Celebrities over the world are well respected, because they bring happiness to the faces of the crestfallen. A lot of celebrities have always set up charity foundation to support the less privileged and needy in the society.

It has always been refreshing news when one read in the newspapers or watches on TV about philanthropists or stars donating to the less privilege or needy in our society, one can only get satisfied with such reportage.Recently, Parade Magazine published a list of Most Generous Celebrities, ranked by the amount of funds donated to charity.

Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey ($52 million), Barbra Streisand ($11 million), Paul Newman (donating $10 million), Mel Gibson ($9.9million), Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ($8.4 million), Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan and hockey star Eric Lindros – each donating $5 million.The donations were channeled to provide education, health care, advocacy for women’s issues and children, environmental causes, civil rights, AIDS research, refugee aid and cross-cultural understanding.

Not only do they donate frequently to charities but most of them have either set up their own foundations or adopted some and supporting them.Over here, Ghanaian celebrities do not earn anything close to the above, what they earn is insufficient, but it’s not good reason enough not to donate to charities. I read a story captioned “Tinny Fetes 300 Orphans” in 2007 and now in 2009 reading about Ayigbe Edem’s donations, I feel it’s been really a long time, since something of that sort was done, from hip life artistes (I stand to be corrected), nevertheless it has finally happened again and hope it’s not going to be a nine day wonder.Funnily, I have a lot of Ewe friends but don’t understand one Ewe word; I think that doesn’t stop me from saying ‘Thumps Up’ to Ayigbe Edem.

This guy has indeed won many hearts, considering the fact the hip life is touted as the lowest in terms of sales. Sometime last weekend hip life (I don’t care if he says he does hip hop) artiste Ayigbe Edem under the sponsorship of Volta Regime Foundation and with support from the Last 2 Music Group donated some items worth GHC 3,200 to the Mamobi Polyclinic in Accra.In his interview to Graphic Showbiz, he said he would donate something to charity every month for the next one year. It’s really welcoming news.

I think this is just phenomenon and unprecedented coming from a Hip Lifer artiste.“It is a humbling experience coming this far in such a short time,” Edem said. “I feel I must share the little I have with some less fortunate folks so I decided to give to children, I grew up without my parents being around and I know how good it feels as a young person to have someone care about and inspire hope in you.”For someone like him, who grew up without his biological parents being around, donating to the needy perhaps might not be big news enough but for me it is really and that differentiates him from his colleagues, people like him needs to be acknowledged and honoured for not using his hard-earned cash on trivial stuff.

I have always had negative thoughts about Hip Life artistes, my problem has to do with them using their monies on less important (for me) stuff, like purchasing the most expensive clothes, cars, smoking weed, chancing of girls and etc. but the “You Dey Craze” and “Bra Fre me” star has given me reasons to suspect myself and change my mind about how I see them.I think his donation should be a wakeup call to other stars to give back to society, what the society has offered them, to emulate his kind gestures especially to Yvonne Nelson and John Dumelo who were set to have splashed whooping 4,100 Euros on clothes. Instead we can organize and contribute to the needy. They should stand up to be counted. It’s nice to see that some celebrities do care about others and give back.Who would you like to see donating more??

By: Ebenezer Anangfio Jnr ./GhanaCelebrities.com