Aburi Botanical Garden goes green

To mark its international service day, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated sponsored 50 pupils to Aburi Botanical Garden on the 29th of April 2023.

Globally, Earth Day which brings together different groups fighting for a common cause is usually celebrated on the 22nd of April each year to raise awareness about critical issues concerning the environment.

From Businesses, government to citizens, the theme for Earth Day 2023 “Invest in our Planet; be part of the green revolution” calls for everyone to act (boldly), innovate (broadly) and implement (equitably).

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated is an all-female group formed in 1908 uniting more than 355,000 individuals across the world to form a cohesive organization that is impacting the lives of families and communities.

Three members of the Sorority in Ghana; Dr. Delia Gilis, Masah Samoray and Christa Sanders represented the sorority sisters for their flagship programme in greening the environment to make everyone accounted for and everyone accountable.

The purpose of the expedition is to give a firsthand experience to kids in deprived communities who hardly see the lush and greenery nature provides and come home with the mindset to physically go green to complement and match up with the Ramadan fast of spiritual cleanliness.

The three-in-one environmental expedition falls in line with three areas of focus of the sorority sisters:

(1. Tree planting, 2. Waste reduction and 3. Community and home gardening) led to the planting of 100 coconut seedlings in the Aburi Botanical Garden.

Fifty (50) pupils were selected from five (5) basic schools in Nima and Maamobi in the Ayawaso North Municipal Assembly.

Ahead of the expedition, the Municipal Chief of Ayawaso North Municipal Assembly Hon. Aminu Mohammed Zakari led a green team to pay a courtesy call to the National Chief Imam. The head of the green team, Madam Naomi Suzuki Mochizuki expressed the interest for the National Chief Imam to visit the Japanese Embassy’s residence in Ghana to see how they are going green by separating waste at source.

After the tree planting, the kids had a wonderful time with Mr. Akufo who took them around for some history lessons. They got to know the year the botanical garden was officially opened in the year AD 1890 to the very place Nigeria sign their peace treaty (The Aburi Accord of 1967).

Mr. Isaac Waka from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate of the same Assembly reminded the five (5) schools; 1. Unity Junior High School, 2. K-13 Junior High School, 3. Francis Xavier Basic School, 4. Darul Islamic Basic School and 5. Anani Memorial International School about their take-home lessons and be changed agents who will not add up to those throwing plastic waste into the gutters.

Instead of mixing all the waste after having their lunch, all eight (8) different types of plastics needed for the water and lunch packaging were segregated and sent back to Webster University Campus as an educational statement.

This was to reiterate the path of recovering 30% of the assemblies’ budget that goes into the collection and disposal of municipal solid waste mostly sorted under unhygienic conditions at the landfill for economic gains. Dr Gilis who is also a lecturer at Webster University reminded the pupil in her opening remark that; “Everything you need to be successful is here in this country”.

With barely seven (7) years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sorority sister’s Service to Mankind model with changing mindset-one child in the community means that the beneficiary of the field trip has four months (May-June-July-August) to be change agents in the predominately Muslim community.

This will be climaxed by Black Prophet’s “Without an Apology Musical concert” and a marathon for all 260 (MMDAs) Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in Ghana to bring to bear the President’s initiative to make Accra a cleaner city by 2024, where the 2023 Sanitation Action Plan of the Ayawaso Municipal Assembly become materialized.

The initiative for the environmental expedition to Aburi Botanical Garden by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated had the support from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because it is a climate action that falls under the Sustainable Development Goal 3(Good health and Wellbeing), 12(Responsible Consumption and Production), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and 13 (Climate Action) respectively.

It is a select strategy to optimize the collective ability to improve and protect the environment to which the Curator of the Aburi Gardens Mr. Forson implore the pupil to revisit the seedlings they planted. For collaboration and sustainability, the tree planting exercise which became an extension of Butterfly’s Mother Earth Festival activities had to be postponed from 23rd to 29th April because it clashed with the Ramadan Festivities.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated now has Yasmeen Helwani as a new member of its Sisterhood and for her selfless environmental activities, her coronation as a development Queen will be due this August in Jamestown. A short video had been put together on YouTube to engage the pupil to spread the initiative as change agents outside their comfort zone and beyond their community.