Photo Exhibition On Environment Opens in Accra

By Godfred Blay Gibbah

Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI (third from left) Mr. Sintim Aboagye ( seventh from left) and other dignitaries viewing the exhibition.

A two-day photo exhibition, which focused on the inseparability of human life and its environment and the need for human beings to live in harmony with the communion of life, has been opened at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Titled, "Seeds of Hope", its aim was to inspire viewers to learn, reflect on environmental issues and challenges affecting some regions and the world at large, and to empower viewers, particularly young people, to take concrete actions, individually and collectively to address the challenges.

Organised by the Soka Gakkai International-Ghana (SGI-Ghana) in collaboration with the Earth Charter International, the exhibition which attracted over 15,173 viewers, displayed 24 panels that depicted various forms of environmental degradation from across the world and how some individuals took action to reverse the anomaly.

This is the third in the series, after a similar exhibition at University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology last year.

SGI-Ghana is a socially engaged Buddhist network which promotes peace, culture and education with more than 12 million members in 192 countries and territories around the world.

In an address, the General-Director of SGI-Ghana, Dolittle Sintim Aboagye, said the exhibition portrayed courageous individuals who took action in their respective communities to solve environmental and social challenges.

Their action moved those around them to help save their communities. They include Hazel Anderson of the United States of America, Wangari Mathai of Kenya and Hiroki Takeda of Japan.

He referred to the World Commission on Environment and Development report in1987, which stated that in the past 200 years human activities had caused a rapid deterioration in the state of the natural environment, and, therefore, called on the youth to take charge and preserve the environment for "our sake and that of future generations."

The President of the SGI-Ghana, Daisaku Ikeda, in a speech read for him, urged the youth not to sit and wait for a bright future to come, but squarely face the current environmental crisis, and work hand in hand with others to take proactive measures to rectify the situation.

He hoped that the exhibition would impart a powerful message to each viewer and instil in them the shared responsibility to take action for the sake of environmental preservation, "which is one of the most pressing issues of humanity."

Former President John A. Kufuor, in a speech read for him, called on Ghanaians to take positive steps to protect and maintain the land and the people towards a happy coexistence, and for a sustainable future.

"While our present action may allow us to meet our present needs, we must be mindful not to compromise the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs," he said.

The Paramount Chief of Osu, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, Prof. Ivan Addae-Mensah, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Dr Elsie Effah Kaufmann of the University of Ghana, Nat Nunoo Amarteifio, a former Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Accra, and Mrs Beatrice Okine, wife of the late Prof Atukwei Okine, jointly cut the tape to open the exhibition.

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