Go Ghana Challenge - a final word from Tafo

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

                                            

7^TH 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.