Africa should declare agenda for 21st Century - Jubilee 2000
Nkoranza citizens in Italy donate
Draft study on forest reserve management completed
Stanchart presents 8.4 milion cedis to MEST
World Vision pays 700,000 cedis for surgery
Area councils asked to tackle sanitation problems
USAID presents computers to Audit Service
Africa should declare agenda for 21st Century - Jubilee 2000
Accra (Greater Accra) 11Aug. ’99
The Co-ordinator of the African Secretariat of Jubilee 2000 in Accra, Ms Southey Affiang, on Tuesday called on Africans to declare their agenda for the 21st century.
She said if this is not done Africa would still depend on other continents for survival.
Ms Affiang was speaking at the First International Truth Commission in Accra organised by the Afrikan World Reparation and Repatriation Truth Commission (AWRRTC).
She said since Jubilee 2000 is demanding the unconditional cancellation of Africa's debts, African leaders should ensure that measures are put in place to avoid plunging into more debt.
"If debts are cancelled today and certain steps are not taken African leaders will go and collect more and will be in debt again."
Ms Affiang said since basic needs of mankind are non-existent and society can no longer cater for itself, slavery is back in Africa in disguise.
She attributed this new form of slavery to neo-colonialism saying "tactics of slavery have changed but it is the same old trade."
AWRRTC is a non-profit commission formed during the first Emancipation Day celebrations held in Accra last year.
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Nkoranza citizens in Italy donate
Nkoranza (Brong Ahafo) 11 Aug. ’99
Members of the Nkoranza Kro Ye Kuo based in Italy have donated hospital items estimated at 20 million cedis to St. Theresa's Catholic hospital at Nkoranza.
The items comprised infusion stands, wheel chairs, clutches, electronic thermometers, syringes, hand gloves and bed sheets.
The rest are a double decker refrigerator, weighing scales, gynaecological examination couch and second hand clothing.
Presenting the items, Mr Baffour Osei-Owusu, the chairman, said as citizens, they owed it a duty to improve health delivery facilities in the hospital.
Mr Osei-Wusu regretted that some Nkoranza citizens in Italy had refused to join the association and urged the parents of such people to advise them.
He paid tribute to Mr Vaccari Stefano, mayor of Monantola and an Italian voluntary organisations for their assistance in making the donation to the hospital.
The Omanhene of Nkoranza, Okatakyie Agyeman Kodom received the items on behalf of the Nkoranzaman and the management of the hospital.
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Draft study on forest reserve management completed
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 11 Aug. ’99
The Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Forestry has completed a draft study on forest reserve management in the transitional zone of the country.
The study area, which covers an approximate 300,000 hectares, lies within the districts of Sunyani, Berekum and Wenchi and involved the preparation of topographical maps and land use, forest inventory, soil and socio-economic surveys.
The project, sponsored by the Japanese government at the cost of 2.5 million dollars, prepared a draft management plan for five forest reserves in the transitional zone namely Taya, Tain One, part of Tain Two, Nsemire and Sawsaw.
A seminar was held at Sunyani on Monday to brief stakeholders within the study area, and foresters about the draft plan and their expected roles in its implementation.
In a speech read for him, the Chief Conservator of Forest, Mr Edward Osei Nsenkyire, said owing to the increase in population and the resultant demand for forest resources, the country's forest is vanishing at the rate of 1.3 per cent annually.
Mr Nsenkyire said the draft is aimed at effective forest management, poverty alleviation in rural communities, promotion of forests, fire control and the involvement of local people in forest production and management.
Under the study, private companies are to establish industrial plantations with the local people developing green firebelts and woodlots while the forest service will manage the existing forest plantations.
Mr Nsenkyire said measures have to be put in place to start the implementation of the study immediately to stop the fast rate at which the transitional zone is being degraded.
He appealed to the Japanese government to provide the necessary assistance for the establishment of a central nursery to provide high quality seedlings to meet the demands of plantation developers.
The study, which lasted two years would be repeated in other parts of the country where forests have been degraded.
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Stanchart presents 8.4 milion cedis to MEST
Accra (Greater Accra) 11 Aug. ’99
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Limited on Tuesday presented a cheque for 8.4 million cedis to the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MEST) as part of its effort to support two afforestation projects in the country.
The amount is to help solve a serious erosion problem in Beyin and Nawuley in the Jomoro District in the Western Region.
Mr Vishnu Mohan, Managing Director of Stanchart, said the Bank is sponsoring the project because it has been supportive of environmental issues in the country for the past year.
"The Bank has been involved in tree planting and fauna management around the Volta Lake and has also been working on marine turtle protection.
This means the Bank believes in promoting and maintaining the environment."
He said the Bank takes environmental issues into consideration in business decisions by educating its customers to ensure that their products and processes do not damage the environment.
Mr Lee Ocran, a deputy Minister of (MEST), who received the cheque said the Ministry has observed that communities, which formerly had tree forests are bare thereby exposing them to the harsh conditions of the weather and erosion.
"It is in this view that the Ministry has undertaken tree planting as one of the options of protecting these communities".
He said MEST approached the Voluntary Workcamps Association of Ghana which agreed to assist in the project with Stanchart providing logistics.
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World Vision pays 700,000 cedis for surgery
Nkoranza (Brong Ahafo) 11 Aug. ’99
The World Vision International (WVI) has provided 700,000 cedis for the settlement of a plastic surgery bill of a fourteen-year-old boy from Bodom in the Nkoranza District of the Brong Ahafo Region.
Master Eric Ofori, an orphan, had suffered from a chronic sore on the neck for a very long time but the local health centre at Yefri and the Nkoranzaman Hospital could not succeed in treating him.
World Vision International project officer, Mr John Kwasi Attah, told the press at Nkoranza that as a result of the disease, Ofori had to drop out of school at Primary Four because his friends teased him and shunned his company due to an offensive odour from his sore.
Mr Attah paid a special tribute to a nutrition officer of the vision, Mrs Mercy Anim, who on her visit to the area recommended that he should be treated at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
Mr Attah said but for World Vision International, Ofori's life would have been more miserable as nobody would be willing to pay for the cost of his treatment.
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Area councils asked to tackle sanitation problems
Nyeko (Northern Region) 11Aug ’99
The Savelugu/Nanton district assembly has asked area/urban councils and unit committees to tackle insanitary conditions to forestall outbreak of diseases.
Alhaji Abdulai Haruna, the district chief executive, gave the directive at Nyeko after presenting a cheque for two million cedis to the community following an appeal for assistance for the construction of a community school.
The community is to contribute three million cedis under an agreement with the "School for Life Programme", a Danish Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for the construction of a 12 million-cedi primary school block.
Alhaji Haruna charged the councillors and unit committee members to ensure that all households have proper drainage systems to stop the spillage of wastewater on to the roads.
Mr Abudu Alhassan, assembly member for Sagun electoral area who received the cheque on behalf of the Nyeko community, said they had realised one million cedis from contributions.
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USAID presents computers to Audit Service
Accra (Greater Accra) 11 Aug. ’99
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday presented 27 computers with accessories to the Audit Service.
It also presented the service with books and video cassettes on auditing, valued at 1,678 dollars.
An agreement to this effect, signed in Accra by USAID Mission Director, Dr Frank J. Young and Mr Osei Tutu Prempeh, the Auditor-General, said the purpose of the grant-in-aid is to facilitate the co-operative programmes between USAID and the Audit Service.
It is also to improve the computer capacities of the service nation-wide.
Dr Young said the donation is to be used for training purposes associated with the Wide Area Network (WAN) in all the 10 regions.
The grant brings to 40 the number of computers USAID has donated to the service in the past year.
Dr Young said in early 1997, a workshop was jointly organised by the service, USAID Ghana mission and USAID Senegal Regional Inspector General's office in Dakar that set the stage for mutual cooperation.
"The resulting Memorandum of Understanding, signed in February 1998, created an enabling environment to facilitate the audit service institution building through USAID's provision of an initial 13 computers."
Those computers were used to set up a Wide Area Network connecting audit offices in all the 10 regions.
"In return, the service has lent technical support to USAID in its primary education strategic objective and provided audit, financial and internal control services," Dr Young added.
Mr Prempeh said by the donation, USAID and USAID Senegal Regional Inspector General's Office have demonstrated their continued support towards deepening their relationship and enhancing the auditing delivery capacity of the service to meet the challenges of a changing auditing environment.
He said the donation signals the commitment of Ghana, USAID and USAID office in Dakar to the timely implementation of activities and actions agreed at their second joint working session early this year at Gomoa Fetteh.
Mr Prempeh said the Audit service has embarked on training for most of its staff to acquire computer skills, adding that with the additional computers, those on the waiting list will have the opportunity to train.
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