Sowutuom Disaster---4 buried (Front Page)

THE plight of the family members of the four children who died in the fire outbreak at Sowutuom-Nsunfa, a suburb of Accra, last Monday worsened when news of the death of the children’s uncle who had tried to save the children hit them during the burial service for the four.
Midway through the service, word went round that 28-year-old Bismark Kofi Arthur, who had got severely burnt in the Monday night fire disaster, had also died.
He was a graduate of the Koforidua Polytechnic who was on national service at Sogakope in the Volta Region.
The Kwashieman Presbyterian Church of Ghana witnessed one of the saddest moments in its history last Saturday when the four little coffins containing the remains of the four children were lined up for the burial service.
The children — Lynette Brenya, nine; Freda Brenya, seven; Terry Akrofi Halm, five, all the children of Mrs Freda Brenya, and five-year-old Eugene Osei Kwame Aidoo, the only child of Freda’s younger sister, 30-year-old Louisa Boakye Dankwa — died in the blaze in their five-bedroom house at Sowutuom-Nsunfa on Monday night, June 13, 2011.
At the time of the incident, Mrs Brenya, whose husband lives abroad, was said to have responded to a call from her landlord at a different part of Sowutuom.
Before a tearful congregation, each of the coffins, adorned with flowers and bearing the names of the deceased, was lined up. The pictures of the children had also been placed by the coffins.
A large congregation attended the emotional service to mourn with the family which had experienced one of the most pathetic tragedies in recent times.
Among the congregation were Mrs Brenya and Ms Boakye Dankwa.
Others in attendance were relations of the deceased, the staff and pupils of Papty School Complex at Santa Maria where all the four children attended school, friends of the bereaved and members of the public.
The Head Pastor of the Kwashieman Presbyterian Church, Rev Andrew Odontor, preached the sermon which was based on Ruth 1:1-5.
A 10-year-old Class Five pupil of Papty School Complex, Afua Asiedua, made the congregation more sorrowful when she read a tribute in memory of the four children.
The tribute, which recalled some of the activities of the children, was so emotional that some members of the congregation had to walk out of the chapel to weep.
It was a sight difficult to behold when the four coffins were carried from the church into a waiting ambulance and a police vehicle en route to the Anyaa Cemetery for burial.
Schoolmates of the children who had gone to the service in their school uniforms did not help matters, as they were seen crying in groups outside the church. A school band was in attendance to bid the children farewell.
Preaching the sermon, Rev Odontor reminded the bereaved of the story of Naomi, who, because of the agonies of life in a foreign land, had to change her name to Mara, meaning ‘Bitterness’, but who later found favour in the sight of God.
He also touched on the story of Job, who lost all that he had but was blessed by God for him to give birth to children again and regain his property tenfold.
He advised the bereaved parents, especially the fathers, to stick to their wives and not allow the calamity to break up their marriages.
Rev Odontor asked for God’s mercy and protection for the bereaved and prayed that the Almighty God would replace all that they had lost in abundance.