Driven by the spirit of volunteerism, the 2016 cohorts of the Mandela Washington Fellows in Ghana, visited Sakumono in the Tema Metropolis to clean up the Titanic beach.
The fellows recently returned from the United States on a 6-week leadership training programme under President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). The young leaders are impacting the lives of many in their various communities and at the national level but came together today, September 21 to clean up the Titanic beach as a symbolic move to get Ghanaians to keep their beaches clean.
They swept and dug up polythene bags, used disposable cups, empty bottles and other waste which were collected in dozens of big polythene bags.
The shores of the Titanic beach which serve members of the community and surrounding areas are usually left with massive filth, posing health risk to the residents and patrons who visit the beach. Some of the members of the community and staff of the US Embassy Ghana and the Little Green Hands, an organization that promotes environmental education for children, joined the YALI 2016 cohorts to ensure the beach is cleaner. They were also joined by a group from the 2015 cohort and the 2015 Senegalese cohort.
According to a member of the 2016 cohorts, Josephine Marie Godwyll, “For a lot of countries that have beaches, beaches are primary sources tourist attraction and economic gains. However it looks like Ghana is far behind because we don’t keep our beaches clean so it is important that if we are to make anything useful out of our beaches then we should keep them clean”.
Daniel Fennel, the Head of Public Affairs of the US Embassy in Ghana, who joined the YALI fellows to tidy up the beach said; “This is a beautiful thing, and I was happy to have participated in it… In the past we’ve seen people who have had an experience abroad, they’ve come back and used it for their own benefits… The Young African Leaders Initiative I think is filled with the philosophy of providing good tools for community benefit and President Obama’s experience and his philosophy with this was that, we would provide tools to find solutions.”
The group donated the cleaning materials to the Tema Municipal Assembly, to help sustain the regular cleaning of the beach.
An elated Presiding Member for the Tema Metropolitan Assembly Richard Fiadomor thanked the YALI fellows and the US Embassy for a good job done and the kind gesture and promised to use the cleaning tools to keep the Titanic beach tidy.
“The truth of the matter is that sometimes we are overwhelmed by the number of people and the filth so we thank you for the job you have done here.”
