The Most Rev. Philip Naameh, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, has appealed to residents of the Tamale Metropolis to donate their E-Wastes for recycling or proper waste management to avoid becoming victims of the harmful substances that they contain.
The Archbishop made the appeal when he blessed and inaugurated an Electronic (E-Waste) Collection Centre at the premises of the Archdiocesan Catholic Secretariat in Tamale on March 4. The facility was provided with the support of the Embassy of France in Ghana.
The inauguration of the facility, the third of its kind in the Archdiocese, the Archbishop is “very appropriate as this year (2020), marks the 5th anniversary of Laudato Si as the Church globally, celebrates Laudato Si Week and the Season of Creation in May and September, respectively.”
The other two E-Waste Collection Centres in the Archdiocese of Tamale are located at the Holy Cross and Saints Peter and Paul Parishes in Tamale.
E-Waste refers to a wide-range of domestic and IT appliances or gadgets powered by electricity that has reached its end point of life and has thus been discarded because it is too old, spoilt or damaged. They include air-conditioners, refrigerators, television sets, washing machines, computers, vacuum cleaners, mobile phones, dryers, microwaves, musical instruments, etc.
Implemented by Caritas Ghana, the E-Waste campaign is inspired by the encyclical, “Laudato Si” in which Pope Francis critiques consumerism and irresponsible development and laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls on humanity to protect the environment from destruction.
Speaking to the media after the launch, Samuel Zan Akologo, Executive Secretary of Caritas Ghana, explained that under the campaign which is being undertaken in partnership with City Waste Recycling Limited, a number of unemployed youth would be engaged as E-Waste Collectors in six parishes in the Archdiocese which would benefit from the provision of the facilities. He stressed that the selection would be done impartially regardless of one’s faith.
He added that Caritas Ghana would also collaborate with the Northern Region Peace Council to similarly employ other young people who in the recent past have been used by politicians and political parties to foment trouble, especially during electioneering, thus contributing to eliminating “vigilantism” which has plagued our political landscape for many years now.
He lamented that some of these youngsters have become traumatized, even more so as the Vigilantism and Other Offence Act, which bans “vigilantism” or violent acts associated with politics, has been passed by the Parliament of Ghana.
The Caritas Ghana E-Waste Project, titled: “Care for Our Common Home”, was launched on a pilot basis in Accra, in October, 2017, to heighten awareness among the populace, to collect, dismantle and recycle E-Waste in an orderly manner and to train unemployed young people in the professional handling of E-Waste, thus opening up future employment prospects for them.
The inauguration ceremony was witnessed by a number of priests of the Archdiocese including Rev. Fr. Sebastian Zaato, the Archdiocesan Director of Caritas, Rev. Fr. Cyprian Kuupol, the Provincial Superior-Elect of the SVD, (Ghana-Liberia) Province, Rev. Fr. Joseph N. O. Sackey, the Archdiocesan Director of the Department of Pastoral and Social Communications, as well as some staff of the Archdiocesan Catholic Secretariat, among others.
Source: Francis E. Monnie//Newstachgh.com
