Navrongo (UE), Jan 2, GNA - Pe Dennis Aneakwoa Belinia Adda, Paramount Chief of the Navrongo Traditional area has commended the Presentation Brothers of West Africa Province for contributing significantly to the formative stages of the youth in the region.
The Paramount Chief made the commendation during the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Presentation Brothers of the West Africa Province of the Catholic Church held at the Navrongo Minor Basilica in the Upper East Region.
The occasion which attracted religious men and women from the Catholic faith across the country, traditional rulers and elders, the youth, the Presentation Brothers of the West Africa Province including; those from the United States of America was on the theme” The Lord has done great things for me, Holy is His Name”
Recounting the roles played by the Presentation Brothers of West Africa Province to the socio-economic development of the area and the region as a whole, the Paramount Chief explained that the group arrived in Navrongo in Northern Ghana in 1968 on the invitation of the then Bishop of Navrongo.
He said they constituted themselves into the teaching staff of Saint John Bosco's Teacher Training College of Education, now Saint Bosco University Collage, which was founded by the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers).
“With the determination to succeed and the goodwill of the staff and students of Bosco Teacher Training College, they left footprints. Apart from the Presentation Brothers teaching most of the youth and giving them formative training to becoming teachers, majority of them they taught are now legal Practitioners, Medical Doctors and Engineers contributing to the growth of the entire nation and at the international levels as well”, he indicated.
Pe Adda who entreated other Christian faith-based organisations in the country to emulate the works of the Presentation Brothers mentioned that apart from their contribution to put up school infrastructure and stocking them with educational materials including furniture, they were also teaching academic and moral education in many schools across many communities in the region.
Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, the Bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese of the Catholic Church, stated that the Catholic Church was happy that the over 30 young energetic Presentation Brothers continued to spread the Presentation vision of love, justice and peace.
He said the theme for the occasion taken from Luke 1:49 was appropriate since the group over the years spanned their activities to many nations including Nigeria and Ghana.
The Most Reverend Agyenta who encouraged the Presentation Brothers to continue to shine in their work, mentioned despondency, desperation, selfishness and greed as well as the spate of indiscipline among the youth as some of the major drawbacks to the development of the nation, and urged them to help address the problems.
Brother Francis Agoah, the Provincial Leader of the Presentation Brothers gave the assurance that the group would reach out to each child to enable them to discover their potentials and talents, and called on parents to ensure that they sent their children to school.
He stated that as a Province, the Presentation Brothers could not continue to rely on the generosity of their kind benefactors forever and therefore called on members of the church to be proactive in finding means of generating financial and manpower needs of the society to attain its vision.
He explained that Presentation Brothers was an international Catholic congregation of religious brothers, founded in 1802 in Ireland by Blessed Edmund Rice and today operates in Canada, England, Ghana, Grenada, Ireland, Nigeria, and the United States.
“The mission of the Presentation Brothers is 'forming Christ in the Young' and the work of the group has a strong focus on developing the Christian faith of young people today.” he explained.
As part of the activities marking the celebration, the group launched a 58-page magazine which talks about 50 years of the Presentation Brothers activities in Ghana. The amount that would be raised from the sale of the 58–page magazine would be used to support the building of a Jubilee Modern Library Complex for Students and Teachers.
GNA
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