Blog Celebrating Our Heroes

 

Heroes come in many forms, at Golden Star Resources our COVID 19 response of preventing and protecting our employees, their families and communities has been made possible by our colleagues whom we call heroes. Their actions and total devotion to duty is in keeping with our values of collaboration, caring, fairness, honesty and respect.

This month’s blog features Golden Star Heroes who have positively contributed to our COVID 19 responses;  

Dr Solomon Dowdall, Chief Medical Officer Int. SOS

Dr Solomon is an illustration of those health workers whose selfless acts, compassion and service go beyond what is required of them. Forfeiting his scheduled leave, Dr Solomon has been working throughout this pandemic at our Bogoso and Prestea Clinics.

He is a member of the GSR Emergency Management Team (EMT), where he offers direction from a medical point of view. In addition to his regular consultation with patients, he also provides education and guidance on how to reduce risk of contracting the virus.  He has progressively advanced his control, and preventive methods from the primary screening of our stakeholders to enhanced screening methods to achieve zero COVID-19 fatalities within the workforce.

Samuel Kyei, Head of Cleaning Unit Int. SOS   

Some heroes are visible others are hidden. Samuel Kyei is one of the hidden heroes. This hero makes sure the patients’ rooms stay sanitised and safe. He is always cleaning and sanitising every item in each room as well as the general clinic work area. His job is extremely important as clinics are classified as hotspots.

“When I come to work, I put on my protective equipment, and I sanitise and clean everything. This is my contribution toward the fight against COVID-19” he said. Samuel’s efforts have been crucial in protecting protecting our people from infection and saving lives.

Golden Star thanks you and celebrates your contribution in our fight against COVID-19.

                                                      

Monica Amelewosi Amanda Siaw, Physician Assistant Int. SOS

As COVID-19 changes our world, we rely on our medical community to care for us and our loved ones more than ever.

Amanda has been working throughout this pandemic at the Prestea underground operations Clinic. Amanda extensively educated the employees on COVID-19, and this has helped to demystify the many myths around the pandemic.

“I almost became a nuisance to a few,” she said. Her persistence and dedication to her work played a crucial role in controlling the spread of COVID -19 cases among the workforce.

 

Shaddrack Adjetey Sowah, GSWL Managing Director

Shaddrack, our MD at Wassa , who also chairs the  Emergency Management Team at GSWL has made several tough calls which translated in our Wassa mine being one of the last mining Companies in Ghana to record a positive COVID-19 case earlier this year. He continues to make decisions which have helped to manage and control the spread of the virus.  These include; initiating mine-wide lockdowns; providing and equipping essential support services to facilitate employees to work from home where applicable; disinfecting chambers at entrances to the mine; as well as creating a temporary holding centre to accommodate at least 35 people. In addition, he has provided additional buses to enhance social distancing in the transportation of workers. He continues to supply alcohol-based hand sanitisers for employees and masks to the communities. Above all, he was at the forefront in the fight against stigmatisation.

Shaddrack has pledged this continuous assistance for as long as the pandemic persists.

         

Onesimus Ebo Blankson, Maintainer        

Onesimus and his team observed a possible route of contamination when multiple employees used their hands to lift the lids of refuse bins.  He suggested a solution; to retrofit dustbins with a foot pedals to eliminate the potential transfer of the virus through hand contact with the bins. It is on this basis that suggestions from others regarding floor markings, door foot pedals, company manufacturing of alcohol-based hand sanitisers were also given prominence as preventive measures in Golden Star to manage the spread of COVID 19.

Well done, Onesimus for your insight and poactive thinking which has inspired others.

 

Philipa Varris, Executive Vice President, Head of Sustainability

Golden Star has been proactively implementing controls to limit the risk associated with the coronavirus pandemic.  As our knowledge of COVID-19 evolves, Golden Star Crisis Management Team (CMT) continues to develop our Guidelines and update our Epidemic and Pandemic Management Plans for GSR operations and communities. Philipa is a member of the CMT, who were tasked with managing the response to the pandemic. Philipa has helped implement access to mental health and wellbeing programs which support people whilst they are working from home.

Philipa, who is also a member of the EMT, has passionately contributed to keeping employees and host communities safe through shared information, guidance and donations.  These have manifested in the development of management systems such as, leadership guidance documents; to support departmental communications. She initiated targeted training for at-risk personnel, while working closely with Golden Star’s partners for integrated management of COVID-19 controls. Philipa also proposed the modification of two vehicles for transporting suspected COVID 19 patients to appropriate centres.

 

George Amankwah-Kumi, Group & Community Health Coordinator

George, our Group & Community Health Coordinator has contributed enormously to the controls and Management of COVID-19 in Golden Star and its catchment communities.

He expertly coordinated a complex chain of activities including awareness creation through education and distribution of donations for the purchase of PPE. He also supervised the renovations of holding/isolation centres in both GSWL and GSBPL. George was the main liaison between Golden Star Resources and external stakeholders, including the Ghana Health Service. Currently, George is coordinating Golden Star’s COVID-19 anti-stigmatisation campaign. 

 

We are indeed proud of our colleagues for all the work they have done and continue to do. You are indeed the Golden Stars who live the Golden Star way.

Ayekoo!

We thank you

Golden Star – Protecting Our People and Beyond

At Golden Star, our people are our greatest asset and our management of the current COVID-19 pandemic must, to the greatest extent possible, protect our people and our host communities from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 as a result of our operations.

As a major employer and therefore catalyst for rural economic stimulus in our host communities we share the dual burden of knowing that our continued operations are also critical to the health and wellbeing of our workforce and the thousands of people that they support both directly and indirectly.

In recognition of these responsibilities, our COVID-19 management is highly prevention-focused and proactive. As a company, we are working to provide leadership in COVID-19 management to our business partners, as well as working closely with our partners in the Ghana Health Services for the purposes of integrated management.

In this quest, as evident in our previous blog publication, Golden Star continues to ensure our activities are in line with our protocols and with government guidance and directives. We continue to support our communities and employees through:

• Education and sensitization
• Access, screening and travel restrictions
• Hygiene and enhanced sanitation implementation
• Donations from GSR Board and Executive Management Committee.
• Support for municipal medical isolation/holding units
• Medical preparedness and
• Flexibility and wellbeing

Sanitising workers bus

Golden Star has employed enhanced screening protocols at site access points and stopped all non-essential company travel. We proactively supported the lock-down and quarantine protocols, implementing these in advance of the Government.

Education programs feature factual information on COVID-19 and how to stay safe and utilize resources of our medical services providers, International SOS, the World Health Organisation and other reputable sources.

Promoting hand washing at our operations

Working together and keeping our distance at a pre-start meeting

Golden Star has deepened its partnership with local health authorities and Government Agencies by providing support and assistance that has included personal protective equipment (PPE), materials for sanitation and infection control as well as assistance with holding and isolation facilities for suspected COVID 19 patients. Also, Golden Star and its contractors have further collaborated in the donation of veronica buckets, hand sanitisers and other items to the communities. These initiatives have complemented government effort and responses in each of our host communities.

Donations for Wassa East host communities
(prior to Government direction to wear masks in public)

In Wassa East, the company has provided support for the conversion of a school facility developed by the Golden Star Development Foundation, for temporary use as an isolation facility by local health services.

At our Bogoso/Prestea operations, the company has temporarily relinquished the Prestea multi-purpose recreational park to Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality for use as an isolation facility and has provided additional support by making facility modifications for this purpose.

Community chiefs and elders at the Prestea isolation centre handing over ceremony

Prestea isolation centre ward

Other donations by the company and its teams helped furnish hospitals and clinics in the municipality with infrared thermometers, nose masks, goggles, disposable gloves, hair caps, shoe covers, coveralls, liquid soaps, alcohol-based hand rubs, and veronica buckets to assist with case management at Municipality health facilities.

Donation of items to communities and local health authorities

At the national level, Golden Star through the collaboration with the Ghana Chamber of Mines donated financial support to the Ghana Ministry of Health and allied institutions as part of the mining industry’s voluntary contribution to the fight against COVID-19. This donation was for the purchase of 20 ventilators and accessories for distribution to hospitals across the country; to support the testing of 15,000 COVID-19 cases, procurement of 7,000 complete sets of PPE for frontline health workers; and to support other COVID-19 logistical requirements.

Donations ceremony by Ghana Chamber of Mines to Ghana Ministry of Health

In line with Government directives on mandatory wearing of nose masks, Golden Star has provided 2000 masks to the local communities and 3000 masks to its employees.

Let’s hear from the team about this assistance.

Rose Adjoa Mensah – Physician Assistant, Akyempim Community Clinic

Golden star has has such an impact on the clinic and the Akyempim community as a whole. During this pandemic, items such as gallons of hand sanitizers and washing soaps, disposable hand towels, veronica buckets, and others were received for the clinic. The Akyempim community also received hand sanitizers, Veronica buckets, nose masks, and handwashing soap. Also in collaboration with the community heads, sensitization has been done to create awareness of the COVID-19 pandemic to the communities.

There has also been a collaboration with the District Assembly to renovate a facility at Daboase, the district capital, as the main isolation centre for the disease if we get a suspected case.

Finally, I will urge all Ghanaians especially those in the Wassa-East District specifically Akyempim to adhere to all protocols given by the Ministry of Health in curbing this COVID-19 pandemic. God bless Golden Star and God bless our homeland Ghana.

Evelyn Asiama- Principal Nursing Officer, Critical Care-COVID-19 Holding, and Treatment Centre Prestea

With the imminent emergence of COVID-19 positive cases within the Prestea Huni-Valley Municipality, Golden Star Resources approached the Management of the Prestea Government Hospital to offer the multipurpose recreational park as a holding, and treatment centre for COVID-19 cases.

The hospital management gladly accepted the offer and further requested that some structural modifications be carried out at the facility in order to make it fit for the purpose. Thankfully, GSR responded in a timely manner.

Incidentally, the completion and handing over of the modified treatment centre coincided with the registration of the 1st positive COVID-19 case in the municipality.

This intervention, amongst other things, done by the company in the fight against COVID-19 has greatly contributed to the hospital’s effort to contain and manage COVID-19 cases in the municipality.

We appreciate the active role of Golden Star in this global fight and the fight that lies ahead. Ayeeko Golden Star!!!


If you'd like to find out more about Golden Star and its approach to CSR, please visit www.gsr.com/responsibility

Other news media on Golden Star and our support in the fight against COVID-19 can be accessed from these links:

http://ghanachamberofmines.org/news-updates/chamber-supports-ministry-of-health-with-ghs-11-5-million-to-help-combat-covid-19/

https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Coronavirus-Prestea-Government-Hospital-gets-isolation-centre-from-Golden-Star-Resources-951166

COVID-19 and Staying Safe

Veronica bucket donated to host community to assist with hygiene

Golden Star values and is committed to safety and employee wellbeing. Our people are our greatest asset and our management of the current COVID-19 pandemic must, to the greatest extent possible, protect our people and our host communities from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 as a result of our operations. As a major employer and therefore catalyst for rural economic stimulus in our host communities, we share the dual burden of knowing that our continued operations are also critical to the health and wellbeing of our workforce and the thousands of people that they support both directly and indirectly.

In recognition of these responsibilities, our COVID-19 management is highly prevention focussed and proactive. As a company we are working to provide leadership in COVID-19 management to our business partners, as well as working closely with our partners in the Ghana Health Services for the purposes of integrated management. Here is just some of what we’re doing:

Management Planning and Preparedness

• Epidemic and Pandemic Management Plan updated prior to World Health Organization declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
• Dedicated Ghana based Emergency Management Team established with Crisis Management Team established for oversight.
• Daily situation monitoring supported by International SOS.

Chief Medical Officer meets with logistics team to discuss COVID-19 controls in their supply chains

Education and sensitization

• Wide-spread education to workforce and host communities.
• Open communication with Ghanaian Government and Union leadership.

COVID-19 education posters in the workplace

Access, Screening and Travel Restrictions

• Site access and screening protocols in place since February have been effective in preventing access to our mines by people from known outbreak regions.
• Proactively stopped international travel ahead of government travel bans.
• Stopped in-bound travel into Ghana before any cases identified in Ghana.
• Proactively required returning Ghanaian citizens and residents to undertake self-quarantine, prior to this being implemented as a Government initiative.
• Proactively stopped travel between mine sites and Ghanaian epi-centres ahead of government lock-down of Accra, Kumasi and Kasoa.
• Proactive cessation of all non-essential travel and transport by company vehicles.

Thermal screening has been implemented since the first case identified in Ghana

Hygiene and sanitation

• Enhanced facilities for hand washing and sanitation implemented for Ebola have been maintained.
• Employees who are ill are encouraged to stay at home.
• Compulsory hand sanitizing stations.

Compulsory hand-sanitisation when getting on to company bus

• Support to community including water tanks and Veronica buckets for hand washing.
• Practicing physical distancing:
• stopped non-essential meetings and gatherings; 
• holding pre-start meetings outdoors wherever possible; 
• additional buses to reduce bus seating density; and
• additional eating areas and meal rosters to allow for greater distancing.

New hand-washing station established at Wassa underground

Medical preparedness

• Primary medical preparedness activities implemented ahead of any cases in Ghana.
• Targeted training for at-risk personnel (underlying medical conditions) and flexibility to enable them to self-quarantine as applicable.

Holding facility established at site for case management in event of suspected case

Flexibility and Wellbeing

• London office started work from home ahead of UK government lock-down.
• Proactively moved Accra office to work from home ahead of Ghana government lock-down.
• Encourage employees to discuss flexible working or stay at home options, with leaders.
• Leaders’ guidance documents to assist in communications with teams.
• Extending leave for employees already on leave.
• Supporting and providing access to programs for mental wellbeing of people working from home or in voluntary or imposed quarantine.

Hand washing at our Wassa underground

Let’s hear from the team about these controls and their importance.

Philipa Varris, EVP & Head of Sustainability

All over the world, leaders are struggling with how to protect the health and safety of their people from COVID-19, whilst at the same time, also protecting the health and safety for those same people that comes from livelihoods – the wellbeing that having work brings, the social security it creates and the wealth generation to lift people out of poverty.  In Ghana, and in Golden Star, we understand all these dimensions of health.
Within the Golden Star team, we also have these over-lapping responsibilities – to make sure everyone goes home safe and healthy every day, by ensuring that our operations do not bring COVID-19 into our host communities; and at the same time, to try and maintain our operations. 
This is something we could not do without the dedication and commitment of our team. It is because the Golden Star team have applied all the controls we have asked, that we are becoming stronger and more prepared. Thank you to you all. Ye betumi aye!

Dr. Solomon Dowdall, Chief Medical Officer – International SOS

Golden Star is taking a very proactive approach in tackling the potential harm of COVID-19, should it reach our region.
Education is a key preventative measure, with ongoing instruction on hand-washing and safe distancing, handling of goods and human interaction. Everyone at the operations are subject to ongoing screening of temperatures, symptoms, travel histories and contacts to ensure any potential cases are identified and managed early.
Our medical team is continuously updating our knowledge and strategies to be able to provide the safest workplace possible. Transit of people and goods are strictly monitored and minimized to reduce any risks of transmission into the area.
It is a pleasure and a privilege to work with such a focused team, with everybody doing their part to halt the march of this pandemic.

George Amankwah-Kumi, Group & Community Health Coordinator

It is very great to be involved in mobilizing our employees, their dependents and the catchment communities at large to protect themselves and practice basic personal hygiene such as frequent hand washing with soap and running water, the use of alcohol based hand sanitisers; and social distancing. 
It is amazing to observe the enthusiasm and swiftness with which these target groups have accepted these preventive measures as a way of life. 
I am more than convinced that together we will defeat the COVID-19 pandemic and stay healthy if we continue to keep to these basic preventive measures.




Boatemaa Hammond, Group Corporate Affairs Superintendent

The COVID-19 pandemic is not like anything we have seen before. Information keeps coming in and we have to modify our behavior to protect ourselves as well as those around us. 
As a team we need to try new things to reach employees and demonstrate our commitment to their safety and well-being. 
One of the new things we have been doing is making videos of our leaders where they talk about the current situation, the measures to be taken as a company and what each of us can do to ensure that we are safe. Everyone strongly believes that “we will come out of this is a stronger Golden Star”! Ayekoo to that! The videos have been so well received that we will likely continue this after COVID 19. 


If you'd like to find out more about Golden Star and its approach to CSR, please visit www.gsr.com/responsibility

Golden Star Shines at the 5th Ghana Mining Industry Awards

The 2019 Ghana Mining Industry Awards gala was held on November 29, 2019 where the Golden Star team was recognised with awards in three categories:

• Best Performer in Occupational Health and Safety – Golden Star (Wassa) Limited
• Financial Deal of the Year – Golden Star (Wassa) Limited 
• Runner-up - Corporate Social Investment Project of the Year – Golden Star (Bogoso/Prestea) Limited

Golden Star Ladies showcase the awards presented to the team

Eric Bondzie, Finance Manager and Shaddrack Adjetey Sowah, MD - Wassa Mine

Best Performer in Occupational Health and Safety 

Golden Star Wassa Limited was awarded the Best Performer in Occupational Health and Safety. The award celebrates the company which excels in promoting a holistic health and safety culture and compliance with industry regulations and safety standards. 

In 2018 and 2019, Golden Star Wassa Limited and in fact, our entire company, undertook major programs for enhanced safety culture including leadership training, the development of standards to prevent fatal injuries, and various programs to enhance workplace housekeeping and safety. In 2019, GSWL met and exceeded all its leading safety metrics and achieved 15 million working man hours with no lost time injuries (LTI). 

Team Golden Star treating a casualty during an exercise at the 2019 inter-mines competition

  

Financial Deal of the Year 

This award celebrates joint financial transactions between a local financial institution and a producing mine that is breaking new ground and driving mining operations forward. Golden Star and Ecobank have had a history of financial partnership with two successful financial transactions leading up to 2018. 

In 2018, Golden Star Wassa benefited from US$45 million in financial transactions with Ecobank, following US$75 million in previous loans. The deal for which the partnership received the award secured the future of Golden Star Wassa Limited by guaranteeing continuous employment of 2,257 employees and 1,366 third party contractors (2018 data) of whom 2,170 are directly employed from the local mine communities. 

Lilian Awuah in front of her new jumbo drill 

The financial deal enabled the purchase of new equipment

Runner-up - Corporate Social Investment Project of the Year

Golden Star’s “Multi-Purpose Recreational Park Complex” was recognised as runner-up Corporate Social Investment Project of the Year, making 2019 the fourth successive year that GSBPL has been recognised in this award category.

This project saw the reclamation of an unauthorised communal refuse site into a multi-purpose recreational park complex that is now the focus for sports and social programmes for almost 30,000 people in Prestea and its surrounding communities.

The project which brought together the combined efforts of Golden Star, LOCOMs and Maintenance Sustainability Africa, has served about 30,000 people through social events ranging from competitions, wedding receptions, music festivals and others. On a weekly basis basketball and aerobics sessions are conducted, with plans for exercise programs for the elderly and infirm among others.

Before (top) and after pictures of the Multi-purpose Recreational Park

Congratulations to everyone for the fabulous efforts in 2019 which have made these recognitions possible.  

Ayekoo Golden Star!!!

If you'd like to find out more about Golden Star and its approach to CSR, please visit www.gsr.com/responsibility.