Ho, July 31, GNA - Major Courage Quashigah (rtd), Minister of Health, on Tuesday said the success of all national development strategies were based on the health status of the people. He said a generally frail population would lack the acumen and energy to formulate and prosecute development plans satisfactorily. Major Quashigah was addressing the opening of the Annual Congress of the Council of Ewe Associations of North America (CEANA) in Ho. The weeklong congress is under the theme "Educational Development in Ewe Land: Focusing on Infrastructure Improvement".

Major Quashigah said Ghana must work hard to overcome the present state of its people having to battle an avalanche of diseases, many of which were preventable and self-imposed, to develop faster than now. He suggested that CEANA instituted an award for the best kept and healthiest district in the region, promising that if the proposal was accepted the Ministry of Health would work out criteria for assessment. Miss Elizabeth Ohene, a Minister of State at the Presidency, deplored the inability of communities to maintain school infrastructure, leading to the collapse of structures put up years ago. She said a little contribution from past students regularly would make a lot of difference in the state of school structures in the region, advising that it was not prudent to always wait on government to provide.

Miss Ohene said it was a sad irony that children from a region reputed as home of people with skills in construction and manpower base of the country to go to school in dilapidated structures. She said if education was one of the strongest assets of the region, "let us demonstrate it," by mapping out how to regain our leadership position in the country and stop crying about being marginalized.

"If we do not accept the truth about ourselves and work on them we would be left behind," Miss Ohene said.

Mr Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, Volta Regional Minister, said school infrastructure repair and build-up was progressing steadily under various programmes of government.

He called on Ewes in the Diaspora to collaborate with other development agencies and business concerns home and abroad to trigger development of the region on all fronts.

Mr Wallace Setranah, President of CEANA, said the association was resolved to make an impact on development in the region and announced that it was putting up a three-unit junior senior secondary school block at Sovie in the Kpando District and would also cut a sod to begin another block at Tanyigbe in the Ho Municipal Area as part of the congress.

He said 40 students were currently benefiting from a CEANA scholarship scheme in Ghana and Togo.

Miss Ivy Quarshie, CEANA Executive Director, said the association, an umbrella organization of 18 Ewe Associations in North America and Canada, was growing from strength to strength. She said the main aim of the association was to promote contact of Ewes in the Diaspora and harness their skills for development of their homelands.

Mr Kobla Agbanyo, Chairman of CEANA Education Committee, announced the setting up of a local star club whose membership dues and other contributions would form seed money for a business development fund in Eweland.

Mr Joe Gidisu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Central-Tongu who with Mr Albert Zigah, MP for South-Tongu, represented the Volta Caucus in parliament donated 10 million cedis (1,000 Ghana cedis) to the Local Star Club Fund on behalf of the caucus. Papers to be presented at the congress include the dropout rate in schools in the region and the role of private enterprise in education. Delegates mainly from the US, Canada and Germany would take excursions to the Keta Sea Defense site and Notsie, in Togo from where some Ewes were said to have migrated from to settle in present Ghana.