2 NGOs organise competition to promote peace

TWO non-governmental organisations (NGOs), MEWE Ghana and the Association of Children’s Homes and Orphanages (ACHO) Ghana, both based in the Twifo Hemang-Lower Denkyira District in the Central Region, have jointly organised a bicycle race as part of efforts to promote peace in the area.
The competition, the third of a series to be organised for the residents in the district, was dubbed: “Peace and Unity”.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Country Director of MEWE Ghana, Dr Nii Amaa Ollenu, advised Ghanaians to ensure that the upcoming general election was conducted in a peaceful atmosphere, adding that voting was a right and in exercising that duty, the electorate ought to promote tolerance during the period.
He said MEWE was a non-profit making organisation that believed in supporting the educational and spiritual needs of children.
Dr Ollenu stated that his outfit was committed to the entrenchment of Ghana’s democratic experiment hence the organisation of the competition.
In that regard, he said MEWE Ghana, which doubles as an orphanage with its mother branch in Italy, known as MEWE Italy, had sponsored some of its inmates to pursue vocational education in various technical institutions in the country.
The Executive Director of ACHO Ghana, Mrs Caroline Aggrey-Fynn, urged the Department of Social Welfare to reconsider its decision to reduce the number of orphanages in the country because when that was done, it would escalate the rate of child streetism and other social vices in the country.
A Deputy Minister of Health, Dr (Mrs) Gladys Norley Ashietey, said the government appreciated the significant contributions of the various youth development associations and other groups towards the development of the country since 2001.
She expressed the hope that MEWE and ACHO would grow from strength to strength to realise their objectives of helping to promote the image of Ghana abroad.
She called on the youth to actively participate in the peace awareness by organising campaigns in their respective towns and villages about the many benefits of peaceful election.
Dr Ashietey said the entire world over the years had acclaimed Ghana’s democratic practice.
She, therefore, implored the youth not to rest on their laurels but endeavour to contribute their quota by discouraging any form of skirmishes during the December electoral process.