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IWD 2023: Ohhema La Carte donates over 1,500 sanitary pads to Kayayei
Ohhema, subsidiary of La Carte LTD, in partnership with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has donated over 1,500 Ohhema! sanitary pads to Kayayos in commemoration of the 2023 International Women’s Day (IWD).
The donation and sensitization program were held under the theme, ‘Empowering Kayayos with knowledge on good feminine hygiene and reproductive health care’. 
La Carte LTD, the sole producer of Ohhema! sanitary pads, mission is to help educate young woman about the importance of menstrual hygiene and general well-being.
The programme saw Kayayos girls receive practical training on practicing good hygiene, including properly using and disposing of sanitary napkins.
Abena Dobmaah Amoanu Arthur, Project Manager for La Carte Company Limited, highlighted the importance of creating awareness on menstrual hygiene and female wellbeing.
She emphasized that “[Ohhema!] goal is to ensure that no woman or girl goes without basic sanitary materials and [our duty] is to motivate young girls to practice good hygiene. 
Our greatest interest in operation is to contribute to the creation of awareness on menstrual hygiene and female wellbeing.
As part of our obligations, we want to reach out to Kayayos girls who are obviously a greater part of the marginalized group who have a greater challenge in having access to menstrual materials,” she explained.
However, recent statistics have shown that sanitary pad taxes in Ghana have risen past 40percent, driving up the cost of sanitary pads to an exorbitant level that is difficult for adolescent girls and women with lower incomes to afford.
Consequently, she made a clarion call to the government to remove taxes on pads to make them affordable for the ordinary Ghanaian woman.
“We are urging the government to either lower the tax on sanitary pads or remove taxes altogether in light of this urgent problem. If taken into account, sanitary pads will be less expensive, allowing every young woman in the country, regardless of economic status, to afford what she needs to experience menstruation and, as a result, practice menstrual hygiene,” she said.
Mariam Mensah, Head of the Social Welfare and Community Development Department at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), applauded the collaboration with Ohhema!, which is in line with the AMA’s core function of initiating programs aimed at providing basic infrastructure for people within the assembly.
She reiterated the importance of supporting any cause that seeks to help achieve these goals.
“It is the AMA’s priority to improve the well-being and healthy living among women in the Accra metro and partnering with this initiative is one of them. We are solely in support and appreciate Ohhema! for this generous deeds,” she said.
Prior to this, there had been several discussions with the Kayayos about what they would like to do to get them off the street. The majority of them want to pursue vocational training, and the AMA is mobilizing the necessary resources to fund and assist these women in achieving their goals.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity, which calls for the recognition that each person has different circumstances, and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. Ohhema! donation and sensitization program is a step towards achieving this goal and improving the well-being and healthy living among women in the Accra metro.
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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