Day: February 24, 2024

Nana Gyamanso, the Assembly Member for Akromanto Electoral Area in the Wassa Amenfi West Municipality of the Western Region, has taken steps to solve some underlying problems that caused perennial flooding in some communities in the area.

He has put in place processes to fix culverts at Denmark City and to dredge the Benkyere River at Aboi Junction to help prevent issues of flooding that affected lives and properties during rainy season.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview, Nana Gyamanso said experts recommended the fixing of culverts and desilting Benkyere River as the only way to stop the perennial flooding in the area.

‘We have to do it during the dry season before the rain sets in to make life easy for our people,’ he noted.

He mentioned choked gutters and indiscriminate dumping of refuse as main causes of flooding in the area.

The Assembly Member noted: ‘I am advising residents to dispose of their refuse properly because we will set-up a committee to monitor residents and punish
those who will dump refuse in the river and gutters indiscriminately.’

Mr Clement Cudjoe, Unit Committee Chairman for the Electoral Area, believed that illegal mining activities caused the perennial flooding situation in the area, and appealed to authorities to act to prevent future disaster.

Some residents of Denmark city and Aboi Junction commended the Assembly Member for the initiative and said it would help bring relief to them during the rainy season.

‘Life becomes unbearable for us anytime the rain sets in because we are normally cut off completely from the Asankragwa community, especially for our school children, so this has come as a relief to us,’ they said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Residents of Mankwadze in the Gomoa West District of the Central Region have bemoaned the poor nature of the roads in the community.

The residents complained about the dusty nature of the road, which poses health risks to them, indicating that their children always have catarrh.

Some of the residents told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the six-kilometre road linking the community to the Accra-Winneba junction road was in a very deplorable shape and became muddy and slippery whenever it rained, hindering their day-to-day activities.

The residents, who are mainly fishers, indicated that the poor nature of the road makes it difficult for them to cart their fish to the nearby towns to sell.

Mr Prince Sarpong, the Unit Committee Chairman for Mankwadze Ablekum Electoral Area, told the GNA that their main occupation is fishing, but due to the poor nature of the road, they do not make any profit from their handiwork.

Mr Sarpong explained that due to the deplorable nature of the road, they spend more of their p
rofits on transportation fares as drivers charge more than expected when transporting their goods.

He added that sometimes their fish also got spoiled as the drivers refused to ply the roads to the nearby markets.

He indicated that the only health facility in the community was a Community Health Planning and Service (CHPS) compound, adding that it becomes a worry when referred to seek health care at bigger hospitals, especially when pregnant women are involved due to the discomfort of travelling on the deplorable road.

The residents appealed to the government and the Ministry of Roads to fix the road, which would help boost economic activity and ensure good health.

Some drivers plying the road told the GNA that they have to visit the mechanic shop more as their vehicles break down frequently.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Madam Bushira Alhassan, Acting Northern Regional Director, Department of Gender, has entreated persons living with disabilities (PwDs) to strategise in their collective efforts to fight against issues of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV).

She urged them to carry on with their advocacy campaigns and stakeholder collaborations to ensure that issues of abuse and discrimination were exposed for necessary action to be taken by relevant institutions.

She made the call whilst addressing some young women and adolescent girls with disabilities on gender-based violence at a sensitisation workshop in Tamale.

Madam Alhassan expressed need for duty-bearers to pay serious attention to issues such as gender equality, access to social services, and skills for decent work, adding some cultural prohibitions even served to perpetuate inequality.

She urged the public to refrain from making disparaging remarks about persons with disabilities because such behaviours only served to promote discrimination and stigma.

Part
icipants at the event were sensitised on their rights, conventions, legal and policy provisions on their right to access social services and resources, channels and processes to seek redress on gender-based violence issues among others.

The event, which formed part of the implementation of the project dubbed: ‘End Violence and Abuse’, brought together young women and adolescent girls with disabilities in the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region.

It was organised by the Centre for Research and Development Alternatives (CREDA) in partnership with Norsaac, both non-government organisations under VCP Experimental Global Fund Projects with funding support from Oxfam in Ghana.

Mr Abukari Iddrisu, Programmes Manager at CREDA said the workshop was to build advocacy and influence the skills of beneficiaries to effectively engage duty-bearers to implement policies and programmes that guaranteed their well-being.

He entreated them to unite and accelerate their advocacy efforts to help combat systemic discri
mination that prevented them from being included in societal decision-making processes.

Madam Adam Ayishetu, Northern Regional Vice President, Ghana Association of Persons with Albinism, said although the country was a signatory to several conventions on rights of persons with disabilities, she was yet to see the full implementation of such hence the need to intensify advocacy to draw stakeholders’ attention to the need for implementation.

Participants pledged to step up their advocacy efforts to help reduce the prevalence of discrimination and stigmatisation against them.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Former President John Dramani Mahama, Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has commended the Ahmadiyya Community for its invaluable contributions towards Ghana’s socioeconomic development.

He said this when he joined Alhaj Maulvi Noor Mohammed Bin Salih, the Amir and Missionary-in-charge, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to observe the 91st Annual Jalsa Salaana of the Ahmadiyya Moslem Mission at Gomoa Pomadze in the Central Region.

‘I commend the Ahmadiyya Community for your invaluable contributions to our country,’ Mr Mahama said in statement issued from his office, copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

‘We should continue to promote the values of unity, inclusivity, and progress as a people while acknowledging the challenges we face as a country and resolving to take action to bring change.’

‘We cannot afford to be complacent in adversity. Instead, we must harness the unity and resilience that defines us as Ghanaians to chart a path towards economic recovery and prosperity.’

He n
oted that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s ethos of service and selflessness was a guiding light for all Ghanaians as they strived to build a better and a more prosperous Ghana for generations to come.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Alhaji Alhassan Ziblim Alhassan, a retired local governance practitioner, has called on youth groups in the country to embrace advocacy as a viable tool to help promote accountable governance at all levels.

He said it was important for them to demand responsible and accountable leadership by consistently lobbying and engaging with their leaders on how they could create opportunities and provide the enabling environment for young people to thrive.

He said: ‘You must strategise on developing compelling advocacy messages supported by data and facts to demand development.’

Alhaji Alhassan, who made the call while addressing a forum for some youth groups in Tamale, said young people must also learn to be responsible to help contribute their quota to the overall development of the country.

The forum was organised by Simba Ghana, a youth empowerment, governance and peacebuilding NGO, in partnership with Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and funded by William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

It was dubb
ed ‘Northern Regional Youth Cafe’ and formed part of the ‘I am Aware Project, which seeks to provide user friendly information to the public to enhance the effective delivery of service at all levels.

It brought together various youth groups, including persons living with disabilities (PwDs) from Tamale, Sagnarigu, Karaga and Gushegu Districts.

Mr Abdul-Rahaman Abdul-Mumin, Executive Director of Simba Ghana, said the forum was to help participants develop an understanding of governance, accountability and the power gap between citizens and local authorities.

He said it was also to empower participants through information sharing on social mobilisation to enable them actively to participate in community development processes.

He expressed worry over the dwindling trends in governance accountability in developing countries, citing the Mo Ibrahim’s Index of 2013, which pointed out that accountability was one of the weakest elements of governance in Africa.

He called on the youth not to relent in their effor
ts to advocate for accountable governance to ensure equitable distribution of resources for sustainable development.

Mr Abdul-Hamid Yushawu, Second Deputy Speaker, Northern Regional Youth Parliament, called for the full implementation of policies and programmes pertaining to youth development, adding the growth of young people in the country depended on the execution of such policies.

Mrs Abubakari Ayishetu, Member, Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, said the challenges facing PwDs in the country were because of lack of accountable governance.

She called for measures to reverse the trend and commended Simba Ghana and partners for the forum.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The ActionAid Ghana (AAG) has reiterated the need for the Ghana Education Service to incorporate climate change education into the basic school curriculum.

The essence is to sensitise the younger generation to actively participate in the government’s effort to prevent the continuous threat of climate change to ensure a sustainable environment and development of the country.

Mr. Kwame Afram Denkyira, the Programmes Manager for the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions of AAG, made the call during a remark at a climate change education and quiz competition organized by the Centre for Climate Change and Gender Studies (3CGS), School of Natural Resources, University of Energy and Natural Resources and sponsored by the AAG in Sunyani.

Mr. Denkyira said the inclusion of climate change in the basic school curriculum would ensure pupils and students were well-informed about the causes, effects and potential solutions to that environmental crisis.

He added that it would enable the pupils and students to engage in mean
ingful discussions and activities about the threat alongside developing a deeper understanding of the importance of environmental best practices and sustainable development.

Mr. Denkyira further said the integration would help pupils and students to recognise the inter-connectedness between their actions and the environment to learn how their daily choices and actions such as energy consumption and waste management could either contribute to the degradation or preservation of the environment.

He said the significance of focusing on the younger generation was to instill a sense of responsibility and urgency in them as part of the effort in addressing the climate change challenge, saying young minds were often more receptive to new ideas and eager to make a positive impact.

Mr. Denkyira said continued nurturing the understanding of climate change issues from an early age would help to cultivate a generation of environmentally conscious individuals who would actively work towards a sustainable future.

In the
quiz competition Sunyani Senior High School (SHS) obtained 52 points to beat the Seventh Day Adventist SHS, Fiapre in the Sunyani West Municipality which scored 37 points while the Sunyani St Mary’s Preparatory/Junior High School (JHS) had 39 points to defeat Sunyani Meredane Primary/JHS, which got 34 points.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mrs Gertrude Essie Quashigah, a former National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), would be laid to rest at Keta in the Volta region on March 2.

Mrs Quashigah, before her demise, was also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ambar Quality Foods Limited.

These funeral arrangements, which were announced by the family of the deceased stated that a family vigil would be held on March 1, at 1900 hours at the late Major (Rtd) Courage Quashigah’s residence at Dzelukope, a suburb of Keta.

There would also be pre-burial and burial service that would be held on Saturday, March 2 at 0700 and 0900 hours respectively at Keta Senior High School park.

‘The interment and final burial rites would be held at Zotorglo Family Cemetery at Keta at exactly 1100 hours on Saturday,’ it stated.

There would also be a thanksgiving service on Sunday, March 3, at the Roman Catholic Church, Dzelukope where other funeral rites would be followed immediately after burial.

The late Essie Quashigah was the wife of M
ajor Courage Quashigah, a former Minister of Health and Agriculture under former President John Kuffour’s administration.

Political figures, business personnel, friends, families, and other sympathisers would be expected to pay their last respects before the final burial rites.

The late Mrs Quashigah was born on February 1, 1960, and died on Sunday, November 12 at age, 63.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Francis Kweku Asiedu, the Kassena Nankana Municipal Coordinating Director, Upper East Region, said the Assembly remains committed to enforcing sanitation byelaws to curb refuse littering in the area.

To ensure this the Assembly has strengthened and dispatched its Environmental Sub committees and sanitation teams to the communities to give spot fines to defaulters.

He said most of the residents engaged in animal rearing and expressed worry over the ‘free-range roaming’ in the municipality of the animals, including cattle and small ruminants, especially at public places.

Mr Asiedu was granting an interview to the Ghana News Agency when a team from Zoomlion, led by Maxwell Ayipaala, the Regional Coordinator, and staff of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Office called on him at the office.

This was prior to an evacuation exercise to clear refuse sites in the Municipality.

Stressing on the adage; ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness,’ Mr Asiedu urged residents to be conscious of their surroundings and
keep their areas clean.

Mr Pius Akambe, the Municipal Environmental Health and Sanitation Officer, said the Assembly placed much importance on the evacuation of refuse damps and had identified some other areas for expulsion.

He said the heaps of refuse would minimise after the mass evacuation, as containers would be placed at vantage points, managed by attendants from Zoomlion to avoid to keep those areas clean.

Some sensitisation programmes had started to educate the people on the effects of littering the environment and help change behaviour, he said.

Source: Ghana News Agency