The 15th Annual CEANA Convention took place in Dallas, Texas at the Dallas Marriott Fort Worth/Airport Hotel from August 28th to Sept 1st 2008. The theme for this year’s Convention was “Tertiary Education in Eweland – Focusing on: 1) Development of Technology 2) Mobilization of Human Resources 3) Support of Infrastructure Projects”.
Mr. Samuel Sapari, the host and President of Ewe Association of Dallas warmly welcomed delegates to the Convention, which was attended by a cross-section of people from all over North America, Canada and Europe. He thanked delegates for the sacrifices they made towards the success of the convention. He urged delegates to assist in the development and maintenance of a tertiary institution in Eweland.
Torgbui Setranah, the outgoing President of CEANA and the President of U.V.A. started deliberations by thanking the Dallas chapter for hosting the Convention. He stated that the future of CEANA is bright and mentioned that last year’s Convention Ghana brought people of different political persuasions to work together for Eweland. He reminded the members of CEANA’s pledge to support the setting up of a University in the Volta Region.
The Saturday morning’s deliberation was graced with a delegation from the City of Irving Mayor’s office. The mayor’s representative gave a proclamation to CEANA and declared the 15th annual CEANA convention officially opened.
Mr. Cliff Missen in his presentation about the eGranary stated that, the eGranary technology is a means of replacing Bandwidth with Storewidth. In his remarks, he noted that access to information is important for all populations; for example primary, secondary and tertiary education as well as health care, legal services, and public libraries. Mr. Cliff Missen stressed that information delivery should not be exorbitant to the point that people cannot have access to information because of their financial status. In his presentation, he noted that due to the belief of inexpensive information delivery, he started the research in 2000 with the aim of contributing to serve the poor. His presentation was summed up with the quotation “I slept and dreamt that life was joy; I awoke and saw that life was service; I acted and behold, service was joy!
Dr. Samuel Adiku’s presentation was on “Bringing Tertiary Education to the Door Step of Ewe Folk: The Role of CEANA”. He started by giving a brief historical background of the Ewe people. He touched on the role churches played and continue to play in the educational system in Ghana. He noted with concern that the academic potential of the Ewes in Ghana for example has dwindled. According to him, this might be because the Region lack qualified intellectuals to staff our schools. Secondly, he asserted that the absence of a University in the Volta Region led to the migration of intellectuals from the Region, who never return to contribute their widows mite to the region’s development.
The second phase of Dr. Adiku’s presentation was a challenge to CEANA members to invest in the region. He listed some of the socio-economic activities that CEANA could undertake to help its members as well as contributing to the welfare of the region.
In the evening of Saturday August 30, 2008, Conventioneers were treated to a mouth-watering dinner, followed by music up to the wee hours of Sunday 8/31/08. At the dinner dance Rev. Dr. Livingstone Boamah gave a soul-reviving speech. In his speech, he thanked CEANA for inviting him to the convention. He advised Conventioneers never to forget their roots. He said, “know where you come from, where you are and where you want to go”. He mentioned that he was happy to know that the welfare of Eweland is a key feature of CEANA. Rev. Boamah also made an appeal for assistance on behalf of EPUC.
New star club members were also inducted. The event attracted about 500 guests dressed elegantly in rich African attire. Mr. Samuel Sapari was inducted into office as the new president of CEANA. Mr. Sapari pledged to work hand in hand with the Secretariat and COR in order to move CEANA forward from where it is currently.
Sunday August 31st began very early with an interdenominational church service. In the sermon, all Ewes were challenged to unite and work for the betterment of the region. The afternoon was devoted to cultural activities. On the following day, all delegates returned to their various destinations across North America, Canada and Europe with a renewed sense of unity, friendship, collaboration and better insight into the obstacles to growth and the need for tertiary education in Eweland.
At the end of the deliberations, Council of Representatives (COR) made the following decisions for the 2008-2009 financial years.
- COR agreed to complete the Sovie project after which the Tanyigbe project will commence.
- 11 new scholarships have been awarded for the year.
- Missen donated one eGranary to CEANA. He also offered to ship a container to Ghana in the name of CEANA if he is given $8,000.00. The contents of the container will include 300 computers and parts/accessories to keep them working for at least 5 years, and between three to five thousand books as packaging materials for the computers.
- To finish project already started and adopted before moving on to other requests received during the year.
- Ewe Association of Georgia will host the 16th annual CEANA convention in 2009.
The current President of CEANA, Mr. Samuel Sapari, COR and the Secretariat are very grateful to Ewe Association of Dallas, especially its committee members, for hosting a successful Convention. Thanks for a job well done. Special thanks also go to our main sponsors, Coca Cola, Moneygram and Rio Money Transfer.
CEANA Secretariat
