Day: April 9, 2023

The Community Aid for Rural Deve lopment (CARD)-Ghana, has called on males to lead the campaign for female leadership in their communities as females have the potential to contribute meaningfully to community and national development.

It said some girls and young women shunned leadership roles both in institutions and in the communities due to some social and cultural norms and values that discouraged female leadership.

Miss Leenat Abdul-Rahaman, the Executive Director of CARD-Ghana, made the call during a training workshop for She-Leads Male Champions in Wa organised by CARD-Ghana as part of the She-Leads project implementation.

She-Leads is a five-year project (2021-2025) that seeks to increase the sustained influence of girls young women on decision-making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions that hinders female leadership.

The project is being implemented in the Upper West Region by CARD-Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana to advocate for increased acceptance of girls and young women leadership and their inclusion in decision-making processes at all levels.

Miss Abdul-Rahaman said as part of efforts to encourage girls and young women to take up leadership roles, CARD-Ghana was supporting instrumental females who had expressed interest in taking up leadership positions in both mainstream and students’ politics saying, ‘that does not mean we are supporting any political party.’

She urged participants to share the knowledge gained at the workshop with other members of the team in their communities to help ensure the success of the project.

Participants were educated on the provisions of some legal frameworks that protected the rights of women and girls.

They were the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and the Children’s Act of Ghana.

In her presentation on the legal frameworks, Madam Charity Batuure, the Upper West Regional Director of the Department of Gender, noted that it was against the law for any woman or girl to be taken through any form of degrading treatment and discrimination.

She urged parents to take interest in the welfare of their children and to listen to their concerns saying, ‘if you don’t listen to them, they will do things in their own ways and the results will not be good.’

She stressed the need for issues of concern to children’s development to be included in policy formulations adding that, ‘the healthy development of the child is crucial to the future well-being of every society.’

On her part, Pognaa Amaamata, Mumuni, the Queen Mother of Duori, a suburb of Wa, who made a presentation on gender, urged the participants to put in conscious efforts to ensure women stood par with their men counterparts.

She said this could be achieved through ensuring women’s accessed resources such as land, and involvement in decision-making among others since the absence of that led to discrimination against women and widened inequalities between men and women.

The participants expressed commitment to ensure that barriers against women leadership at the community level were removed.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Reverend Johnnie Titus Kwame Kuzagbe, the lead Pastor of Rhema Basilica Assemblies of God at Mataheko-Redrow Estate, has reminded Christians that Christ did not come to save the righteous, but to deliver sinners from their bondage.

He said the scriptures had explicitly indicated in Romans 3:23 that ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,’ but it was the blood of Jesus Christ that cleansed all inequities, making all righteous before him.

Rev. Kuzagbe, who was delivering his Easter message, said Jesus Christ came to save the world but not to condemn it, hence his death brought deliverance to the oppressed.

He encouraged Christians to pray for the ability to discern between good and evil, stressing that although human beings had limitations, that should not prevent them from seeking Jesus Christ.

Rev. Kuzagbe used the occasion to clarify the misconception that the Christian community hated LGBTQ+, saying ‘we have a stand as believers, we don’t hate them, but the sins they are committing is what we are condemning’.

He said the practice was hated by God because he created male and female to co-habit by the stand of the Holy Bible, and not what was currently projected by these practitioners.

However, he said, Christ loved them and encouraged Christians to reach out to them.

Mr Tweneboa-Koduah Kusi, the President of Assemblies of God Campus Ministry, also encouraged students now on vacation to limit their funfair during the festive season and join other Christians to evangelise to persons, who were yet to come to the saving knowledge of Christ in their respective communities, to save their souls from eternal damnation.

He advised the youth to use their strength to evangelise to the world, warning that a time would come, that they would no longer be able to actively do that due to their failed strength.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Reverend Dr Daniel Sackitey, the Vice Principal of the Evangelical Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Peki, has entreated Christians to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice Christ for mankind through his crucifixion, death and resurrection and to conform.

He said the message of Easter, in these challenging times, could serve as a source of comfort and inspiration such that just as Jesus overcame death and rose from the tomb, believers could overcome any trials that life threw at them and emerge stronger and more resilient.

Rev Sackitey, who was delivering a sermon on Easter Sunday on the theme: ‘Christ has Risen Indeed,’ said Christians must appreciate the significance of Easter and to renew their faith in the power of its hope and newness.

He called on all Christians to partner with Church leaders to carry the gospel to all places, saying, ‘no barrier should be a limitation and excuses cannot be countenanced.’

‘Let us strive above our collective weaknesses to witness Christ, go and break the news that Christ has indeed risen,’ he said.

Rev. Sackitey entreated Christians to set their minds on things of Heaven and depart from negative practices such as murder, involvement in corruptible tendencies, fornication, blatant lies, stealing and armed robbery that defiled their physical bodies.

He said the human body had become more complicated in contemporary times and going contrary to Biblical prescriptions on marriage with significant use of alphabets to differentiate shades of sexual orientation becoming acceptable norms.

Rev. Sackitey condemned LGBTQI+ practices, and said when the Bill in Parliament was passed into law, it would bring clarity to the issues in relation to the position of the State.

He, however, said the inaction of the Church towards assisting activists and reshaping the lives of practitioner of these negative practices both at the home and community level was worrying.

He acknowledged the role of women and commended those who had devoted themselves to the work of God and to societal development.

Tracing it to the biblical era, he cited Mary Magdalene, who played a leading role in breaking the news of Christ’s resurrection, while others had also been acknowledged for dedicating their material, spiritual and physical resources to promote the growth of the Church, God’s work and societal development.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Reverend Ebenezer Ayer, Head Pastor, Priesthood Worship Centre (PWC) Assemblies of God Tema Community Six, has stressed the need for Christians to rely constantly on the blood, especially in times of difficulty.

He said the Blood of Jesus still spoke for the people who believe in it irrespective of their background, stressing that there was active fighting for those who called upon it.

Taking the scriptures from Leviticus 17:11, and Hebrews 9:22, he said there was life in the blood and only those who believed would benefit from it.

Rev. Ayer was speaking during Easter Sunday and said Jesus’ death on the cross was to benefit all Christians who would accept Him as the Lord and personal saviour and charged Christians not to react to any mockery against the death of Christ.

He said one encounter with Jesus Christ must immediately change them from certain unacceptable attitudes and behaviours wherever they found themselves.

Rev. Ayer said right from the book of Genesis, the Bible highlighted the importance of blood sacrifice to God by killing live animals to atone for their sins and other reasons.

Source: Ghana News Agency