Agogo Citizens Assoc - Washington Metro Area

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is, indeed, my pleasure to share with you the historic outcome of the Easter week end activities at Agogo organized under the auspices of Agogo Worldwide Association. I believe your respective representatives who joined us for most part of the activities will provide an eye witness account when they return to their bases. By far, I consider the events very successful as we really achieved the set objectives of raising money for the hostel project and also bringing most of our members together to socialize and share ideas.

Before I proceed to give you the rundown of the activities, I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude to all the Executives of the various chapters for responding positively to the call and providing the much needed moral and financial support given the relatively short period of preparation. Secondly, I would like to thank Mr. Osei Anane, Chairman of the Accra Chapter, for his dedication, commitment, and the leadership role he played so well in ensuring the success of the program. He personally delivered invitation letters and collected some donations on behalf of the committee. He provided meals and drinks throughout the 3 days to delegates, invited guests, the youth, the brass band and others out of his own pocket as an additional donation to his time and effort towards the fundraiser. He also made cash donation besides the contribution made by the Accra Chapter. He basically declined the reimbursement offered him by the Planning Committee. Thirdly. I do not know what to say about the Agogo Youth Association. Quite frankly, we couldn't have gone through the program without these guys. A group which was yet to be inaugurated and barely 2 months old came in their numbers (over 100) and displayed a great sense of patriotism and seriousness to the agenda. They were everywhere, from the cleaning, to the tree planting, marathon, and the games and organized most of the logistics needed. Fourthly, join me to say a big thank you to all the delegates from the various Chapters who had travelled from abroad to participate in the events. In attendance from overseas were Nana Kofi Tuuda (Philadelphia), Dixon Atta (London), Kate Obeng (Worcester), Matthew Nkansah-Dwamenah, Kwame Obeng, Isaac Asamoah (Washington DC), Agyenim Boateng, Thompson, Kwadwo Owuo (New York). Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to the Planning Committee and the Executives of the Accra Chapter for the pivotal role that they played from the planning process and throughout the execution phase.

Now the rundown by the days:

GOOD FRIDAY:

As was reported to you on the program of events, we began on Easter Friday with general cleaning of the town. We managed to secure a truck from the Environmental Office at Agogo that collected all the garbage for disposal. The cleaning exercise started as early as 6:00 am with about 70 people. The number grew larger as we went through the streets of Agogo with the Brass Band playing behind us. This lasted for about 3 hours as some members needed to attend church service.

Then in the evening, at about 5:00 pm, we all went to the Kowire River near the bridge that crosses over to the Agogo State Senior High School. The attendance was very encouraging. We had invited the Municipal Chief Executive of the Asante North Assembly to join us which he honored. At the ceremony, we decided to plant a tree on behalf of each chapter. However, since the MCE was present he was respectfully asked to plant the first tree which will represent the Assembly. Then trees were planted with a short ceremony by each chapter. We also planted one for the Youth Association and AWA. The challenges of clearing and reclaiming the river were discussed and a request was made to the MCE for assistance in providing some logistics and technical assistance in order to clear the river from the weeds that have engulfed it all. He promised to do his very best to support us in that regard. Before the tree planting ceremony, Mr. Osei Anane, Nana Kofi Tuuda, Dixon Atta and myself had the privilege to go to ASEMPA RADIO where we did a live broadcast to the people to explain the objectives of the Easter Fundraising program.

EASTER SATURDAY:

The day began with a marathon race at about 5:30 am from the Lorry Park through some principal streets of Agogo. The turnout was great. The race saw people like Mr. Osei Anane, Dickson, and myself making it through to the finishing line much to the disbelieve of many people. The ambulance from the hospital trailed behind the runners in the event that there was a casualty. Fortunately, no incident was reported as participants ran a smart race. Dickson was the first to cross over the finishing line among the old guys. The part I enjoyed and had the most fun was right after the marathon when we all gathered at the lorry park to clean the space and prepare it for the durbar that afternoon. As the youth were seriously cleaning up the place, the women started playing games like, ampeh, akotoosie, hwe hwem be yi wo mpena, that was reminiscent of the '50's and 60's.. Meanwhile, a member ordered a full "drum" of fresh palm wine and everybody helped themselves to it. That was a lovely palm wine that reminded me of the old days.(this is not meant to prompt your appetite).

The durbar itself was very colorful. Some dignitaries who were in attendance included, Agogo Akyempehene, who represented the Omanhene and was clouded by the other sub-chiefs including our own Nana Kofi Tuuda (Agogo Nkabomhene) who looked very paramount in his traditional chieftancy outfit followed by the Queenmother and elders of Asenee family which he belongs. Also in attendance were Mr. Osei Bonsu, the MCE; Mr. Anyimadu Antwi, MP; The Aucer Auset Society from Washington DC, representatives from all the Educational institutions and churches in Agogo, Chiefs from some Asante Akyem area, businessmen and other dignitaries.

Representatives for each of our chapters were introduced followed by fraternal greetings and short messages on behalf of their members. Since there was no one present from New Jersey, Matthew Nkansah was asked to speak on their behalf. Everything went well and for any successful program like that we needed the showers from Heaven which we did towards the closing. We all understood the import of the rains as we were rushed to close the events, the evening dance that was scheduled for the night had to be cancelled because of the rains and power outage.

EASTER SUNDAY:

Sunday was devoted for Thanksgiving services and members attended service at the Presbyterian Church of Agogo. Again, we had a large number of participants joining in for the service. Following the service, the delegates met at Mr. Osei Anane's house to check the proceeds received from the fundraising which had been kept in a safe and left in the house of Mr. Osei Anane while the key to the safe box was kept by the Treasurer. The total proceeds from the fundraising was 25,500 Ghana New Cedis which is equivalent to 255 million Old Ghana Cedis. It was decided that the Accra Chapter will open a new bank account for the use of AWA and then deposit the amount realized in that account. The Treasurer of the Accra Chapter will provide monthly report on the funds logged in the AWA account. In regards to the management and accounting for the Hostel project, the delegates recommended that we form a Project Management Team within the Accra Chapter to oversee and report on the implementation of the project. If the Executives agree on this recommendation, Accra will then appoint 3 people to manage the project. The final rendering of accounts to include all expenses incurred and subsequent reporting on the fundraising will be prepared and submitted by the Planning Committee as soon as possible. We all discussed the need to be very transparent and provide better accounting and utilization of the funds realized. We cannot, as leaders, afford to miss this fine opportunity and should strive hard to exhibit a high sense of integrity and accountability of managing this first project. It was assured that the appraisal of the project cost will be made available to all Executives for their review and endorsement before the project gets started. Apart from the monetary donations, we also received in-kind contribution of about 210 bags of cement. Again, the full report on the contributions will be disclosed later after the Committee has completed the report.

After the meeting, we all proceeded to the playground of Collins Senior High Secondary School. We played 2 soccer matches, one was for the male and the other pitched our women against each other. Others were engaged in volley ball, tennis and other games. It will interest you to learn that your President captained one of the male teams and lost narrowly by 2 goals to 1. Following the games, Nana Tuuda invited the youth to his hostel for short reception and had a pep talk with them as a source of inspiration and encouragement. Nana was overwhelmed when he saw the crowd of about 120 people.

Well, my dear friends, I think I've tried to cover a lot here this evening and expect that those who attended the functions will jump in and share their individual experiences.

We have, indeed, cleared the first hurdle and hope that we can consolidate the initiation with a super showing next year. Planning should start early for next year to ensure a greater success. The Planning Committee will be meeting soon to review the whole process and share our lessons learned so we can improve upon this year's performance.

Meanwhile, a meeting is being planned for the delegates this week end to discuss another important issue on the menace posed by the Fulani Herdsmen within the Agogo farming communities. We hope to brief you all on the outcome of that meeting which was requested by the Municipal Chief Executive of our area. I'll report on this meeting and a related one that was held on Monday at Agogo between "Agogo Development Task Force" a new group seeking the welfare and development of Agogo town. That meeting was attended by the Executives of the Accra Chapter, Executives of AYASS, and the Task Force. Stay tuned!!!

There was a video coverage for all the events and we hope to make copies available to you when they are ready. On that note, I wish to end here to allow others to join in either with comments or their own accounts of the Easter events. Thank you and

God bless us all!!!

Brotherly!

Sam Anyang-Kusi

Immediate Past President