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SOS Children’s Villages Ghana, Jossiam Company Limited commission water project for five schools in Abuakwa North
As part of efforts to provide clean and potable water for school children and the community, the SOS Children’s Villages Ghana in collaboration with Jossiam Company Limited, the Abuakwa North Municipal Assembly, Ghana Education Service, has commissioned a water pump installation project for five schools in the Abuakwa North Municipality.
The water facilities entailed a mechanized borehole, fitted with a 5000-litre water tank and a standing pipe, each for the beneficiary schools in Kukurantumi, New and Old Tafo and Obodanse.
The project would enable pupils from the beneficiary schools to have access to clean and portable drinking water, which would impact positively on their health, education and overall well-being.
The National Director of SOS Children’s Villages, Ghana, Mr Alex Mar Kekula said access to clean water was a fundamental right that shaped the destiny of communities and added that the provision of the water facility would enable the pupils to have access to clean water that would promote good health, hygiene, and create an environment for conducive learning.
“This project symbolizes our collective commitment to ensuring that every child, regardless of circumstances, has access to a fundamental resource essential for life,” he noted.
He revealed that over the years, his outfit has been a beacon of hope and support for many vulnerable children, families and communities in the country, adding that they have created not just homes for children but communities that nurtured and uplifted those in need.
He said through their Family Strengthening Project which aimed at actively empowering families to stay together and has been in existence for the past five years in the municipality, the Village has engaged in several projects including providing access to essential social services like education, health and good nutrition to 1,323 children, providing WASH facilities to 10, 579 school children in 7 schools among others in the municipality.
He said the water project was part of the many projects that have been provided by his outfit and hoped that the water facilities would have a positive impact on the lives of children and the communities
“This water project is not merely a water project, but a lifeline to schools and communities around then,” he said and called for the need to provide the essential resources for the existence of children and communities.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Abuakwa North, Alhaji Babs Bodinga said the provision of water facilities in the schools has complemented the development of the area and has expanded access to basic social services.
Commending the SOS Children’s Village, he said their contribution was worth emulating and pleaded with them to extend their projects to other parts of the municipality and urged the schools to own the water facilities and maintain them for future generations to have access to them.
The Headmaster of one of the beneficiary schools, Kukurantumi M/A JHS ‘A’, Pastor Peter Agbeko said the water facility was a relief to the schools as children previously had to go fetch water during contact hours, adding it was a challenge that impacted negatively on the pupils’ education.
He thanked the SOS Asiakwa Children’s Village for such a kind gesture and called on all stakeholders to collaborate with the schools and provide the needed infrastructure that promoted good learning environments for the pupils.
From Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, Tafo Kukurantumi
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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