B/A Citizens Meet in New York Labor Day Weekend

Another historic day is near the corner. History will be made again as the Council of Brong Ahafo Associations of North America (COBAANA) meets in New York City.

COBAANA’s 5th Annual Convention and Dinner Dance will be held on Saturday, August 30th at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 66 Hale Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601 from 9:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M. It is the Labor Day Weekend Extravaganza that everyone is talking about, a must-attend affair.

As many people know by now, COBAANA is an umbrella Organization consisting of all the local Brong Ahafo Associations in several cities in the USA and Canada. It was formed, among others, to coordinate the socio-economic efforts of member chapters to help the people of the Brong Ahafo Region.

It is significant to note that on April 5th 2014, MedWish in Cleveland, OH partnered with COBAANA to donate a 40-foot container of medical supplies in support of the Sunyani General Hospital in Ghana. The container, which has since arrived at the hospital, included basic items of dire need to the hospital such as infant bassinets, electric hospital beds and mattresses, adjustable examination tables, gurneys, wheelchairs, and nebulizer machines. They also include IV poles, Hoyer patient lifts, gloves, syringes, suction machines, sterile lap sponges, several pallets of sterile X-ray Tec gauze, PICC insertion drapes and lap sponges, sphygmomanometers, stethoscopes, and several others. COBAANA was able to bear the service fee, handling and freight costs of $11,500 - thanks to chapter contributions and funds raised at the Washington DC Convention last year.

COBAANA-2014 New York is expected to attract over seven hundred participants of member Associations from New York, Columbus (OH), Cincinnati (OH), Washington DC, Denver (CO), Chicago (IL), Worcester (MA), Toronto (Canada), and Calgary (Canada). Observers from other US cities and from as far away as Ghana, Germany, Norway, and England would also be in attendance.

Proceeds from the Dinner Dance and fundraiser will go to benefit the Sunyani General Hospital and help to further improve the delivery of healthcare to our people. A flat entrance fee of $80 per head has been recommended. Speaking with this reporter about the fundraising event, Mr. Alex Ankomah of Toronto, Canada, COBAANA Chairman, said that hospitals in Ghana are staffed with eager doctors and nurses yearning to provide care to their patients, but lack the resources to do so effectively. “It is our way of supporting the government’s efforts to help our people,” he continued. He graciously invited all and sundry to attend the Convention’s dinner and dance and support a very worthy cause.

On Sunday, August 31st, an entrance-free picnic will be held at Glen Island Park in New Rochelle from 1:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. Raffle tickets will be sold and winners will take home a 21-inch flat screen television and a table top refrigerator.

For more information you may please contact Mr. Edward Mensah – President of New York’s Brong Ahafo Association (718-620-7513), Nana Nkrumah Brobbey-Chairman of Convention Planning Committee (914-433-6298), Mr. Alex Ankomah -COBAANA Chairman (647-889-6062), Mr. Daniel Asante –COBAANA Vice Chairman (215-990-2791), or Mr. Paul Gyau –COBAANA Secretary (301-523-3903).