News
Street Academy holds Easter Picnic for less-privileged
A child being fed
The Street Academy School, on Easter Monday, organised an Easter Picnic for the less privileged and vulnerable children in the community.
Ataa Lartey, the Director of the Academy said the picnic had become an annual event to bring the children together and educate them about Christ Jesus, who is the reason for the occasion.
He further explained that it was a way to get the less privileged children to be part of the fun.
It drew a number of children from the Academy and those in the surrounding community who were refreshed and engaged in several fun-filled activities.
“We are celebrating Christ Jesus today; we want the children to know there is somebody called Christ, when you put your hope in him, the sky will be your limit”, he told the children.
Ms Melani Mennella, a Development Consultant and a Board of Director of the Academy, said, this year’s Easter picnic was to remind the vulnerable children that they believe in them and will continue to empower them to grow.
Ms Mennella who is also a Human Rights Activist said these children will be fortified by giving them the necessary support they deserved.
She said academia, sports, and social works provide children with a sense of dignity as well.
She acknowledged the Director of the school, for his efforts in nurturing and caring for the children over the years and stated that, street Academy was solely sponsored privately without regular funds from the public sector.
Speaking in an interview with Ms Priscilla Naa Ajeley Mensah, the Administrative Secretary of the Academy, she said the programme was organised to encourage vulnerable, less privileged and deprived children that society has not forgotten about them.
She highlighted the various challenges they face when organising such programmes, and appealed to the society, organisations, individuals, churches to support them to raise the unfortunate children.
News
Swallowed by the Sea! …Keta’s coastal lines, landmarks, efforts to preserve heritage
The Atlantic Ocean is no longer a distant blue horizon for the people of Keta.
It now circles around their doorsteps, uninvited, unrelenting, pulling down walls and other structures, erasing memories, and threatening lives.
Hovering precariously between the restless sea and the Keta Lagoon, this once-thriving coastal town is slowly being obliterated.
Salt water has become both a physical and metaphorical threat, dissolving the town’s past as fast as it claims its future.
Madam Aku Atitso, 62, lives in a crumbling former Prisons Service quarters – one of the few structures still standing on the eroded stretch of Queen Street.
She sits quietly at the entrance, preparing a modest breakfast for herself and her granddaughter.
The air is thick with salt and silence. “The sea took everything,” she says softly. “My husband’s nets, our mattress, our memories all gone overnight.” Her voice trembles. “This place too is dying. But it’s the last place with a roof over my head.”
A few metres away, Aunty Esinam, 79, watches the sea from a low stool beside a wooden shelter. Her eyes do not blink. “That spot,” she points, “used to be someone’s living room, a whole family lived there”.
It’s not just homes that are vanishing. Landmarks that anchored Keta’s cultural identity are disappearing one after another. The once-imposing Fort Prinzenstein, a haunting relic of the transatlantic slave trade is now more of a ruin than a monument.
the encroaching waters along Keta’s
coast.
encroaching waters along Keta’s coast
The colonial-era Bremen factory, the old cinema where generations of children once laughed at flickering black-and-white films is also gone.
Queen Street, once the town’s bustling backbone, is now a watery corridor choked with debris.
Standing atop a section of the sea defence wall, 69-year-old retired teacher Efo Kwasi Agbeko surveys what remains.
“The first police station is mostly gone,” he says, gesturing part of the building stuck in the sea sand, only ruins and a few rooms remain.
“This town is fighting, but the sea is winning,” he said.
Even the Cape St. Paul Lighthouse, Keta’s historic sentinel, leans perilously toward the water, and fishermen say holes in the shore are opening more frequently, sometimes every week.
That leaves a thick cloud of uncertainty hanging around the historic town of Keta.
Once upon a time, it was a vibrant town noted for business but currently left with ruins with a few of the residents watching in awe the sea’s devastation.
From: Geoffrey Kwame Buta, Keta, Volta Region
News
Ghanaians climax Easter with fun-filled activities
Christians around the world and other faith based groups last Monday climaxed the Easter celebration with a number of fun-filled outdoor and indoor activities.
With streets empty, fun seekers stormed church premises where picnics were held while others partied in many ways.
Others spent the day at the various beaches and music and film shows occupying the others.
velleyball competition
at the Laboma Beach
Church in Tema Community 8 engaged
in a number of activities including the
popular draught competition
At the churches, participants engaged in bible reading, football, volleyball, playing cards, table tennis, horse racing, bouncing castles, swimming and oware.
one of the picnic venues
Others played ludo, tag of war, lime and spoon, draught, music competitions among others.
The Spectator captured some of the exciting scenes around Accra-Tema for the benefit of readers.
Story & pictures by Victor A. Buxton
