Connect with us

News

Reverend Sister forms association to support widows

Reverend Sister Gabriel Nonaah

Just like Dorcas in the Bible who organised widows and orphans and provided for them, a Catholic Sister in the Dafiiama-Bussie-Issah District in the Upper West Region, has taken it upon herself to organise and assist widows.

Reverend Sister Gabriel Nonaah of the Daffiama Parish, now an octogenarian (80 years and above) has been doing the benevolent work since 1990 and now has over 780 widows under her stewardship called the St Monica’s Widows Association.

Some widows at the gathering

Sister Nonaah told TheSpectator that she had the call in a dream to start the association when she came to terms with the suffering of widows in the area.

“From the stories they shared with me about the physical and emotional trauma they went through, I was touched and decided to help them with the little I can and that birthed the association in 1990,” she narrated.

She explained that she was unable to cater fully for the needs of the widows but supported them emotionally with soothing words that encouraged them to live decent lives.

Advertisement

She said she had to step in to educate some of them about some outmoded traditions when she first started the association.

Through sensitisation, the association has been able to save many of the widows from such practices and encouraged to be economically active.

 “It has not been smooth sailing, we really have challenges because I cannot cater for 780 widows as you can see and many of them have dependent children and the number keeps adding on”, she said.

She explained that during the floods that occurred in the region last year which washed away young seedlings on people’s farms, many of the widows were affected and life became very unbearable for them.

Advertisement

She lamented that many of the widows were currently living in undesirable conditions and were mostly starved because they did not have any farm produce to depend on.

Sister Nonaah used the opportunity to call on benevolent institutions and individuals to come to their aid and support the women in whichever way possible either through skills training for the younger ones or support in petty trading.

 “I am very old now, so I have started training a young lady to take over from me but she will still need the assistance of people to be able to help these women”, she said.

She mentioned Lawyer Thaddeus Sory, Managing partner at Sory@Law, a law firm in Accra as one of their regular donors who had made a point to make food donation in large quantities to them annually.

Advertisement

Some of the widows interacted with this reporter and shared harrowing experiences.

 “I lost my husband six years ago and I have six children”, Madam Christy Kpianyanga, a widow narrated. She said her youngest child was seven years old and was not in school just because she could not provide for him in addition to the others.

She indicated that it was difficult providing three square meals a day particularly after last year’s floods where she lost her crops to the water.

Another widow, Afia Wadieh had four children when her husband died 10 years ago leaving them with no farmland to feed on. She was in a dilemma as she had no working capital either.

Advertisement

She was however grateful to the Association for the support it continued to provide since its inception.

From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa

Continue Reading
Advertisement

News

Craze for x’mas shopping:  Crowded markets, low patronage

• Traders display their items

 Vendors of food and other wares associated with the Christmas cele­bration have expressed surprise at the low patronage despite the increased number of visitors to some of the ma­jor markets across the capital.

Four days to the celebration(Christ­mas), the markets are filled with vari­ous products ranging from food, cloth­ing, livestock and many other stuff, but according to the vendors, patrons are doing more ‘window’ shopping.

The Spectator on visits to some of the markets in the capital, notably the Odawna, Makola, Accra Central Business District, New Town and others made similar observations as shoppers crowd them but did little in terms of purchases.

The paper also observed that ma­jority of vendors, originally selling other wares have switched to product related to the festive season.

 What it means is that there are a lot more clothes, food and vege­tables, livestock and poultry, toys, firecrackers, drinks of different types and many others on display.

Advertisement

The markets have also stretched to the pedestrian pavement, leaving very nar­row spaces for commuters to move about freely.

That, in addition to a few of the female vendors dressed in coloured attires to reflect the occasion, has heightened the euphoria, leaving the low sales as the only headache for the vendors.

Speaking with this paper, they sounded very optimistic, believing that sales would improve in the last few days to the yule­tide.

According to them, there was the oppor­tunity to sell beyond Christmas as the New Year celebration offers similar opportunity to trade the same wares.

They urged patrons to throng the mar­kets to shop since prices were quite mod­erate and products affordable for all.

Advertisement

Continue Reading

News

 Retirement service for Elder John Ackom-Asante,3 others

 Retired Deputy Editor of The Spec­tator, Elder John Ackom-Asante, was last Sunday honoured by the Church of Pentecost Windy Hills District in Kasoa in the Central Region, with a retirement thanksgiv­ing service, after serving for 26 year as an Elder of the church.

He was honoured with a citation and certif­icate of service along with three other elders who served in the capacity for various years.

Elder Ackom-Asante was baptised at the Darkuman Central Assembly in 1979 and or­dained as an Elder in 1997.

The citation read “Your selfless service, zeal, willingness to relate wholeheartedly and your desire to effect change has gone a long way to shape the lives of many people in the church and the nation over the 26 years of your dedication to the service of the Lord.”

Elder Ackom- Asante held many positions at the Darkuman Central Assembly, Obuasi in the Ashanti Region and Tema, serving in various capacities as youth and evange­lism ministry lead­er and marriage counsellor.

Advertisement

He was the founding member of the Darkuman Christian Fellowship, a member of the Greater Accra Chris­tian Fellowship; member of Bible Society of Ghana; founding member Obuasi Chapter Full Gospel Busi­nessmen Fellowship Interna­tional and founding member of New Times Corporation Christian Fellowship and Chaplain, Methodist Universi­ty Tema Campus 2009- 2010.

As a professional journal­ist, Elder Ackom-Asante com­bined effectively and effi­ciently his duty as a member and elder of the church and the demands of his profes­sion, with admiration from the church, kith and kin, till his retirement on December

 From Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Rahaman, Kasoa

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending