The Church of Pentecost on Saturday, February 29, 2020, embarked on a massive clean-up exercise throughout the country. The exercise brought the about 2.7million members of the church in Ghana to the streets of the various communities, towns, and cities in what was described as the biggest and all-round clean-up exercise in Ghana.
Dubbed ‘Nationwide Environmental Care Campaign,’ the initiative is an effort by the church to partner with the government and Zoomlion Ghana Limited to ensure a clean Ghana.
The Saturday’s clean-up exercise which took place in all the administrative districts of the church in Ghana numbering over 1,450, saw some chiefs, Muslim clerics, Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), Parliamentarians, Assembly Members, among others, participating in it.
At the various places, choked gutters were desilted, weeds were cleared, refuse dumps were evacuated, and filth swept at places like lorry parks, hospitals, market places, major streets, and other public places, giving relief to residents of the affected communities.
The Chairman of the church, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, joined the members in Madina Area to clean the Madina Market and its environs. He was joined by the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Hon. Elizabeth Sackey, the International Missions Director of the church, Apostle Emmanuel Gyesi-Addo, and the Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group, Elder Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, among other personalities.
The General Secretary of the church, Apostle Alexander Nana Yaw Kumi-Larbi, also joined the Roman Ridge District in the Ayawaso West Municipality to clean the Airport City area.
Speaking to the media after the exercise, the Chairman of the church, Apostle Eric Nyamekye, said the Lord has placed it on the heart of the leadership of the church to lead a national crusade against littering and abuse of the environment. This, he said, is to complement the government’s efforts in waging a way against insanitary conditions in Ghana.
He explained that the church’s Environmental Care Campaign was launched in 2018 as part of the 5-year strategic vision of the church to use its platforms to educate members about the need to preserve the environment. He, however, said that the church decided to take the campaign a step forward by engaging various stakeholders in the country such as government and its agencies, traditional authorities, the media, faith-based organisations including the Muslim community in order to involve a lot more people in the campaign to clean Ghana.
The Chairman urged the citizenry to come on board to support the effort of the government and the waste management companies to clean Ghana, because government alone cannot do it.
“This campaign is not a Church of Pentecost matter; everybody should come on board because mosquitoes, for instance, do not know a Pentecost member or non-Pentecost member, a politician or ordinary citizen; we are all at risk,” he said.
Apostle Nyamekye called on the state authorities to enforce the environmental bye-laws so as to sustain the effort of making Ghana a clean place.
“We as a church have intensified public education on environmental cleanliness so that every Ghanaian would do the right thing to preserve the environment. If we all change our negative attitudes towards the environment, Ghana would become a better place.
“I believe that this campaign would serve as a wake-up call to the government to do more to safeguard our environment and natural resources. If you want to make Ghana or Accra the cleanest city in Africa, then government should show more commitment,” he stresed.
Apostle Nyamekye further advised government to collaborate with all stakeholders to put some preventive measures in place to avert the annual floodings in Accra and other places. He called for proper planning and sitting of shops and buildings in the city.
The Church of Pentecost is a leading indigenous Ghanaian global church in over 100 countries across the world. As part of its 5-year strategic vision, dubbed ‘Vision 2023,’ the church has initiated programmes to build a number of police stations across the country, correctional facilities to decongest the nation’s prisons, construct borehole water facilities in deprived communities, and engage in environmental care campaign to keep Ghana clean, among other church-state partnership programmes.
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