Student World Assembly would like to congratulate SWA-Ghana on their successful participation in Ghana’s Panafest 2005. The Panafest Festival was inspired by “Proposal for a Historical Drama Festival in Cape Coast,” a paper written in 1980 by Dr. Efua Sutherland, a distinguished Ghanaian dramatist and Pan-Africanist. In 1991, the idea gained popularity and took shape, becoming the Pan-African Historical Theater Festival or Panafest. This year’s Panafest theme was “Re-Uniting the African Family in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS,” and SWA-Ghana was a very active participant in the 8 days celebration.

On July 24th, SWA-Ghana joined the masquerade parade through the principal streets of Cape Coast, which ended at the Adisadel College Park, distributing handbills about SWA and tracts about HIV/AIDS in an effort to continue in its work of creating awareness and open dialogue.

On July 29th, the Women’s Day Colloquium was one of the programs where SWA-Ghana also showcased its potential. After the formal presentations, a question and answer segment with SWA-Ghana members gave the event more color. SWA-Ghana provided human resources and materials for organizing the program and was also able to secure a sponsorship package from Yes Mineral Water and Voltic Mineral Water. That day’s speakers included Ms. Aku Xornam Adzraku of the Plan Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), and a volunteer for SWA-Ghana on reproductive and health matters, as well as other speakers from the Diaspora. The Special Guest Honor for the occasion was her Excellency the 2nd Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Present also was the Chairman of Ghana Aids Commission Professor Sekyi. SWA-Ghana was applauded for its innovation, creativity and hard work in helping to organize the program.

On the 30th of July, SWA-Ghana was invited to participate in a conference on human trafficking and HIV/AIDS in Cape Coast Castle. The conference was organized by Youth for Human Rights Iinternational. SWA-Ghana’s contributions helped create a lively discussion, adding to their success with the program. Present at the conference were students from Seattle and Washington Universities, to whom SWA-Ghana was also introduced. All participants and officials promised future collaborations with SWA-Ghana as major partners.

August 1st, Emancipation Day, was dedicated to the distribution of a message of goodwill from Mr. Paul Raynault, founder of Student World Assembly, and to networking with participants of Panafest. Because of SWA-Ghana’s continuous efforts to share the goals of Student World Assembly with those around them, they were able to establish contacts with the Panafest Foundation, the Ghana AIDS Commission, Youth for Human Rights, Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, Students from the Diaspora, International Union of Anthropological & Ethnological Sciences and Saving Lives Through Alternative Optics.

Student World Assembly would again like to congratulate SWA-Ghana on their successful participation in yet another national event and would like to extend a warm thank you in their continuing work to educate and facilitate open dialogues on important issues, particularly at the national level.

Click hereto view more photos of the event

Congratulations to the Student World Assembly-Ghana as they were selected to participate in this years International Youth Leadership Conference (IYLC) at the Apeadu Peace Center in Aburi in Ghana.

The one week event, which was held from August 1st – 8th, focused on peace building, conflict transformation, leadership and democratic governance, and was organized under the auspices of the Apeadu Peace Center (Ghana), Children of the Earth (USA), and the Office of the Special Representative of the Adivisor of the United Nations Secretary General on Children in Armed Conflict (New York, USA).

SWA-Ghana presented a delegation of eight participants who took part in the various discussions of the conference, focusing primarily on Cooperate Power, Democracy and the Niger Crisis, which was a topic that was raised by SWA-Ghana at the conference. This same chapter contributed what many felt was the most interesting and participatory part of the conference, the Participatory Learning Activity (PLA) on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Varied ideas on how youth could help achieve the MDGs came out and were documented. This coincided nicely with the climax of the discussion, a presentation on the “Save the Rural Dweller’’ Project, a practical tool on how the Youth can achieve the MGDs through volunteerism. The outcome of which was the enthusiastic and immediate volunteering by many individuals participating in the conference.

The Student World Assembly Ghana also deserves recognition for their participation in a youth event that followed the IYLC, the Youth Day Celebration. At this event, SWA-Ghana made a presentation on combating unemployment and encouraging innovative youth entrepreneurial ventures by informing participants about its plan to get a resource centre for research, information, training, capacity building and securing of grants for prospective applicants. Virtually all participants gave asked to be part of the creative initiative to be undertaken by SWA-Ghana.

August has been a very productive month for Student World Assembly-Ghana and we wish them well on the outcome of their projects. Best wishes and good luck!

Click hereto view more photos of the event