Asantehene receives Symons award
Ghana hosts Conference on Children
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 21 April
2000
The General Council of the Association
of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) on Thursday conferred the "Millennium
Symons Award" on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, in appreciation and
recognition of his contribution to the promotion of education as a vehicle for
national development and integration at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi.
Presenting the award at a grand
durbar of the chiefs and people, Professor Michael Gibbons, Secretary-General
of the ACU, in a citation, said: "By word and by deed, you have not only
demonstrated but redefined the role that chiefs and traditional rulers, as
leaders of their communities, can play in national development in this modern
era".
Prof. Gibbons said seven months
after his enstoolment, the Asantehene instituted the Otumfuo Education Fund to
provide financial and material assistance for students at all levels within
Asanteman and Ghana. In the first year
of the Fund, 500 students from the country's three universities had benefited
from it.
Nana Otuo Serebour II, Juabenhene,
in an address on behalf of the Asantehene, called for a liaison between the
Asantehene's Secretariat of the fund and the ACU secretariat to promote job
development in Asante and Ghana.
He explained that, with the
creation of job opportunities, those trained under the fund would be retained
in the country to assist in national development efforts to reduce the high
rate of brain drain.
The Juabenhene appealed to the ACU
for scholarships to beneficiaries of the fund in order that the honour bestowed
on the Asantehene would be recognised in other Commonwealth countries.
He presented a portrait of the
Asantehene to the ACU Secretariat and a 10-carat gold brooch to Prof. Gibbons,
the Deputy Secretary-General and Professor Samuel K. Adjepong, Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), and Chairman of the ACU Council. The
presentation forms part of the first council meeting held at the UCC.
GRi../
Accra (Greater Accra) 21 April 2000
Ghana will an International
Conference on war-affected children from April 25 to April 27, 2000. The
conference, which is being funded by UNESCO and the Canadian government is
aimed at discussing initiatives for the well-being of war affected children in
West Africa.
The two-day meeting would be
attended by senior officials of ECOWAS countries who will critically examine
key issues involved in preventing conflicts as well as demilitarisation,
rehabilitation and reintegration of war affected children.
It will also look at the problem
as it affects specific countries, the role of the military in child protection
and rehabilitation and how to restore health to those children in conflict
situations.
Due to the wars raging on the
continent, innocent children continue to be exploited, abused, tortured,
degraded and deprived of their natural rights with some of them being turned
into soldiers overnight.
The United Nations High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR) says women and children form the majority in the refugee
camps where unfortunately, the girls among them go through all forms of sexual
harassment and abuse.
GRi../