Day: October 8, 2023

Angola takes part in the 74th session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme (ExCom) of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) taking place on October 9-13 in Geneva, Switzerland, ANGOP has learnt.

According to a press release, Angola attends the event with a delegation led by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Esmeralda Mendonça, that includes Ambassador Margarida Izata, representative of the Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva, diplomats from the Permanent Mission and humanitarian specialists of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior.

Angola takes part in this event for the first time as a member state, following its election on April 5 2023 in New York as the 108th member of the ExCom.

Angola will take part in the general debate, which is expected to focus on regional and global issues on the challenges of migration, as well as the country’s multi-annual voluntary financial contribution to the UN agency.

Alongside the programme for the 74th session of the UNHCR, the Angolan delegation has several meetings on the agenda.

The delegation is expected to meet with Raouf Mazou, the UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner for Operations, the ambassador of the United States of America, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Communities of the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Gareth Guadalupe, among others.

The ExCom is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly that came into operation on January 1, 1959.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has appealed to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) delegates for the November 4 presidential primaries to endorse him to lead the Party in election 2024.

The Vice President said he had the track record and the ability to defeat the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, former President John Dramani Mahama to ensure the NPP’s victory.

Dr Bawumia is one of the four aspirants vying to lead the NPP in next year’s election.

He said he knew Mr Mahama very well and was ready to contest and defeat him for monumental victory for the NPP.

The Vice President made the appeal when he addressed the about 1,300 delegates in the Sunyani East Constituency at a meeting to canvas for their votes.

The NPP has set November 4, 2023, to elect a flagbearer for the Party for the general election next year.

Other aspirants in the race are Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, former Minister of Food and Agriculture, and Francis Addai-Nimoh, former MP for Ashanti Mampong.

Touting his achievements in government, the Vice President mentioned the one-constituency-one ambulance policy, Agenda 111 hospital projects, Gold for Oil policy, the Drone Delivery Project, as well as the national digitalisation drive among other policies and social intervention programmes, which put the NPP ahead of the NDC.

He threw a challenge to former President Mahama to outline any legacy he had left in his 30 years of politics from an Assembly member to MP, a Deputy Minister to Minister, and Vice President to President.

The November 4 polls, Dr Bawumia indicated, was an internal affair, and asked the delegates and all party members to be decorous in their campaign, avoid personality attacks and insults to ensure unity and a formidable front to win election 2024.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Hands of Gold Foundation (HOGF) an Accra-based non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has donated equipment and consumables to the Ankaful Psychiatric hospital.

The items included, BP Apparatus, Digital/Infra-red thermometers, Suction machines, Clinical Weighing scales, Stethoscopes, Bedside screens, Nebulizer waste bins and wall clocks.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Sunday said consumables however, included psychotropic medications, assorted cake soaps, bar soaps, soft sweeping brush, floor mops, long scrubbing brush, lavatory brushes or sacks of detergent, drinking cups, street broom, hand scrubbing brushes and boxes of bottled mineral water.

Presenting the items, the Manager, Administration and Policy coordination, Mr Rex Kumordzi said the gesture was to support mental healthcare delivery in the country.

He said HOGF recognised the alarming increase in mental illnesses in the country and the need to support care givers to treat persons who suffer the unfortunate ailment.

Mr Kumordzi said it was important that members of the public showed care and compassion to each other to complement advocacy efforts of those in charge of mental care in the country.

‘Mentally challenged persons are also the most vulnerable in society and it is our duty as citizens to ensure their protection, well-being and overall mental health,’ he emphasised.

Mr Kumordzi explained that the decision to go to the aid of the hospital formed part of activities to commemorate the third anniversary celebrations of the Foundation.

He however, expressed the hope that the items would go a long way to benefit the mental facility and its in mates and help reduce the burden on the day to day administration of the hospital.

On his part, the Principal Nursing Officer of the hospital Mr Charles Ofosuhene expressed gratitude to the foundation for supporting the facility at this point in time.

Mr Ofosuhene who also doubles the Quality Assurance Coordinator of the hospital appealed to individuals and corporate institutions to support the numerous mental homes particularly in the hard and trying times.

He assured that the donated items would be used to the benefit of the inmates and prayed that HOGF adopted the hospital for regular support.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mr Yaw Dabie Appiah Mensah, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Bono Region, has described the emerging street protests and demonstrations in the country as ‘unnecessary and needless.’

He called on the organisers to instead provide the government with alternatives and ideas to tackle and solve the teething socio-economic challenges confronting the country in a more proactive manner in the supreme interest of the nation.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Odumase in the Sunyani West Municipality, Mr Mensah, a former NPP Organiser in the then Brong-Ahafo Region, blamed the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for inciting the protest just to make the Government unpopular in the eyes of the populace and to score undue political points

‘It’s glaring that the leadership of the NDC is inciting the masses against the government. But Ghanaians must remember that these elements in the NDC are doing these because of their parochial interest of winning political power in Election 2024,’ he stated.

According to Mr Mensah, the former President John Dramani Mahama led NDC ‘has nothing new to do to turn the nation’s economic fortunes round.’

He, therefore, reminded Ghanaians not to allow themselves to be deceived and swayed by the ‘NDC elements desperate to win and assume political power.’

‘These NDC elements through incessant street protests stood against and resisted the former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration at the time that administration was building the Jubilee House, yet they were happy to occupy that seat of government when they assumed political power in 2009.’

Mr Mensah admitted that although the country was going through ‘turbulence times’ amid a rise in youth unemployment and high cost of goods and services, former President Mahama’s NDC was not the option for Ghanaians now.

‘Ghanaians must not repeat any mistake to handover political power to former President Mahama’s NDC again because doing so would be economically and politically suicidal for the nation,’ he stated.

‘Despite the external shocks, the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government has been able to fulfil most of its campaign promises,’ Mr. Mensah added.

He entreated Ghanaians to remain calm, resolute and still maintain their trust and confidence in the NPP and rally solidly behind the Government as it worked hard to transform the economic fortunes of the nation.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Stakeholders at a forum on the Carbon Mitigation Project have expressed the necessity for the installation of institutional stoves in senior high schools, teacher and nursing training colleges to reduce the use of firewood.

Caterers of the school feeding programme must also use the stoves, which would generally mitigate the environmental and climate change-related challenges, reduce green-house gas emission, and enhance the health of the populace.

The project, an initiative of CookClean Ghana, in collaboration with Climate Gains AG, is to install efficient and improved institutional stoves in schools and colleges, for free.

It is under the Ghana-Switzerland Bilateral Agreement and being carried through the Ghana Green Schools Project.

The stakeholders comprised the Conference of Heads of Assisted Senior Secondary Schools (CHASS), school matrons, School Feeding Secretariat, and civil society organisations.

They discussed the environmental challenges posed by desertification and climate change, low soil fertility, increased erosion, and high biomass consumption, which had negatively impacted the environment.

Also on the table was the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that address environmental and health challenges to increase long-term benefits for local families.

Mr Nicholas Manu, the Chief Executive Officer, Cookclean Ghana, told the Ghana News Agency that most schools in Ghana cooked with inefficient traditional stoves that consumed a lot of fuel.

The high biomass consumption had negatively impacted on the environment leading to deforestation, land degradation, green-house emissions, and loss of soil fertility, hence the need to embrace the new cooking technology.

‘Adoption of the project would lead to a significant decline in green-house gases emission associated with the use of solid fuel for cooking,’ he said.

Mr Mohammed Aminu Lukumanu, a participant, said the installation of the stoves would increase access to clean cooking in schools to protect the health of both the users, the pupils and students.

He called on the partners to promote the planting of trees in all the beneficiary schools to mitigate climate change while tracking and documenting the lessons learnt for future reference.

Source: Ghana News Agency