Ahmadiyya Muslim women end conference
Medical doctor presents library books to schools
Assemblyman calls for termination of road contract
NGO builds 50m cedi school for Sessiman
Participants of PANAFEST start arriving
Work begins on library complex for State Exp. school
More workers kick against new salary structure
Improved parent stocks developed
Kwahu Awenade (Eastern Region) 30th July 99—
The Kwahu South district office of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), has distributed quantities of relief items to communities and schools which suffered from various forms of disasters recently.
The disasters which involved fire, rainstorms and famine claimed two lives and destroyed property worth 585 million cedis.
Property destroyed include 10 school blocks and 80 dwelling houses. About 700 people were rendered homeless.
The relief items which went to victims in 11 communities included 15 packets of roofing sheets, 50 mini bags of maize, mattresses, blankets and plastic plates and cups.
The beneficiary communities included Kwahu Nsaba, Kwahu Amanfrom, Abepotia-Odumase, Aweregya, Kwahu Daa-Nsuta, Awenade, Nteso, Tokrom-Awiamu, Kwahu Awenade, Gyaekasa and Nyewohoden.
Speaking at one of the presentation ceremonies at Awenade, the Eastern Regional Senior Disaster Control Officer, Mr Iddrisu Iddi, stressed the need for the people to take to preventive measures such as tree planting and construction of fire belts around their homes.
The acting district Co-ordinator, Mr Ebenezer Owusu, urged the people to ensure regular maintenance of their houses and school buildings.
GRi…/
Return to top Ahmadiyya Muslim women end conference
Nkoranza (Brong Ahafo), 30th July 99 –
The 17th regional annual conference of the Brong Ahafo Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association has ended at Nkoranza.
This year's conference, which attracted about 200 members drawn from seven districts was under the theme "women, peace of the family".
In an address, the regional missionary Maulvi Abdul Karim Khalib urged Muslim women to be very mindful of the up-bringing of their daughters and guide them against immoral practices.
Maulvi Khalib stressed the need for Muslim parents to educate their girls to enhance a better living standards for them in the future and commended them for their efforts at establishing a day-care centre at Techiman.
Nana Yaa Adutwumwaa, queenmother of Nkoranza Traditional area who was the guest speaker, urged the women to accord their husbands the required respect and to use good language when communicating with them.
"Disrespect and indecent language in communicating with our husbands have made many of us to be unsuccessful in our marriages".
Nana Adutwumwaa decried immorality among the youth saying this has contributed to teenage pregnancy and drop-out from school among girls and appealed to leaders of religious organizations to help address the problem.
GRi…/
Return to top Medical doctor presents library books to schools
Offinso (Ashanti), 30th July 99-
A US-based medical practitioner, Dr Yaw Safo, has presented library books, worth 9,000 dollars, to three schools in Offinso.
The books were presented to Amoawi Methodist JSS, Adiembra-Aduana JSS and the English/Arabic School at Amoawi, all in the Offinso district.
Dr Safo said libraries form the bedrock of quality education and it is his avowed aim to supply the schools with books to enable them to develop adding that another consignment of 1,000 books has already been shipped.
Receiving the books, Nana Adu Kofi, Offinso Mawerehene, thanked Dr Safo for his noble gesture and appealed to other citizens to follow his example.
Those present included Nana Yaw Duodu, Amoawihene, staff and pupils of the various schools.
GRi…/
Return to top Assemblyman calls for termination of road contract
Gambia(Brong Ahafo) 30th July 99 –
The assemblyman for Gambia Krachikrom electoral area in the Asutifi district, Mr Ben Busia, has called on the Asutifi district assembly to terminate the work of the contractor working on the 13.4 kilometre Gambia number two-Kusawodie road.
Mr Busia who briefed newsmen at Gambia on the condition of the road, accused the contractor of doing a shoddy job as the road which is being constructed under the agriculture sector improvement programme (ASIP) has become impassable due to the poor work undertaken.
He appealed to the Asutifi district assembly to come to the aid of people living in the area because their farm produce including cocoa are locked up due to the refusal of drivers to ply the road.
In another development, Mr Rexford Berko, assembly member of Kwapong old town in the Asunafo district of Brong Ahafo has appealed to the Department of Feeder Roads and the Asunafo district assembly to rehabilitate the 18-kilometre Noberkaw-Asufufuo-Kwapong-Sankore road which has become impassable.
He said farmers in the area are finding it difficult to send their food items to marketing centres.
GRi…/
NGO builds 50m cedi school for Sessiman
Nkoranza (B/A), 30th July 99 –
The International Development Exchange (IDEX), a United States non-governmental organisation, is funding the construction of a three classroomed block estimated at about 50 million cedis for the
Nkoranza-Sessiman Junior Secondary School in the Nkoranza District.
The headmaster of the school, Mr Osei Kuffuor disclosed this when he addressed the staff at a meeting at Nkoranza on Wednesday to discuss problems affecting the development of the school with reference to girl-child education.
He said the community is offering communal labour towards the execution of the project and commended the assemblyman for the area, Mr Paul Kwadwo Baffo, through whose efforts the people received the project.
The District Girls Education Officer, Mrs Georgina Adjei-Bemah, stressed the need for teachers to encourage girls in their schools not to drop out and urged teachers to get girls interested in science, technology and mathematics.
She advised subject teachers to study their students and give them the necessary guidance that would enable them choose the right courses for their career.
GRi
Return to top Participants of PANAFEST start arriving
Accra (Greater Accra), 30th July 99-
Participants for the forthcoming Pan African Historical Theatre Festival (PANAFEST) which will be held from July 31 to August eight have started arriving.
About 80 delegates from Jamaica, the U.S. and South Africa arrived on Wednesday night to participate in the festival that will take place in Cape Coast, Elmina and Accra.
In all about 3,000 international participants comprising artistes, intellectuals, exhibitors and tourists are expected for the festival.
PANAFEST would parade a host of disciplines and activities including a grand durbar of chiefs, a three-day Pan African colloquium, performance of local and international artists and a football match between the national team, the Black Stars, and their Jamaican counterparts, theReggae Boyz of Jamaica.
GRi…
Accra (Greater Accra), 30th July 99 -
The Board of Directors of the New Times Corporation on Thursday confirmed the appointment of Mr Tom Dorkenoo, as Editor of the Ghanaian Times.
It also appointed Mr Robert Benstil as Deputy Editor of the paper. Both men were with the sister paper the Weekly Spectator.
The appointments are part of the decision of Board of Directors to reshuffle editors of the corporation's newspapers, according to a statement issued in Accra.
The statement said the confirmation was announced at the consultative meeting with the Local Union of TUC and the senior staff association.
It said the appointments takes effect from August one and "are part of a general restructuring of the Corporation by the board of directors to enhance efficiency and profitability of the Corporation and give it a new image."
It said Mr Wisdom Owusu Sarpong, acting editor of Ghanaian Times, moves to the Weekly Spectator as Editor while Mr Abi George, chief sub-editor of the Times has been appointed Deputy Editor of the Spectator.
The Editor for the proposed Evening News is Mr Francis Assuah while Mr Gayheart Edem Mensah is Deputy Editor.
Mr Christian Abbew becomes Group Sports Editor and Editor Sporting Times while Mr Emmanuel Amponsah becomes the Deputy Editor.
The Board also appointed Mrs Elizabeth Nunoo as the Group Editorial Manager.
A couple of stories written in the Ghanaian Times said the staff have rejected the appointments and asked the Board to withdraw them.
They said the acting editor of the Ghanaian Times is giving the paper a new image while some former staff who left when the going was tough were now being brought back in senior positions.
GRi
Work begins on library complex for State Exp. school
Kumasi (Ashanti), 30th July 99 –
The Assistant Director of Education in charge of Planning and Statistics at the Kumasi Metropolitan Education office, Mr S.K.
Amankwah, on Wednesday cut the sod for work to begin on a new library complex estimated to cost 60 million cedis for basic one and two of the State Experimental School in Kumasi.
The library, being funded by the school and parents, will accommodate 100 pupils at a time and will have an office, washroom and a computer room.
The school has so far raised 29 million cedis through a levy of 15,000 cedis per child. The old boys have expressed their preparedness to give assistance.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Reverend Kwaku Kwarteng, Chairman of the School Management Committee (SMC), said the project is dear not only to the government but to all who are interested in education.
Rev Kwarteng said work on the construction of additional classrooms for the basic two section, which came to a standstill, has resumed and that the ground floor of the one-storeyed building comprising six classrooms would be completed before the next academic year.
He said originally the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) was to provide four classrooms, an office and a store at a cost of 40 million cedis but the school contributed an additional 15 million cedis to provide two classrooms.
GRi…/
Return to top More workers kick againstnew salary structure
Sunyani (Brong Ahafo), 30th July 99,
The Ghana National Association of Chieftaincy Workers (GNACWO) has expressed its dissatisfaction about deficiencies in the Pricewater House salary structure because as it has adversely affected the staff of traditional councils.
The association said the matter has already been taken up for redress and hoped the abysmally low salaries of the chieftaincy secretariat workers would be rectified.
The national president of the association, Mr Akwasi Asare Ankomah expressed this concern at the inauguration of the Brong Ahafo branch of the chieftaincy ladies club at Sunyani on Wednesday.
He explained that in the report regional registrars of House of Chiefs have been placed at levels nine, while some of their assistants are on level six.
Mr Ankomah said the salaries as compared to similar institutions, showed that there are serious discrepancies which require immediate remedy.
The national president of the chieftaincy ladies club, Miss Doris V. Padi, addressing the ladies said the period of marginalisation of women is over because "we are prepared to prove our worth in every sphere of national life".
She advised members of the club to work hard to remove outmoded customs by educating women in their communities to know and recognise their rights.
GRi…/
Return to top Improved parent stocks developed
Accra (Greater Accra), 30th July 99 –
The Animal Production Department (APD) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has developed improved parent stocks of cattle, pigs and rabbits through cross-breeding of the local and foreign breeds.
The cross-breeds are almost twice as heavy as local ones, more disease resistant and their mortality rate is lower than the pure imported exotic ones.
Dr Blewusi Daniel Etse, a Deputy Director of the department who is in charge of breeding, said on Thursday in Accra, that the success story followed the reactivation of the Amrahia Farm and the Nungua Livestock Farms about five years ago.
The reactivation of the stations followed the adoption of the Medium-Term Agriculture Development Programme under the National Livestock Services Project.
The government and the World Bank are jointly financing the programme.
Dr Etse said at the Amrahia Farm, near Accra, artificial insemination is carried out on the local 'sanga' cattle with imported semen of friesians. The cross-breed are solely for milk production.
He said the improved breed produce six litres of milk a day as against one litre by the pure local cattle and that the average weight of the improved calf at birth is 26 kilogrammes while that of the local one is 17 kilos.
Dr Etse said for the last three years, the farm has sold about 104 cross-bred cattle to farmers.
It has been collecting milk from local trained farmers following the installation of tanks at vantage points, including Sekyere Odumase in the Ashanti Region, Akuse Junction, Juapong and towns around Accra.
He said the milk, collected under hygienic conditions, is chilled on the Amrahia Farm and sold to Fan Milk Limited.
Dr Etse said the Amrahia Farm and individual farmers have for the past two years sold about 400,000 litres of chilled milk to the company and the public.
At the Nungua farms, parent stocks of pigs are selected through performance testing, bred and sold to farmers for breeding.
Dr Etse described the result as "tremendous with farmers coming out with positive results," adding that the same success story goes for about 1,000 rabbits they have on the farm. So far about 450 farmers have bought some of the rabbits for breeding.
GRi…/