News
GREL hands over Community Centerat Nyanso
Accra High School
The Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) has handed over a Community Centre to the people of Nyanso in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region.
The facility costing GH¢306,644.03 would be used for weddings, out doorings, community durbars and funerals among other social gatherings.
The Managing Director (MD) of GREL, Mr Lionel Barre said the company offered sustainable jobs and income to over 4,000 members of staff and the out-grower scheme instituted by his outfit.
He said GREL had provided potable water to communities, built schools, supplied desks and given allowances to teachers engaged during vacation classes and also put up health facilities for the people to access quality healthcare.
Mr Barre said the community centre was constructed at the request of the people of Nyanso after several stakeholder engagements on the need to build a centre at the community because hiring of tents, canopies and chairs for public gatherings like funerals, weddings and others were becoming a worry to the people especially on rainy days.
He thanked the chief and people of Nyanso for cooperating with GREL and the contractor who put up the community centre for their patience, understanding, dedication and collaboration during the period of construction.
The MD urged the chief, people and all who would patronise the facility to try and own it and never treat it as something imposed on them because the building was demand-driven to alleviate the suffering of the inhabitants.
The chairman of the Association of Chiefs on Whose Land GREL Operates (ACLANGO), Nana Kwesi Agyeman IX also said GREL’s operations had brought about many social interventions to the catchment areas like schools, health facilities, water projects among others.
He appealed to all rubber farmers to take the latex (raw rubber) to the accredited buying centres instituted by GREL and stop selling their produce to middle men because “these middle men did not provide any corporate social responsibility to the communities.”
The Chief of Nyanso, Nana Essoun Kuma II also said the problems of some inhabitants of Nyanso looking for money to hire canopies, chairs for social gatherings would now be a thing of the past.
He said the provision of this edifice would make them celebrate weddings, naming ceremonies and funerals in a grand style whether there was rain or sunshine because they now had a beautiful place.
He thanked ACLANGO, the Management of GREL and all those who contributed in diverse ways to bring the project to a successful completion, and promised that the culture of maintenance would be adhered to.
From Peter Gbambila-Nyanso.
News
GJA commits to fighting ‘galamsey’
The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Kwabena Dwumfour, has expressed the association’s commitment to the fight against illegal mining, known in the local parlance as ‘galamsey.’
According to him, the association was worried that forest reserves, water bodies and farm lands were being destroyed and degraded, all in the name of gold mining.
He said this when he addressed a press conference on issues affecting the nation and welfare of Journalists.
The GJA president indicated that in the mining communities, law and order were crumbling with impunity, with associated human right abuses, adverse and forced possessions of individual lands and farms while the decentralised administrative arms of government and traditional authorities seem to be helpless.
Turning his attention to assurances given by President John Dramani Mahama to fight illegal mining, the GJA President stressed that those assurances were welcomed, but urged the President to honour them.
“We welcome the assurances and commitment of President Mahama towards the fight against galamsey and it is our prayer that he will not relent or give up but honour his promise of stopping illegal mining in the country,” Mr Dwumfour emphasised.
He pledged the GJA’s support for the government in curbing the menace.
“We reiterate our condemnation of all illegal mining activities and demand urgent steps to be taken to tackle the issues head-on. There should be strict enforcement of all mining laws and regulations without any concessions, as well as the imposition of maximum sentences on offenders. This is a reliable approach to addressing this issue,” Mr Dwumfour added.
“The GJA urges the media to maintain the galamsey issue at the forefront until the menace was eliminated. As indicated in previous press conferences, we will not stop highlighting the issues until Galamsey stops,” he urged.
News
GJA executives call on The Spectator Editor
The National Executives of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) last Thursday paid a courtesy call on the Editor of The Spectator, Mrs Georgina N. M Quaittoo in Accra.
The meeting discussed the welfare of journalists and ways to improve their living conditions and challenges facing major media houses including the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers of The Spectator and The Ghanaian Times newspapers.
The president of the GJA, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, hinted that the executives of the association will meet the President, John Dramani Mahama, to discuss a few matters in the media industry.
According to Mr Dwumfour, at an earlier engagement with the President, he demonstrated his commitment to improve the living conditions of journalists and ensure that state-owned media houses were well-equipped.
“So we have come here to know at first hand some of your challenges in terms of production, attrition rate, and the form of support you need from the government,” he said.
He said it was common knowledge that, in recent times a lot of the corporation’s staff had resigned while others are furthering their education.
He indicated that the challenges facing the state-owned-media houses were common after touring the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and Graphic Communications Group.
Mr Dwumfour asked the Editors of the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator to present a paper on challenges confronting the corporation and support needed from government “to bring the corporation back to life.”
Responding, Mrs Quaittoo said the challenges affecting the corporation were numerous, saying, for over 30 years, the corporation had not received any support from governments.
She explained that the corporation pays itself, saying “if we don’t generate enough revenue then workers salary will delay.
Mrs Quaittoo also said retooling the corporation is also a major challenge.
She said due to the challenges confronting the corporation, most of the staff have resigned leaving the newsrooms virtually empty, while some subscribers are also not paying on time.
Present at the meeting were the GJA Vice President, Linda Asante Agyei; General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah; Public Relations Officer Rebecca Ekpe; Organising Secretary Dominic Hlordzi and Treasurer Audrey Dekalu.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
