The Church of Pentecost, Achimota Area, has launched an environmental care campaign to rid of Achimota community and its environs of filth and indiscriminate waste disposal.
The campaign themed: “Environmental Care, My Responsibility,” is aimed at rallying members of the church to improve the level of sanitation in the area and the country as a whole.
The event, held at Achimota Central, was attended by the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Elizabeth Sackey, pastorate, officers, traditional authorities, officials of Zoomlion, market queens and other stakeholders. In all, over 1,500 people were in attendance.
Launching the campaign, the Achimota Area Head of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle David Tettey Tekper, said the campaign seeks to instill in members the discipline to be physically responsible and involved in the care and cleaning of the environment.
“As a church, we have made it a policy each year to identify an issue of national concern and the Environmental Care Campaign is one of the many Church-State ventures captured in our Chairman and Executive Council’s Vision 2023,” he stated.
According to him, the country’s environmental challenges could not be insurmountable, adding that, with efficient and effective collaboration, the canker could be addressed. In December last year, the Achimota Area in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency organized a day’s seminar on noise making at Amasaman. This event was attended by over 200 officers and the pastorate from the area.
Apostle Tekper said the Area shall adopt a holistic approach of combating sanitation problem in the area, disclosing that, a massive clean-up exercise in all the 22 various districts in the Achimota Area would be organised on Saturday February 2, 2019 from 7:00am-9:00am.
“The various local assemblies will also organise clean-up exercises monthly and we intend to collaborate with the Municipal Assemblies and Zoomlion officials to rid-off the city of Accra of filth,” he explained.
Apostle Tekper emphasised that the ‘Environmental Care Campaign’ is planned to be tackled in four main categories: Education, Clean-up, Community-based initiatives and other activities.
With regards to education, he said that the Church shall focus on attitudinal change as it highlights on some unhealthy practices that contribute to environmental degradation such as open defecation, noise pollution, improper disposal of waste, poor handling of pests and domestic animals, and unfriendly environmental-means of livelihood.
“We shall also seek to educate our members and the general public on the existing environmental by-laws through the traditional and social media networks,” he stressed.
On clean-up exercise, the Achimota Area Head indicated that the approach is to instill in members, the discipline to be physically responsible and involved in the care and cleaning of the environment.
Touching on community-based initiatives, he noted that various levels of the Church will be made to identify community-based initiatives related to the environment and pursue them.
He said as parts of efforts of embarking on impactful clean-up exercises, the Achimota Area has been divided into four zones namely Achimota, Dome, Taifa, Pokuase-Amasaman and Medie zones. Zonal Co-ordinators have been appointed for the aforementioned zones.
Overseer Felix Dela Klutse has been appointed Area Co-ordinator for the campaign. The other Co-ordinators are Elder Martinson Koffie Yeboah (Achimota Zone), Elder Collins Nartey (Dome Zone), Elder Emmanuel Omane Bimpong (Taifa Zone), Elder Alex Nartey (Pokuase-Amasaman Zone) and Elder Isaac Acheampong (Medie Zone).
The Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Elizabeth Sackey, lauded the church for the campaign and asked other churches in the country to emulate it. She said the government is ever ready to partner the church in its quest to rid the community of filth and indiscriminate waste disposal.
The Chairman of The Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye, officially launched the Environmental Care Campaign at the national level on November 22, 2018 in Accra.
The national launch was attended by the Minister of Sanitation, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Members of Parliament, the Chief of Staff, AMA Mayor, Zoomlion officials, key stakeholders in the private sector, as well as the Pastorate from The Church of Pentecost.
Following the successful launch at the national level, the Areas in the Church are also expected to launch theirs and subsequently embarked on a massive clean-up exercise. Zoomlion shall be providing personnel and equipment during the various clean up exercises across the nation.
