On the 10^th of April, 2016, IDEAS for Ghana-University of Cape Coast (UCC) chapter had a meeting to plan the launch of an essay competition on their environmental sanitation workshop. The meeting was attended by seven (7) members. The national coordinator for IDEAS for Ghana, Joshua Amponsem was available through voice call.

 

The workshop was for primary and junior high schools in the communities around the university to educate the younger generation on the importance of environmental sanitation and its effects if not practised and as a way to check the progress of the workshop, IDEAS for University of Cape Coast have decided to organise an essay writing competition for the schools that took part in the workshop.

With Isaac Abugri as the chairman, the meeting began with a prayer from Justice Atakora. The meeting agenda was outlined by Joshua Amponsem launch, topic for the essay competition, prizes to be awarded to winners, companies and groups that can help in sponsorship, deadline for submission of essays and date for presentation of prizes.

On the issue of the launch, it was agreed that letters should be sent to the participating schools, just as it was done for the workshop, so that the teachers will announce the competition to the pupils - in the presence of some IDEAS for UCC members. This came up due to the fact that, the schools will be vacating this week and so there is not enough time to organize all the schools in one place. Besides, the pupils are writing their examination.

On the issue of the topic for the essay competition, it was decided that since the workshop involved both primary and junior high schools, it will be inappropriate for both the primary and junior high school pupils to have the same topic and so different topics were selected for the primary pupils and the junior high school pupils. For the topic for the primary, we settled on ?write an essay on the topic, our environment and personal hygiene (300-500 words)? and for the junior high school, ?write an article on the topic, our environment, lets protect it (500-800 words)?.

The following will be the prizes for the winners:

        Basic environmental text books, pens and pencils.

        Certificate.

      Cash prize (GHc200, GHc150 and GHc100 for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd positions respectively).

       Waste bins for participating schools.

On the issue of companies and groups to which we can seek sponsorship, we decided that the following academic departments within the University of Cape Coast will be contactedEnvironmental Science, Early Childhood and Water and Sanitation. It was also decided that banks on campus and the Student Representative Council (SRC) will be contacted as well.

The deadline for submission and the date for presentation of prizes was set for the 13^th may, 2016 and 23^rd may, 2016 respectively.

We hope to transform the attitude of children towards their environment, health and sanitation through this project. If you wish to support, kindly contact Tunza Ambassador to Ghana, Joshua Amponsem, who is also the national coordinator for IDEAS For Ghana.  Thank you.

Written by

Isaac Abugri

IDEAS for University of Cape Coast.