Ambassador Adjei-Barwuah hosts town hall meeting and diaspora forum

As part of his commitment to community engagement, the Ambassador of Ghana hosted the Ghanaian Community at a Town Hall meeting held at the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC on Saturday, October 13, 2018.

A full delegation of the Council of Ghanaian Associations (COGA), which is the umbrella body of Ghanaian Associations in the Washington Metro Area, led by its President Mr. Henry Y. Adu was at the forum.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Henry Adu stated that COGA has played a pivotal role as a major link between the Ghanaian community and the Embassy through community education and dissemination of information.

He used the opportunity to shed light on some of the major achievements of the Association in recent times which include a donation to an orphanage in Ofoase in the Eastern Region of Ghana, adoption of 8 schools in different districts and disbursement of about 8000 dollars to these schools.

COGA, he stated, has also donated 110 beds received from the Howard University Hospital to various hospitals in Ghana. Mr. Adu then gave the assurance that COGA will continue to assist hospitals without beds.

Mrs. Akosua Okyere-Badoo, the Head of the Diaspora Desk at the Embassy of Ghana introduced a two-member delegation from the Ghana State Book Project in the persons of Mr. Isaac Bright Botchway, the Project Coordinator and Nana Yaa Yankson, Queenmother, Aboso Asona Royal Family of Agona Nyakrom.

The delegation was in town primarily to promote the Ghana State Book Project and engage the Diasporan community to solicit their collaboration and support for the project.

According to Mr. Botchway, the Ghana State Book Project is collaborating with the National Commission on Culture and the National House of Chiefs to document traditional histories and cultural practices in all the traditional states across the various regions of Ghana.

The project intends to protect the Ghanaian heritage for posterity whilst authenticating lines of succession in Ghanaian chieftaincy to help minimize chieftaincy disputes.

The project which begun in 2007 to undertake intensive research and publish State Books has since completed and published five comprehensive historical reference books for the following States, Techiman, Offinso, Awutu, Tepa, Hwidiem.

Mr. Isaac Botchway intimated that as part of the exercise, the project seeks to link Ghanaians in the Diaspora to their roots as well as educate them about their history and culture.

He averred that such a project could not be all-encompassing without the involvement of the Diaspora community thus the attempt to engage them.

He entreated the Ghanaian Diaspora to place their knowledge and resources at the disposal of the project to ensure its success.

When H.E Ambassador Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah took his turn to address the forum he expressed his profound gratitude to the community for their support and willingness to engage on issues of common interest to all.

He used the opportunity to address a reportage by a Ghanaian journalist on the sidelines of the recent UN General Assembly on the alleged deportation of about 7,000 Ghanaians from the United States.

According to the Ambassador, he was quoted out of context and his statement was in no way endorsing and confirming the deportation of Ghanaians from the United States as was erroneously reported.

Ambassador Adjei-Barwuah then referred to a number of video recordings circulating on social media seeking to pit Ghanaian tribes against each other in the name of politics and averred that such developments do not bode well for the unity of Ghana.

He thus advised that COGA, being the representative body of the various Ghanaian Associations, should take it upon themselves to sensitize their members on the potential dangers of such developments.

He asserted that Ghanaians owe it as a duty to contribute to the development and unity of Ghana and that “The greatest protection we have is to protect each other” The forum which stated with an opening and closing invocation by Dr. Samuel Amoako-Atta was moderated by Mr. William Adzimahe.