with the aim of identifying and recognizing selfless people who continue to sacrifice their time and resources to improve their communities and brighten lives. Since its inception, 50 heroes have been recognized and awarded for their contributions to society with 5 emerging as the overall Heroes of Change winners.
As a result of its impact, MTN Heroes of Change has won several awards which include 2016 IPR Best Community Relations Programme of the Year and CSR Program of the Year 2015 by the Head of State Awards (HoSA) Scheme.