Patrons
of the just ended Zone 3 qualifier of the ongoing MILO® U-13 Champions league
have advised Corporate Ghana to emulate Nestle MILO®’s countless effort in
developing grass root soccer in Ghana.
Addressing
participating schools and spectators at the closing ceremony of the Zone 3
qualifier of the at the Adisadel School Park, various speakerstook turn to
enumerate the importance of Corporate Ghana to team up with organizations such
as the Ghana Education Service (GES) to draw up programmes and events that will
help development raw talents to feed the various National teams in the country.
Inspired by two of the most inspirational people I have met. My dad Ian Main, who passed away when I was 11 years old at the age of 38 and 31 year old Alem Mumuni, Ghana’s
first ever Paralympic Cyclist. Two of life's most humble and
compassionate people with a determination to always do their best and an
incredible passion for cycling.
I need to raise £2500 to get Alem to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games by June 12th 2016
Alem Mumuni made history in 2012 by becoming the first para-cyclist from Ghana to qualify for the Paralympic Games.
The year 2016 is a very critical one for Alem Mumuni as he prepares to
represent Ghana at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as the
only Paracyclist.
My article, “I
see Zenator Rawlings becoming Ghana’s president”, is still reigning as the most
discussed article, and currently the second most read piece on the publishers
website Peacefmonline.com after four weeks of publication. It is pleasing to
note that my last three articles have all performed incredibly so well, that
“Akuffo Addo reloading Atta Mills” still ranks 4th most read, and
second most discussed article, while “Rawlings and the making of Bishop
Obinnim” is still 3rd most read, and 4th most discussed
story, with the first two maintaining their reign as the most emailed stories.
I can only thank you, my followers for believing in me, and seeing value in
what I write.
By Philip Otuo,
Photos from the Maiden edition of the Liquid Sports Ghana’s Making it Happen held at the Accra Academy School on Thursday 10th March.
Group Photo after the event
Section of the Accra Academy students
High Table
National Heroes Sharing their experience with the Students
Deputy Sports Minister, Vincent Oppong Asamoah with Ali Jarra For national Goalkeeper
2015 All African Games double silver medalist Patrick Yaw Obeng
inspired students at the first edition of the Liquid Sports Ghana
organized “Making it Happen” seminar held at the Accra Academy school
campus on Thursday, 10th March, 2016.
The Ghanaian wheelchair racing specialist spoke about his awe
inspiring story of how his left leg got amputated following an accident,
surviving seven surgeries, spending five years at the hospital, his
truncated education and his para sports career.
2015 All African Games double silver medalist Patrick Yaw Obeng
inspired students at the first edition of the Liquid Sports Ghana
organized “Making it Happen” seminar held at the Accra Academy school
campus on Thursday, 10th March, 2016.
Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Vincent Oppong-Asamoah commends
Liquid Sports Ghana for organising “Making it Happen” seminar at Accra
Academy on Thursday, 10th March, 2016. Hon. Oppong-Asamoah urged Liquid
Sports Ghana to organise the seminar in other schools to spread the word
about the need for students to take their studies seriously. This was
after the Minister and students of the school had heard first hand tales
of sacrifice, hardwork and sheer determination by three national sports
icons at the seminar including former Ghana goalkeeper Ali Jara,
taekwondo player Terrance Tetteh Asare and 2015 All African Games double
silver medalist Patrick Yaw Obeng.
The IAAF London 2017 entry standards for road events, combined events and the 10,000m are also confirmed
The competition timetable for the 2017 IAAF World Championships in
London has been approved and released by the International Association
of Athletics Federations.
Taking place from August 4-13, the event will feature finals in all
but two of the sessions, with the men’s 10,000m final on Friday August 4
the first final to take place and the men’s 4x400m relay the last event
of the championships to be held in the Olympic Stadium in Queen
Elizabeth Olympic Park on Sunday August 13.
It seems guys from kach have got it going on than people from towns
which makes it really sad. According to various sources the photos were
taken by the police. Check out for yourself and be the judge…..
Monday, 26 October 2015
By: Mawuli Viwotor
Ghana’s first paracyclist and Africa’s three-time C2 Paracycling
Champion, Alem Mumuni, has successfully ended his ‘Ride Out Polio’
campaign after riding from Accra through Koforidua to Kumasi and back to
Accra.
Next time you go for a ride, imagine you are cycling down the middle of the
M25 with gaping potholes, far from roadworthy semi-trailers zipping by and a
pedal has broken off so you’re forced to pedal with one leg. You can even try
it if you want, but avoid the M25!
Alem
Mumuni is a paralympian crippled by Polio when he was 2 years old. A passionate
one-legged cyclist, he takes on such harrowing conditions around Accra whilst
training hard to qualify for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. Why does he
constantly endanger his personal well-being for Paralympic glory? Well love and
passion for cycling for a start. He has been riding with one leg since he
learnt how to walk with a stick at 8 years old. But more importantly, it’s the
personal ambition to raise awareness and change perceptions for disabled and
under-privileged children in his beloved nation,
Ghana is a progressive African nation. In the last decade it has accelerated
its economic growth and has achieved its Millenium Development Goal goal of halving poverty. All
well and good BUT the credibility of this data is brought into question when
you focus on indicators of progress like education and equality. Although
schooling is subsidised, enrolment rates for primary and pre-primary education
are only 88% and 62% respectively. Attendance is heavily influenced by family
income. Many kids are put to work by their parents instead of attending school.
To exacerbate the issue, quality of education is inhibited by the fact that
only 62% of teachers actually have formal training.
Equality for disabled people is even more unbalanced. Much infrastructure
does not cater for the disabled. Research shows 60% of respondents are of the opinion that
people with disabilities (PWD) are not treated fairly in society and 43% think
PWDs are discriminated against. In reality, one boy Alem has sponsored via the Alem Foundation,
Martin, could not attend school anymore as his class was moved upstairs with no
disabled access arranged!
So how do the needy get protected? At the moment it is not going to be the
government as it faces major challenges with currency depreciation, a deepening
energy crisis, macroeconomic imbalance, rising interest rates and inflation. It
needs to be the people!
Alem is one of many in Ghana standing up and making a difference. Whilst training relentlessly for the
London games, he and coach Alexandra Main (Head Coach for Ghana Paralympic team in
2012) founded the Alem Foundation in order to support the local
community that reside in a village called Old Akrade. Since 2012, Alem
Foundation has awarded 33 education scholarships to children in the village and
surrounding area, funded life-saving surgery for a beautiful little girl called
Venyunye, sent two blind boys to a specialist blind school and recently
delivered 70 water filters to secure a clean water resource for all families in
the village. This is just the beginning of a big vision from a grassroots
foundation!
I have the privilege in working with Alem to help him achieve his dream. I
have seen what small amounts of money can do in Ghana. £35 can give a
family clean drinking water! Travelling to Ghana to meet the sponsored children
and the community recently, I was moved by how ambitious these kids are. Even
though they have nothing: no money, little food, no clean water (until now) and
little clothing - just big hearts! Alem Foundation is empowered to give these kids
the tools to succeed and is a direct-to-source charity so you know the money is
going to where it needs to be!
Alem is wearing the yellow jersey with pride in this race for equality and
opportunity. Cyclist or not, you can break free of the peloton too and
make a difference. If you want to get involved check out the fundraising
campaigns on crowdf unding platform - KriticalMass.com - www.kriticalmass.com/p/alemfoundation
OR check out Alem’s journey to Rio - www.kriticalmass.com/p/alem2rio2016.
Doesn’t she look so good? Ghanaian actress Gloria Sarfo just shared some
good looking photos on social media. Her hair, wine coloured outfit,
and pink hills combination is soo on fleek.
African footballers as young as 14 are being trafficked to Asia and forced to sign contracts, the BBC has learnt.
Six
minors are still with top Laos side Champasak United, after it imported
23 under-age players from West Africa to an unregistered football
academy in February, a BBC investigation found.
Fifa regulations prohibit the movement of players to a foreign club or academy until they are 18.
The club, based in the southern city Pakse, denies any wrongdoing.
"Fifa
is in contact with several member associations in order to gather all
information to assess the matter and safeguard the interests of the
minors," a Fifa spokesperson told the BBC.
It has been claimed
that Champasak United, a newly-formed club which plays in Laos's top
league, intends to profit by selling the players in future.
One young African player at the academy described his time at the club as 'like slave work'
"It's hard to live in a place with no windows", one young player told the BBC
In a clear breach of the world
football governing body's rules, the club has fielded overseas players
as young as 14 and 15 in league games this season.
One 14-year-old player, Liberia's Kesselly Kamara, who scored in a full league game, says he was forced into signing a six-year deal before playing for the senior team.
His
contract promised him a salary and accommodation, but Kamara says he
was never paid and had to sleep on the floor of the club's stadium - as
did the rest of the travelling party.
Kamara's contract promised him a salary of $200 a month
"It was very bad because you
can't have 30 people sleeping in one room," Kamara, who is now playing
for a club back home in Liberia's top league, told the BBC.
All
those who travelled to join the "IDSEA Champasak Asia African Football
Academy" did so after being invited by former Liberia international Alex
Karmo, who captained the club at the time.
Young players
gratefully accepted the invitation, since Liberia lacks a football
academy of its own, despite being the only African country to have
produced a Fifa World Footballer of the Year - George Weah in 1995.
Alex Karmo calls himself "a manager for players from Africa" at the Laos side
"It's a fictitious academy,
which was never legally established," said Liberian journalist and
sports promoter Wleh Bedell, who led the group to Laos in February but
who has since returned.
"It's an 'academy' that has no coach nor
doctor. Karmo was the coach, the business manager, everything. It was
completely absurd."
Players say they are rarely allowed to leave the stadium compound, where they live and train
Following initial pressure from
both Fifa and global players' body FIFPro, Champasak released 17
teenagers from the original party, with Kamara among them, three months
ago.
But six minors chose to remain.
FIFPro says that all
have since signed contracts presented to them by Karmo, who describes
himself as a "manager for players from Africa in Champasak", and club
president Phonesavanh Khieulavong.
Kesselly Kamara signed the contract despite being just 14 years old
These appear to allow Champasak
to pay the boys nothing at all, while also demanding that unrealistic
conditions be met should the teenagers want to leave.
Karmo says the players are fed three times a day and paid every month.
"We don't give the [minors] professional contracts, just a contract that gives them bonuses," Khieulavong told the BBC.
Neither
Khieulavong nor Karmo denied the presence of minors at the academies,
although Karmo claimed there was just one - a 16-year-old from Guinea.
The BBC understands there are five more minors from Liberia at the club.
Along
with eight senior players (six Liberians, a Ghanaian and Sierra
Leonean), all are living in conditions described as "deplorable and
disturbing" by Bedell.
For five months, they have been sleeping on
meagre mattresses in a vast room that lacks any glass on its windows
and a lock on the door.
"It's hard to live in a place with no
windows. It made sleeping very difficult, because you are thinking about
your life," said Kamara.
"Players are in this wild place that
is reminiscent of the civil crisis in Liberia when people left their
homes and were displaced, [taking shelter] in a makeshift building or
auditorium," Bedell, who experienced his country's civil wars of 1989-96
and 1999-2003, told the BBC.
The minors' freedom of movement is
restricted by the fact that they became illegal immigrants in March
after their visas ran out.
Many of the young academy players have contracts, but no work visas
They are hoping to receive work permits but these are unlikely to arrive since all are underage.
Karmo,
who insists that he did pay Kamara, admits nine of the 14 Africans do
not have work permits but asserts that they have the right documentation
to stay in Laos.
"Nobody is illegal. Everybody is legal," he told the BBC.
With
the club having held their passports since their arrival, the boys
rarely leave the stadium where they both live and train twice a day.
Despite the situation, not everyone wants the minors to leave Laos.
"I
don't want him to come back to Liberia until he succeeds in his dream,"
said Bella Tapeh, the mother of one 17-year-old still in Pakse.
Some
of those who have returned to Liberia have told the BBC they were
poorly fed, rarely paid and received no medical assistance from the club
despite contracting malaria and typhoid because of the conditions.
One also described their existence at Champasak United as akin to "slave work".
"This is a very serious situation," Stephane Burchkalter, a FIFPro official, told the BBC.
"It
is shocking to FIFPro that a club from Laos, which - with all due
respect - is a very small football country, can lure minor players from
Liberia without Fifa noticing."
In a statement, FIFPro said it suspected this case was "probably the tip of the iceberg".
One NGO, Culture Foot Solidaire, estimates that 15,000 teenage footballers are moved out of West Africa every year - many of them illegally.
FIFPro
has also called on Fifa to take action against the Laos Football
Federation, which has so far failed to discipline Champasak for its
alleged breach of the rules.
Evidence of clubs breaking
regulations on signing international players under 18 is rare but
European champions Barcelona are currently serving a transfer ban for
this very offence.
Meanwhile, the parents of 12 boys found
themselves in financial difficulty after taking loans to pay $550
towards the cost of the trip to Laos, with one case currently in the
hands of Liberian police.
There are three exceptions to Fifa's rules on the movement of players under the age of 18, but none of them apply in this case.
A stowaway has fallen to his death after clinging to the bottom of a British Airways jet as it flew over London.
The man is believed to have plunged from the aircraft and onto the offices of a clothes business in Richmond, south-west London.
Another man is in hospital after surviving the fall.
The pair are said to have held onto the plane as it flew more than 8,000 miles from Johannesburg in South Africa to Heathrow.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told ITV News that it was investigating the incident.
On Thursday June 18 at about 8.30am, police received reports of suspect stowaway on a flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow.
A man between aged between 25- 30, is currently in a west London hospital and enquires are ongoing. The man is in a serious but stable condition.
At 9.35am, officers received a call to reports of of a body discovered on top of a building in Kew, West London.
The death is described as unexplained.
A post mortem will be held in due course, and investigations are ongoing as to whether the deceased was a possible stowaway.
– SCOTLAND YARD SPOKESMAN
A British Airways spokesperson said: "We are working with the Metropolitan Police and the authorities in Johannesburg to establish the facts surrounding this very rare case."
A 42 year old man is in
the grips of the Tema Harbour police for attempting to film the nakedness of
females of a company in the industrial city.
Victor
Owusu Gyasi, crime officer of Marring Railways Police station told Adom News
that the man was arrested by the police after a female that works at Army
Shipping reported of suspicious movements.
Over 70 children aged between 12 to 18 years with physical disability and other types of disability are expected to take part in exercise under the theme, “Breaking Barriers through Wheelchair Tennis.” at the Kumasi Sports stadium Tennis Court on Saturday, 30th May.
It will be the second edition of the National Wheelchair championship after the first edition was held in 2013 participants will be drawn from disability Training Centre’s across the nation.
The Ghana Wheelchair Tennis Association, Ghana Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Federation, with support from the Johan Cruyff Foundation in the Netherlands and the Ashanti Regional Tennis Association, aims to use the program to change perceptions about people with disability.
According to the National Coordinator of Ghana Wheelchair Tennis, Henry Larbi, one of the main aims of the program is to use sports as a means of changing mindsets and perceptions about people with disability in Ghana and also to select 2 prospective junior players to represent Ghana at the Johan Cruyff Africa Regional Juniors Camp in South Africa from 28th September to 5th October 2015.
The funeral of Mrs Theodosia Salome Abena Kumea Okoh , a former hockey star, who died on April 19 at the age of 92, begins this morning at the forecourt of the State House in Accra.
It will be attended by members of the diplomatic corps, members of the clergy, members of parliament and high-ranking politicians, all of whom are to deliver their tributes to Mrs Okoh after the service.
Six football officials have been arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, to face corruption charges in the US, Swiss justice officials say.
The suspects - said to include members of football governing body Fifa - were arrested at a hotel early on Wednesday.
The charges include money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud.
Fifa members are gathering in Zurich for their annual meeting on Friday, where incumbent President Sepp Blatter is seeking a fifth term.
However, Mr Blatter is not understood to be one of them.
The New York Times says plain-clothed police officers took the room keys from the reception of Baur au Lac hotel, where the officials were staying, and headed to their rooms. It said the operation was carried out peacefully.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said in a statement on Wednesday that US authorities suspected the officials of paying millions of dollars worth of bribes over the years.
It says the individuals are being investigated "on suspicion of the acceptance of bribes and kick-backs between the early 1990s and the present day".
Yawa Hansen-Quao, the woman
who made history in Ghana by becoming the first ever female student government
(Ashesi SRC) president against all odds, serving on the World Economic Forum’s
Global Shapers Foundation Board and on the Board of Directors of Ashesi University
has lifted the flag of Ghana high once more, by earning a place on one of the
world’s most exclusive platforms this year.
