When I arrived in Tafo after six days of hard cycling I was too tired to appreciate the welcome speech given to the cyclist by one of the village elders. Fortunately the ever-resouceful Humphrey Barclay (aka Nana Nkosuohene, Tafo's development chief) has just emailed me the text, which I am publishing here to remind me that it was all worthwhile and, if ever I am feeling down, to count my blessings.
DURBAR IN
HONOUR OF “GO GHANA
CHALLENGE“ CYCLISTS
WELCOME ADDRESS
BY THE
VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE KWAHU TAFO PROGRESS COUNCIL, MR.J.BARIMAH-NKANSAH
7TH
OCTOBER 2011
Mr.Chairman,
Nananom,
Hon.Deputy
Minister of Tourism,
Hon. District
Chief Executive, Kwahu East,
“Go Ghana
Challenge” Cyclists,
Distinguished
Guests,
Executives and
Members of the Progress Council,
My Dear Pupils
and Students,
Ladies and
Gentlemen.
I have the
singular privilege and honour of welcoming all of you our cherished guests from
various parts of Ghana to this durbar and to ask you in turn, to join me in
welcoming the brave young men and women into our midst today.
These gallant
youths, on in arrival in Ghana
by air, undertook an adventurous bicycle journey of some 250 miles from Elmina
in the Central Region to Kwahu Tafo here in the Eastern Region. To many of our
heroic guests, this may be their first visit to Ghana
and probably the continent of Africa, and I am
sure they are as excited as we are in having them with us today.
On behalf of
the Kwahu Tafo Progress Council, and indeed of all Ghanaians here assembled, I
wish to extend a hearty welcome to you, our “Go Ghana Challenge” Cyclists, to
Kwahu Tafo and to Ghana.
We don’t have
much to show and our facilities are not among the best. But I can assure you
that during your brief stay here, the little you will see and experience will
give you a lot to talk about back at home and leave you with such memories as
you would not like to forget for many years to come.
We wish to
express profound appreciation and gratitude to you for participating in the
Cycle Challenge to help raise funds in aid of the Progress Council’s programme
to provide clean, fresh, and safe drinking water for our community.
The Kwahu Tafo
Progress Council exists for the total development of this community.
In pursuance of
this objective, we undertake development in such crucial areas as Education,
Health-care, Water and Sanitation, rehabilitation of the disabled and skills
training among many other projects aimed at improving the quality of life of
our people.
We are doing
our best to be self-supporting, but for the moment our projects are in the main
donor-funded. Through our parent NGO ”Friends Of Tafo”(FOT) in the UK, funds are sourced from charitable
organisations, institutions, groups, and individuals like you who are touched
by the plight of their fellow human beings on our part of the globe, and
transferred to us to carry out our programmes.
Your heroic and
noble deed is highly commendable and a demonstration of the love our Lord Jesus
Christ enjoined us to show to our neighbours. Apart from raising funds to pay
your air fares, you risked your lives on this hazzardous 253-mile bicycle
journey. You were exposed to the danger of being knocked down by some reckless
drivers on the high-ways, riding through unfriendly weather of the hot African
sun and sometimes torrential rain. You also had to traverse rocky, sandy or
muddy ground, sometimes slipping and falling with your bicycles before finally
arriving to that hilarious welcome by the enthusiastic and expectant crowd at
the outskirts of Tafo this afternoon.
All this you
did for the love of people you didn’t even know. This is genuine love, for
which we cannot thank you adequately. We ask the Almighty God to bless you
throughout your lives, and grant you perfect peace and joy to continue working
for the good of mankind. You surely have a place on our list of benefactors.
As you visit
places of interest and interact with our enthusiastic youth and opinion
leaders, feel free to learn as much of our culture as you can, and enjoy the
proverbial Ghanaian hospitality.
Finally when
you leave for home, carry with you the hearts of the hundreds of people you
have toiled to provide better living conditions for, and then carry Kwahu Tafo
and Ghana back with you to England, Malaysia
and Sweden.
I cannot end
this address without a word of gratitude to Nana Nkosuohene for the pivotal
role he played in this whole programme. He originated the idea of the “Go Ghana
Cycle Challenge”, and for some two years he and his able assistant Akuamoah
Boateng worked out all the arrangements, both in Ghana and abroad, that made the
trip of our gallant and benevolent cyclists possible. This is another feather in your cap, Nana,
and we are grateful to you and “Boat”, as well as the Ministry of Tourism, for
the success of this beneficial trip. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Minister. Please kindly convey our sincere gratitude to
the Minister and the Government for their co-operational assistance.
In conclusion,
Mr Chairman, permit me to use this platform to appeal to Government to consider
tapping the tourism potential of Kwahu Tafo and its environs to help accelerate
the pace of
development in our communities and Ghana as a whole.
Once again, to
all of you, I say AKWAABA!
Thank you.
