South Dayi, Ghana—On September 3, 2018, UPF-Ghana organized a one-day peace education workshop for dignitaries drawn from 13 communities in the South Dayi District of Kpeve Constituency in the Volta Region of Ghana. The program was given by the secretary general of UPF Ghana, Dr. Helen Osei. It focused on two PowerPoint presentations, namely (1) UPF character education initiatives that expose the problems of today’s young people and promote the curriculum “Discovering the Real Me” as a solution, and (2) spiritual values as a foundation for leadership.
Altogether, 26 people were in attendance. They included 17 elected officials, two church pastors, one traditional ruler, one queen-mother and her attendant, the head of an NGO dealing with aquaculture skills, two supporting staff and one resource person. It began at 10:00am and ended at 2:30pm.
This workshop was initiated when a member of the DR Congo chapter of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unity, Madam Mercy Dzandza, visited her family in Ghana and upon her arrival invited her cousin to attend the UPF peace education workshop. The cousin, Honorable Dzandza, was said to have served two terms as an Assembly member in the South Dayi District of Volta Region of Ghana, under the previous government. Madam Mercy recalled that her cousin lived a selfless life during their school days, helping not only family members but everyone in their town. Therefore, she said, “lf my cousin can be well educated on the UPF curriculum of peace building, he will understand more what to do to help my people come out of previously intractable ethnic conflicts.”
Due to her concern, a private workshop was therefore organized for Honorable Dzandza on July 29, 2018. The topics treated then were: (1) the vision of peace, of “one family under God” and (2) spiritual values as a foundation for leadership. He was so moved that right after the workshop, he left for his hometown to convey his new knowledge to his district chief executive, saying that he learned something that would help transform their people. The chief was excited, too, and both began to work things out. Of course, it took more than a month to schedule the workshop due to activities at the district level, but it came through.
At the closing, the following requests were made:
- The queen-mother asked us to come back soon to train all queen-mothers in the district on how they can educate their girl-children;
- A pastor requested us to educate all people of the Peki-Dzake community;
- An assemblywoman requested an immediate three-day workshop learn how to implement the character education curriculum;
- To express it all, representatives of the 13 communities cried out to Hon. Dzandza to draw a plan for us to visit all 13 communities for education if indeed we want a peaceful future.
At the end, Honorable Dzandza was appointed an Ambassador for Peace. He thanked everyone for honoring his invitation to the workshop; then he thanked UPF for the honor and pledged to work harder in order to reach out to the rest of the districts in the Volta Region.