By: Rachel Kakraba
It was a Father’s Appreciation Day celebration to remember for some community members of Adum Banso in the Mpohor district of the Western Region.
Community members particularly, Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs were treated to good food, music, entertainment and sports to climax the community’s activities to mark this year’s Father’s Appreciation Day celebration.
This was a special interest charitable, values creation, impact and purpose driven and transformation-oriented Father’s Appreciation Day celebration and networking event.
The ceremony was to engage, support, motivate, entertain, rejuvenate and impact lives of community members especially Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs.
The programme dubbed “EPIK Social Good Fest”, Elizabeth Pinsan and Isaiah Kakraba (EPIK) Community Father’s Appreciation Day Event”, was to honour fathers for their sacrifices and contributions towards their families.
The event which had a special focus on Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs, provided a sense of belonging to these marginalised group to fraternise and have an understanding of what it means to be loved and recognized by society.
The event was organised by an indigene of Adum Banso who is a Tourism professional, Social Entrepreneur, Founder/CEO of the Social Enterprise, Kra Travel (Kra Integrated Solutions Ltd) and former Immigration Officer, Mr. Kwamena Aduonin Kakraba, and his siblings.
It was to in honour their late father Mr. Isaiah Kakraba who died on Father’s Day, June 20th 2021, as well as to celebrate their mother madam Elizabeth Pinsan.
The maiden edition of the event commenced with a sports/health (PT, keep fit, walk and float) activity through some major streets in the area. Which not surprisingly, and rightly so, attracted scores of people from diverse backgrounds who walked, exercised and danced to some good music that amplified the program which is expected to become an annual event.
And indeed, for persons like Mr. Samuel Eshun (a.k.a Iron), Mr. Michael Wonder Adzigbey, and many other Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs, their physical or natural developmental disability and/or challenges would not stop them from participating and engaging fully in all aspects of the event which was conceptualized, developed and introduced with Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs in mind.
Addressing the headline activity of the event, which was a courtesy reception for Person Living with Disability and Special Needs, the Chief of Adum Banso and Benkumhene of Wassa-Fiase Traditional Area, Nana Quandoh Brempong III, noted that Father’s Day has not received its pride of place in society.
He commended organisers of the programme for instituting the EPIK Social Good Fest event.
“Father’s Day celebration hasn’t received its pride of place in society generally in Ghana and particularly within our community Adum Banso. I’m therefore very happy this year’s celebration has been of a great difference which I know for many fathers gathered here will be memorable. We appreciate the efforts of the organisers for this event which has brought smiles to many faces here”
On his part, the Founder/CEO of Kra Travel (Kra Integrated Solutions Ltd), Mr. Kwamena Aduonin Kakraba, indicated he is extremely passionate about issues of Persons with Disability and Special Needs. He said the death of his father on Father’s Day, dawned on him to honour fathers on the day without losing focus of Persons living with Disability and Special Nees.
“I always had in mind plans to organize a gathering of this nature especially for Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs in Adum Banso and Mpohor district as I have already started doing elsewhere on World Tourism Day. However, I had not come to a conclusion on the date for the event. Losing my dad on a special occasion such as Father’s Appreciation Day resolved the confusion I had in my mind to settle on this special day. It is therefore the reason we are gathered here today but of course, with greater attention to Persons Living with Disability and Special Needs in this town. I must add that invariably, all this is to honour my late dad, Mr. Isaiah Kwasi Kakraba”.
Mr. Kakraba said the event would be sustained to help boost special interest inbound, outbound, domestic, community, local, country side, eco and rural tourism, travel, vacation, holidays and hospitality within the Mpohor district and in particular, Adum Banso.
Recognition/Awards to best students
Special Awards and undisclosed amount of money were given to two top students of BOPP primary and Junior High school where Mr. Kwamena Aduonin Kakraba and his siblings were former students.
They explained that, the special award/recognition is in fulfilment of their commitments to give back and inspire students of their former school to greater heights in all fields of human endeavors.
Significantly, winners of the maiden special recognition/award, Master Isaac Ayeiyi Bukoro and Faustina Mensah are both indigenes of Adum Banso.
A former student of BOPP School, Mr. Solomon Nkrumah, also gave a brief nostalgic historical background of BOPP school and mentioned names of some illustrious indigenes of Adum Banso who are also former students of the school.
About Kra Travel (Kra Integrated Solutions Ltd)
Kra Travel is an indigenous Ghanaian private sector Social Enterprise (SE) that provides private sector tourism, travel, hospitality, destination, events, business and projects conceptualization, development, planning, management, and many more.