Celebrities’ Donations In Ghana, A Genuine Cause Or Just A Mere Gimmick?

All over the world, celebrities are “species” of mankind with strong love for attention; they continuously seek for media coverage when it is favourable to them. The fame of almost every celebrity is heavily embedded in PR strategies which are fully dependant on the media.

Believe it or not, the media play an indispensable role in making and unmaking a celebrity in every part of the world. In fact, celebrities to a greater extent owe their existence to the media and this is evident from the intertwined relationship between the two, leaving the former without any private room to operate.

Various recent posts on GhanaCelebrities.Com specifically highlighting the charitable works or donations of some of our Ghanaian celebrities with the aim of steering and encouraging others to follow up this good course have come under callous attacks from certain readers.

Some readers are of the view that, charitable works or donations made by celebrities which find their way into the media represent nothing more than publicity stunts, another tool these celebrities have developed in order to get mentioned by the media.

The holders of the above view have supported their thoughts with questions like “why tell the entire world about a donation” and “why did they go to make the donation with reporters beside them”.

I am not aware of anything unethical about announcing or bringing a good deed to light. Even at our sacred Christian homes, don’t ministers mention out loud the names of those who dash out “fat money” to the church?  Are we not aware of “anyone with 10 million cedis to give should come forward for a special prayer and blessing?”

The media love to admonish and blast celebrities when they fall short of expected standards. Don’t you therefore think it is proportionate that the same media should be tasked with given publicity to celebrities who live up to expected standards such as giving out to the society?

We must cultivate the habit of appreciation and commend celebrities for their various contributions to our lives and the community at large.

I still cannot fathom what is so wrong with our celebrities pulling out a little bit of attention and media recognition from donations they have willingly made. Maybe someone will point this out to me.

Let’s look beyond any element of publicity stunt in the recent trend of celebrity donations and focus on the admirable initiations that some of our Ghanaian celebrities have resulted to in order to make our part of the world a better place.

Let us extol and acknowledge the good deeds of these celebrities so that others will also find the need and heart join in.