Accra,- Over 90 vulnerable children in Oyibi and Saasabi Communities in Kpone-Katamanso Municipality, have enrolled unto the free weekend classes being organised by the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Connexions Ghana to enhance students’ academic performance.

OVC’s mission is to leverage the collective resources of local and global partners to ensure orphans, vulnerable children and their caregivers acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and experiences to survive, thrive and excel.

Under its ‘Read and Feed’ programme, OVC Connexions Ghana offers vulnerable children between the ages of six and 17, the opportunity to learn to boost their academic performance, every Saturday.

The programme, which registers children from class one to Junior High School (JHS) offers free lunch.

It also includes a life skills session, where children learn about time management, planning skills, communication skills, confidence building, and teamwork.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview during one of the sessions at Oyibi near Accra, Mr Eric Kwabena Amano-Mpianim, the Country Coordinator of OVC Connexions Ghana, highlighted the need to move orphans and vulnerable children from orphanages into foster care and actual homes.

He said as part of their mandate, OVC identified vulnerable children at the community level, and worked with their families to support them to be in school and to access healthcare and other services that were due children.

Mr Amano-Mpianim told GNA that the focus for ‘Read and Feed’ was to boost academic performance, saying “some of them didn’t start school early because their parents could not afford and their assessment also revealed that there were children who had not gone to school but passed the school age and were home.

He said there were more vulnerable children in society “in fact when we did our assessment in August 2020, we had over 235 children in this category, but our funds cannot reach all of them, so we have been able to organize this for 100 of them, every Saturday”.

Mr Amano-Mpianim called on organisations to support charity groups like OVC, to reach out to vulnerable children in communities across the country.

Bishop David Kwadwo Ofosuhene, Board Chairman of OVC Connexions Ghana, noted that orphan care in Ghana and the world should not basically be the responsibility of governments, saying “it should be the responsibility of the people, churches and the families”.

He told GNA that the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) was focusing on education, general health care and building up children to become assets than liabilities in society, and therefore called on churches, and benevolent and corporate organisations to invest in child care.

“We believe, what we are doing through our educational programmes will encourage children to learn harder and to achieve better results as we invest into their lives”.

Bishop Ofosuhene underscored the need to find families, educate them through the Department of Social Welfare; “and let them take responsibility of taking care of their families; their children should not be sent to orphanages but to be kept by the families, to have that sense of belonging”.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- The Vision for Alternative Development (VALD)/Tax Advocacy Network for Health Promotion has held a national stakeholder meeting on tobacco taxation to help reduce tobacco consumption in Ghana.

The non-governmental organization is undertaking a tobacco taxation project in the country under the auspices of the Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

Mr Labram M. Musah, the Project Coordinator and Director of Programmes of VALD in a presentation said in 2017 the BMGF provided support to TJNA to fund Tobacco Tax Advocacy in Africa Project, which started with five implementing organisations in four countries.

The countries are The Democratic Republic of Congo (2 organisations), Nigeria, Zambia and Kenya while Ghana joined in the phase ‘2’ in 2021.

Mr Musah said the project was aimed at ensuring that policymakers and advocates had a shared understanding of the potential role that tobacco taxes can play in reducing tobacco use, improving health outcomes, and mobilizing domestic resources within the broader lens of tax justice.

Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health in a statement read on his behalf said while a combination of measures, such as those outlined in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) were needed, to effectively fight tobacco epidemic, increases in tobacco taxes were known to reduce tobacco consumption faster than any other single measure.

“Consequently, pursuing tobacco taxation as a measure for improving health and well-being and resource mobilization for health development is thus the way to go,” he said and that tobacco remained a major global challenge on public health and national economies.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said according to the WHO estimates, tobacco killed up to half of its users and that more than eight million people died each year, of which more than seven million of those deaths were as a result of direct tobacco use, while around 1.2 million were non-smokers being exposed to second-Hand smoke.

“As a ministry, we have tasked ourselves to strengthen health policies especially those relating to tobacco control and we would ensure that they are included among the key policies on our agenda,” he said.

Mr Agyeman-Manu expressed happiness that the project’s aims and objectives were in line with the Ministry’s revised National Health Policy (2020) which was launched last year, saying; “This revised National Health Policy (2020) called for a ‘whole-of-government’ and ‘whole-of-society’ approach in addressing all the social determinants of health for better health outcomes.”

“This therefore means that, working together with the Vision for Alternative Development and the Ghana Tax Advocacy Network for Health Promotion and other stakeholders towards this project would not be out of place,” he said.

In a presentation, the Ghana Revenue Authority said alcohol and tobacco which were traditional products subject to tax, have previously been referred to as ‘Sin Taxes’ because of the devastation they had done and continue to do to human body and society at large.

“Sin taxes have become what is generally referred to as Excise tax or duty and tobacco remains on the list till date,” he said, adding that Excise duty (tax) is defined as a tax imposed on the manufacture, sale or use of some selected products such as alcoholic drinks, tobacco products and petroleum products.”

Present at the meeting were; Dr Baffuor Awuah, the Special Advisor to the Minister of health, Dr Alex Kombat, Assistant Commissioner, Support Service Divison, Ghana Revenue Authority, Dr Akoto Appau, the Head of Excise, Custom Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Dr Michael Boakye, a consultant, Hendrich Dwomor of the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance, and Mavis Danso, a Senior Regulatory Officer in-charge of Tobacco and Substance Abuse at the Food and Drugs Authority.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ho,- Reverend Rueben Kwadzo Avor, Associate Pastor of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, Ho Bankoe Parish has advised the youth to desist from acts that would haunt them in the future.

He said their actions and inactions today will determine their future progression.

He gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the Church’s Youth week celebration, which coincided with a thanksgiving and fundraising service in Ho.

The weeklong celebration which was on the theme “Revive us again, oh Lord,” was celebrated in all congregations of the Church.

Rev Avor admonished them to think of the consequences of any action they would want to take first adding “there is no rush in life.”

He blamed the government and the media for the evils that permeated the fabric of society for allowing and disseminating such evils to dominate the media landscape.

Rev. Avor observed that the penchant to get rich quickly by the youth on “the prosperity preaching latter-day Pastors.”

“Some innocent ones among the youth blindly copy and practice what they see and hear,” he noted.

Rev. Samuel Senanu Asieni, the Parish Pastor advised the youth to take advantage of the interventions put in place by the Church and government to upgrade themselves for a better future.

He called on those in leadership positions to involve the youth in decision making especially those that affected them.

Mr Eric Yao Setsoafia, a former session clerk and a youth activist of the congregation in a sermon advised the youth to use their energies to develop themselves and the nation.

“Do not use your energies for unproductive ventures that would jeopardise your future but use them to build a solid foundation for a prosperous future,” he admonished.

The sermon which was based on the theme “Christ our living bread” was taken from I Kings 19: 4 -8, Ephesians 4: 25 – 32, and John 6: 41 – 51.

Mr Biaku advised the youth to draw closer to Christ the living bread and urged them to work hard to win more souls for Christ.

Some topics treated during the celebration included the response of the youth to homosexuality in the Church, love, sex, and marriage.

There were also cleanup exercises and blood donations.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Gushegu (NR) Aug 8, GNA-The Diocesan Youth Council of Yendi of the Yendi Catholic Diocese, Muslim Youth of Gushegu and Catholic Relief Service (CRS) have organized peace games for 125 Christian and Muslim youth drawn from Yendi and Gushegu.

The games were aimed at fostering peaceful co-existence among different faith groups in the Yendi Diocese and to foster the existing peace held at Gushegu in the Northern Region.

It was also in connection with the International Youth Day Celebration 2021 used to educate the youth on how to keep their environment clean, planting trees, prevention of bush fires and to ensure of peace in the Dioceses in order to address poverty reduction.

Ms Anuru-Yeng Dorcas Akanlugwa Sahel Peace Initiative (SPI) Project officer who addressed them on peace initiative said SPI began when the CRS organized a meeting in Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou) in November 2019.

She said the meeting brought together Bishops, Priest and lay delegates of the Bishops’ conference from Burkina, Niger, Mali, where an increase in violence over the past several years had triggered a new level of desperation including the Catholic Bishops Conference of Ivory Coast and Ghana as the region’s porous borders posed a real risk of the violence spreading to neighbouring countries.

Ms Anuru-Yeng Dorcas said during the two-day meeting in West Africa, the Catholic Church leaders from the five West African countries came together in a first of its kind regional gathering, where they committed to bringing peace to Sahel as the region was facing increasing violence and conflict leading to humanitarian crisis.

She said as the Catholic Relief Services had well-established programmes in the most affected countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso and in the potentially at-risk costal countries of Ghana has three key strategic objectives, overall young people aged 15-35 in Northern Ghana had sustained ability to build cohesive peaceful communities.

She said youth increasingly contributed to the local economy (Vocational Skills Training targeting Yendi and Damongo Diocese), local community support systems strengthened and peaceful co-existence amongst tribal groups rising from resilient roots trainings, peace forum, youth membership which applications are still on-going including; peace games like ludo, cards, oware, draft, eating hanging apples, egg and spoon race.

She said SPI key partners included; Dioceses in the Northern Provence that is Yendi, Wa, Navrongo- Bolgatanga, Damongo and Tamale Archdiocese.

In his welcome address Reverend Father Abraham Wunbeyili Youth Chaplain for Catholic Diocese of Yendi called on Christian and Muslim youth to use the games to educate their communities on co-existence among both Christians and Muslims in order to foster the peace in the Diocese.

Father Wunbeyili urged them to pay attention to whatever education would be given to them on the International Youth Day Celebration 2021 as it was for both Christians and Muslims youth.

He said there was no discrimination in celebrating such occasions and the games peace programme was under the Youth Chaplain Office and Diocesan Youth Council.

Ms Angela Azimah Seidu CRS, Project Officer, Migration and Youth Development touching on the role of the youth in human and planetary health said there was the need for the youth to play roles to make Ghana great by adhering to the environmental cleanliness to abide by sustainable environment by year 2030 the population would increase by two billion according to 2030 agenda.

She said there was the need to plan on poverty reduction, good health inform decision on food health and by providing adequate food system.

She said the pollution, chemicals use on their farms affected their health and as youth they should educate their people on them.

Alhaji Abdul-Ganiwu Seidu, Muslim Clergy reminded them that despite their religious difference they should love one another as Mohammed (SAW) said ‘whoever does not love others will not go to heaven.’

He reminded them that Quran (God) sought peace and whoever seeks conflict and betrays others wrongly would not see heaven irrespective of their religions.

Pastor John Chrikab, Pastor of Assemblies of God Church said in Ephesians 2:11 it is stated that “therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision, which is made in the flesh by hand.

He said the Pastors, Fathers and the Imams should not use the Bible and Quran to preach to insult their fellow worshipers in the name of God as that did not foster peace but generated conflict.

He said the only way they could live together in peace was to avoid discrimination in faith and the challenges facing the youth was lack of love and respect.

Reverend Fr Benedictus Bau, SVD and Afa Abdul-Ganiyu prayed for the progress of the Youth and Ghana as a whole at the end of the peace games

Source: Ghana News Agency

Asadame (VR),- Asadame, a farming community in the Keta Municipality will by October this year, have a new clinic to help in the delivery of quality healthcare to residents and people from adjoining communities.

The China Development Bank and the Government of Ghana-funded project which started in December 2020 and is currently about 80 percent complete will replace the existing dilapidated health centre.

A visit by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to the community showed that the current Asadame Health Centre where people access healthcare had visible cracks posing the threat of a possible collapse and entrapment of staff and/or clients.

The staff of the facility who spoke to the GNA said it was unfortunate that there had been countless times they worried about their health and that of their clients due to the condition of the building and prayed the new project would be completed on time so they could move in and have peace of mind to render services to the people.

“We have cracks all over the building. At the top there, a hole has been created which makes the place leak badly when heavy rains come. At one time, the ceiling just fell on us along with substances in the ceiling compelling us to run home to bathe. At another time too, part of the concrete at the top just peeled off and nearly fell on a staff.

It’s a death trap from the health centre to our flat. It’s a good thing the new place is being put up. I hope that a better accommodation for us is also considered,” Miss Eunice Alabi, a nurse and In-Charge of Asadame Health Centre lamented.

Mr Matthew Dogbey, the Site Engineer assured that work on the new clinic which would among others have a maternity ward, Reproductive and Child Health Unit, and Out-Patient Department was expected to be completed this month assuring, it would be ready for handing over to the Assembly by end of September.

Mr Godwin Edudzi Effah, Municipal Chief Executive for Keta said the Assembly would not hesitate to commission the project after its completion noting, by October, it should be commissioned for use by the people.

He explained the Assembly had to make changes to an initial proposal for a six-unit classroom block anywhere in the Municipality to get the project to Asadame to make healthcare accessible to the people to achieve goal number 3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra,- The Berean Assemblies of God Church has held its Cultural Day with a call on Christians to be one in the Lord.

“We are one in the Lord, no Jew or Gentile. Our God is a God of varieties. Whether black or white, we are all creations of God.”

Reverend David Ampadu Berkoh, Pastor in charge of the church located at Ogbojo near Madina, Accra in a sermon to mark the day said “once we give our lives to God, we are one.”

Quoting Galatians 3: 26-28, Rev. Berkoh said “no tribe was superior to the other.”

“No matter the tribe you are coming from, we are all one in Jesus Christ.”

Cultural Day has been set aside every year for the various tribes in the church to showcase their culture and varieties of foods.

Ewes, Fantes, Nzemas, Ga Adamgbes, Akans and some French Nationals sang songs in their various dialects to praise God.

They also took turns to showcase their various unique apparels.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema,- Nestle Ghana, a top food and beverage manufacturing company, has stepped up its commitment to environmental sustainability with the planting of over 100 trees in selected schools in Tema as well as the donation of sanitation equipment.

Under its employee volunteering program – Nestle Care, the company donated 20 smart-wash handwashing stations, 15 waste bins, gardening tools, among other items to the Tema Amahean Anglican and Community 8 (3&4) Cluster of Schools.

Students in these selected schools were sensitized on how to manage and segregate waste to help them stay safe from Covid-19 while contributing to help protect the environment by nurturing the trees and disposing of waste properly.

Madam Deborah Kwablah, Corporate Communications, and Public Affairs Manager at Nestle Ghana speaking at the ceremony highlighted the need to protect the environment in our everyday activities.

“At Nestle, we have committed to contribute to environmental sustainability through several actions. This exercise is not just about the trees and donation but to help imbibe in students’ positive actions and their relevance in environmental sustainability for their benefit and the future generation,” she noted.

Madam Senam Segbefia, Headmistress of Tema Amahean Anglican JHS, in her welcome address said: “We are glad to Nestle Ghana for embarking on this tree planting exercise. Trees have always provided food and oxygen for mankind’s survival, So I believe this exercise does reiterate the importance of trees to our students and the community as a whole.

“We will make sure the trees planted are well taken care of so that they will grow and serve as windbreaks, providing shade for our students as well as keeping the environment clean with sanitation materials donated.

Mr Ransford Nartey, a representative from the Tema Metro Education office who received the donated items thanked Nestle Ghana for their kind gesture and said items donated would promote hygienic living among students.

He urged students to properly take care of the items for their benefit and not to destroy the trees as they grow up.

This exercise by Nestle Ghana forms part of its commitments to support sustainable waste management solutions in Ghana under the coalition of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) of which Nestle is a founding member.

Source: Ghana News Agency