The Ghana Rugby Football Union on Thursday, April 22, 2021, celebrated World Earth Day with a cleanup exercise and a competition at the St Thomas Aquinas School Park in Accra.
About 200 individuals from the Ghana Rugby Football Union participated in the cleanup exercises which was followed by Barbarian men’s 7s games, a coaching clinic, and Boys /Girls 7s fun games.
The coaching clinic was done by Rafatu Inusah and Lovemore Kuzerera who are both Educators and assisted by Jason Dzata.
Speaking after the event, Rafatu Inusah who was the main organizer of the event was grateful for the efforts that the coaches of the Ghana Rugby Football Union namely Anita Atieku and Christian Apaloo exerted into the event by conveying the students from various community centres to the venue and to referees Mr Jeffery Chiwanda and assisted by Sandra Odame for a successful event.
Mrs. Inusah, a Board Member of the Ghana Rugby Football Union thanked President and Board Chairman of the Union, Herbert Mensah, Africa Rugby and Societe Generale for their incredible contributions and supports to the development of rugby in Ghana.
She also expressed gratitude to sponsors namely Sunda International, Interplast, Keda, Societe Generale, Pan African and Conserveria for supporting the event.
She said that “Product from our sponsors were shared to the participants to send home and were educated to save the Earth by making sure our environment is safe for Both humans and animals. Ghana Rugby continues to be both grateful and proud to be associated with us.”
Adding his voice was the President and Board Chairman of the Union, Herbert Mensah who said that the celebration of World Earth Day is a “testament to the seriousness in which Ghana Rugby takes the individual and collective responsibility of sports people to make a mark.”
He recounted the Union’s participation in the fight against the devastating coronavirus which has killed millions across the globe as well as their advocacies to the injustices committed against black people abroad.
“This year we have been involved in the International Women’s Day, which is important to Ghana Rugby as women’s Rugby has been pushed to the forefront in the development and now with World Earth Day, where we understand that the environment needs to be protected, we need to conscientise the youth and it was great to see the U.15’s and other GIR (Getting Into Rugby) youth, led by Board Member Rafatu lnusah and supported by members of the Ghana Rugby clubs and union involved in clean up campaigns as well as getting involved in Rugby at different levels” Mr. Mensah added.
” We are committed to been involved in anything that brings about change for the better, irrespective of gender, religion or ethnicity; it is critical and yesterday, today we celebrated with the kind of respect that is always been the case with Ghana Rugby.”
World Earth Day
April 22 every year is observed as Earth Day across the globe and people and major stakeholders take part in civic activities and work towards raising awareness about critical issues that the Earth is facing.
Global warming, pollution and deforestation are some of the problems routinely discussed since they pose a major threat to nature. Over 1 billion people spread across 192 countries participate in Earth Day activities each year. This makes the day as the largest civic observance in the world.
The theme this year is “Restore Our Earth” and its focus is on natural processes, emerging green technologies and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems. And therefore, the theme also rejects the belief that only mitigation and adaptation are the ways to address climate change.
