• Ghana artifacts that were looted 150 years ago by British forces have been returned by a US museum
• He converted a van into a mobile medical clinic. Now, he's bringing care to thousands in rural Ghana
• Pandemic hobby grows into plan for Africa's largest photography library

• Ghana: Celebrating the launch of Invincible Africa tour in West Africa
• Ghana: Dr Bevan Morris presents Consciousness-Based Education to distinguished educators
• Ghana: Government leaders learn about health, education, sustainability programmes

• World Health Organization declares Marburg outbreak in Ghana
• 'We have cut them all': Ghana struggles to protect its last old-growth forests
• Ghana's government faces tough questions amid deadly flooding

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Ghana artifacts that were looted 150 years ago by British forces have been returned by a US museum
9 February 2024 - Seven royal artifacts looted 150 years ago by British colonial forces from Ghana's ancient Asante kingdom and kept by a United States museum have been returned and presented to the kingdom on Thursday [8 February], the latest of a series of stolen treasured items being repatriated to several African countries. (more)

He converted a van into a mobile medical clinic. Now, he's bringing care to thousands in rural Ghana
4 December 2023 - Growing up in a small village in southern Ghana, Osei Boateng watched many of his family members and neighbors struggle to access basic health care. In many regions of the country, it can take hours to get to the nearest hospital. Boateng said many people lost their lives due to preventable or treatable diseases. ...Feeling an urgent call to help, Boateng decided he would make it his life's mission to bring health care to remote communities in Ghana. (more)

Pandemic hobby grows into plan for Africa's largest photography library
23 November 2021 - Since the pandemic forced many U.S. bookshops to close or slash prices, Ghanaian New Yorker Paul Ninson has amassed 30,000 African photo books for a library he hopes will inspire the next generation of photographers back home. Ninson estimates that he now owns the world's largest collection of books with images taken in Africa or by photographers of African descent. Thanks to a $1 million crowdfunding windfall, he has already started shipping the trove to West Africa. (more)

All-girls robotics team from Ghana wins World Robofest Championship in the U.S.
20 May 2019 - Ghana presented an all-girls robotics team for the senior division of the World Robofest Championship in the United States and they won the topmost position by beating teams from the United States, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea, and dozens of others. (more)

Ghana is being heralded as the next big tourist destination. Here's why
7 February 2019 - The country recently unveiled a 15-year-long tourism plan that seeks to increase the annual number of tourists to Ghana from one million to eight million per year by 2027. Ghana's travel industry is projected to raise $8.3 billion a year by 2027, plus associated benefits, according to the plan. (more)

Ghana: 2018 Garden and Flower Show was well patronized
29 September 2018 - The 2018 edition of the Ghana Garden and Flower Show has ended in Accra, recording more exhibitors and visitors as compared to the previous years. Madam Esther Cobbah, the Convenor of the Ghana Garden and Flower Movement, organizers of the show said from all indications, it was evidenced that Ghanaians loved flowers and were committed to a greener, cleaner, healthier, wealthier, and more beautiful country, adding that, the Creator of the Universe loved humanity so much that he provided beautiful gardens and flowers for various uses. (more)

Indian govt ready to support Ghana develop technical, vocational sector
10 April 2017 - The Indian government says it is ready to support Ghana in developing the technical and vocational education sector. The Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Birender Singh, said skills in technical and vocational education were what were needed to encourage the growth of the small and medium industries in the country. (more)

Ghana-India relations to deepen
31 March 2017 - 'India Business Day' seminar has been held in Accra with a call for the two countries to deepen their economic cooperation and collaboration for mutual benefits. The business interaction event which was organised by the World Trade Centre, Accra and brought together high-profile business executives from both countries...was aimed at showcasing the various programmes and initiatives of the government of India for the benefit of the private sector in Ghana. (more)

Africa: These solar hubs can provide clean water, green electricity, and Internet connectivity to 3000 people
7 April 2016 - Watly aims to deliver a hat trick of very needful things to the developing world, in the form of both a standalone unit and as a network of units. The team of this ambitious company describes their creation as the 'biggest solar-powered computer in the world,' which combines solar photovoltaics (PV) and battery storage for powering the unit (and for charging external devices), with a water filtration system and an Internet connectivity and telecommunications hub. The Watly system, which has been in the works for the last few years, and has now attracted the attention of The Discovery Channel, was run as a pilot program at a village in Ghana, where the 2.0 version of the device was successfully deployed to deliver clean drinking water to residents. (more)

How consumer outrage is reducing child labor in Ghana
30 November 2015 - There's no simple 'how-to' on getting kids out of slavery. But in cocoa villages in Ghana and, to a lesser extent, Cote d'Ivoire, the appeal is economic -- and the results have been startling. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Ghana: Celebrating the launch of Invincible Africa tour in West Africa
6 February 2012 - The Album of Events page of Global Good News is featuring a series of photos from Ghana highlighting the first events of the historic Invincible Africa tour, recently inaugurated with great success in that country by Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management. In Ghana Dr Morris, an international authority on Consciousness Based Education, Transcendental Meditation, and other programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, embarked on a series of meetings with leaders in government, education, and other fields that continued in other West African countries, and later in southern Africa and the eastern regions of the continent. (more)

Ghana: Dr Bevan Morris presents Consciousness-Based Education to distinguished educators
4 February 2012 - Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management in the USA, addressed a seminar for heads of higher education institutions in Ghana, attended by about 40 of the leading educators in the country. The purpose of the seminar was to introduce Consciousness-Based Education to heads of schools and universities in the country. (more)

Ghana: Government leaders learn about health, education, sustainability programmes
4 February 2012 - During his recent visit to Ghana, Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management, met with several government leaders, presenting the benefits of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes in the fields of education, health, the environment, science and technology. (more)

Many media outlets in Ghana feature interviews with Dr Bevan Morris
4 February 2012 - Reporters from many different media outlets attended Dr Bevan Morris's recent seminar for education leaders on Consciousness-Based Education, held in the capital of Ghana, Accra. According to Dr Kwesi Orgle, director of the Transcendental Meditation Programme in Ghana, 'The most popular radio and TV stations in Accra were represented at the seminar and they gave it very good coverage.' Dr Morris is President of Maharishi University of Management and an international authority on Consciousness-Based Education, Transcendental Meditation, and related programmes. (more)

Parent in Ghana: Transcendental Meditation is a wonderful idea for our kids
4 February 2012 - Joy FM, a popular radio station in Ghana, interviewed two people from the audience of a recent seminar on Consciousness-Based Education in Accra, the capital city. Both interviewees, an educator and a parent, found the scientific evidence on the Transcendental Meditation Technique compelling, while the father was excited at the possibility of his children participating in such a programme for total brain development and improved academic performance. (more)

Radio station in Ghana: TM aims at improving a child's creativity and intelligence
4 February 2012 - 'Transcendental Meditation is a simple and systematic procedure,' said Dr Bevan Morris in an interview after his seminar on Consciousness-Based Education for education leaders in Ghana. He was interviewed by Joy FM, one of the most popular radio stations in the country, which gave his interview a slot in the prime-time hours. (more)

Seminar for traditional rulers in Ghana garners intent interest
4 February 2012 - Dr Bevan Morris, President of Maharishi University of Management, led a seminar for Ghana's traditional rulers during his recent visit to the country. The seminar highlighted ways in which Transcendental Meditation and other programmes can benefit these rulers and their communities. Dr Kwesi Orgle, director of the Transcendental Meditation Programme in Ghana, remarked, 'It was very nice to see how interactive the meeting was, with each chief contributing, asking questions, seeking clarification, and already showing an interest in Maharishi's programmes.' (more)

Consider Consciousness-Based Education through 15 minutes Quiet Time - Modern Ghana reports
3 February 2012 - The President of Maharishi University of Management in the United States, Dr Bevan Morris, says Ghana should consider the adoption of Consciousness-Based Education through which a learning technique known as Transcendental Meditation, or 'quiet time', is used to improve academic performance and discipline in schools. Dr Morris spoke at an education presentation in the capital city of Accra during his recent visit to the country. (more)

New Maharishi Vastu home in Ghana is one of Africa's first
6 August 2011 - A beautiful Maharishi Vastu home has been built in the capital city of Ghana, the Accra metropolitan area, which is situated along the Atlantic coastline of Africa. Built according to Vedic architecture, it is one of the very first residential Vastu homes in all of Africa. (more)

Ghana: Educators and press welcome Dr Ashley Deans on Consciousness-Based Education tour
19 February 2011 - During a tour of Africa, Dr Ashley Deans, Global Ambassador for Consciousness-Based Education, completed a highly successful visit to Ghana, presenting to teachers, students, education officials, and the press on how schools can benefit from the programmes of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

World Health Organization declares Marburg outbreak in Ghana
17 July 2022 - The World Health Organization has declared Ghana's first outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus disease after labs confirmed the infections in two cases announced earlier this month. The disease, a very infectious hemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola, is spread to people by fruit bats and transmitted among people through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people and surfaces, WHO said. Marburg is potentially very harmful and deadly: Case fatality rates in past outbreaks have ranged from 24 percent to 88 percent. (more)

'We have cut them all': Ghana struggles to protect its last old-growth forests
28 August 2019 - Deforestation of Ghana's primary forests jumped 60 percent between 2017 and 2018 -- the biggest jump of any tropical country. Most of this occurred in the country's protected areas, including its forest reserves. The West African country of Ghana is known for having rich natural resources including vast tracts of rainforest. But its primary forest has all but vanished, with what remains generally relegated to reserves scattered throughout the country's southern third. These reserves are under official protection. However, that hasn't stopped logging and other illegal activities from deforesting them. (more)

Ghana's government faces tough questions amid deadly flooding
10 June 2015 - The flooding in Accra last week not only devastated many homes but caused fuel from a gas station to ignite, killing at least 160 people. As the country mourned the victims at a national service Wednesday, the Ghanaian government is facing allegations that poorly managed city planning contributed to the tragedy. Residents and experts agree that the capital, with its rapid population growth, lacks a proper system to deal with annual rains. This city has grown by more than half a million people in just the last 15 years to an estimated 2.3 million. Many areas lack sufficient gutters and where they do exist, they quickly fill with garbage that accumulates in the absence of public trash cans. The drainage and sewage system is antiquated and dates back to a time when the city held just fraction of its current population. (more)

Ghana losing forest cover to illegal mining
8 September 2014 - Ghana's forest cover stands the risk of being decreased to considerable level in the next generation if illegal mining in forest reserves is not stemmed, the Forestry Commission, has warned. The Commission said it is the responsibility of stakeholders to tackle the menace with zeal to sustain the eco-system and biodiversity. Currently, forest reserves including the Supuma, Subri, Bonsa, Upper Wassaw, Apamprama, Desin, Oda, Atiwa, are being degraded at an alarming rate due to illegal mining. Mr Alexander Amoako Boadu, National Director of Operations of Forestry Services Division of the Commission, told Ghana News Agency that the trend has led to the pollution of water bodies, while large tracts of forests have been depleted. (more)

'This is not a good place to live': inside Ghana's dump for electronic waste
14 December 2013 - The orange flesh of a papaya is like an oval gash in the landscape at Agbogbloshie, Ghana's vast dumping site for electronic waste, where everything is smeared and stained with mucky hues of brown and sooty black. A woman kneels among the carcasses of discarded computer monitors, scooping the fruit's flesh for workers hungry from a morning's work scavenging to eat. If the appliances at Agbogbloshie were not being dismantled -- plucked of their tiny nuggets of copper and aluminium -- some of them could almost be technology antiques. Old VHS players, cassette recorders, sewing machines, computers from the 1980s and every period since lie haphazardly on large mounds in the dump, which stretches as far as the eye can see. 'Electric waste comes here from all over the world - but especially from Europe,' says Karim, 29, who, like almost all the scrap dealers at Agbogbloshie, originally comes from northern Ghana but has been salvaging, buying and selling at the dump for 10 years. 'We get a lot of health problems here, but we manage, because we need the money.' (more)

Climate makes refugees out of young Ghanaians
13 December 2013 - The job of a 'kayayei', or porter, is a trade often taken up by children and adults from the Northern Region who migrate to southern Ghana in search of a living. And according to Dr. Wilson Dogbe, a research scientist at the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, one of the major causes of this migration is the changing environment in the north. The Northern Region is a predominantly rural-based community, and farmers there have become vulnerable to the impact of climate change. 'The problem is that the Northern Region currently is experiencing low rainfall, soil infertility, and increased temperatures as high as 47 degrees Celsius. It is evident from research conducted over the past few years that land scarcity and soil infertility are one of the main elements pushing people off the land to seek a safe-haven in the south,' he said. Some of these climate refugees, who are mostly young girls between the ages of 18 and 30 sent by their families to earn an income, fetch water for people, work in chop-bars (local restaurants), and as hawkers and shop attendants. But their existence is a precarious one. Mohammed Awal, NORSAAC's director, told IPS that the young girls were the most vulnerable of these climate refugees as they had no place to live and mostly slept in open-air truck stops at the mercy of the weather and other threats. (more)

Ghana: Homemade gun sales flourish
26 October 2009 - The business of building and selling homemade arms is one of the most profitable in Ghana. On a good week, a dealer may make as much as US$ 1,000. Many of the buyers are from Nigeria or Sierra Leone, dealers say. Small arms proliferation destabilizes West African countries and has increased the intensity and human impact of conflicts in the region, according to regional arms experts. Eighty per cent of firearms Ghanaian police confiscate are homemade, according to Accra-based NGO Africa Security Dialogue and Research. Police records also indicate armed robberies are on the increase across Ghana, currently at hundreds per month. According to UNODC, homemade guns are used in one-quarter to one-third of Ghana's violent crimes. (more)

Ghana: Hydro-power crisis getting worse
4 August 2007 - Ghana is undergoing its worst power crisis since 1998. People here currently have an average of only 12 hours of electricity a day, and, with insufficient rain to keep its hydropower stations functioning, the situation is likely to deteriorate, affecting individual livelihoods and the economy as a whole. The government has started construction of another hydro-electric plant but others question why the government thinks it can successfully build a new hydro plant given the on going problems with the old one. (more)

Ghana beset with problems 50 years after independence
7 March 2007 - Fifty years after winning independence from Europe, Ghana is battered by political repression, military dictatorship, and economic collapse that has bedevilled the entire continent. The country's hopes for change are diminished, and some see little to celebrate. (more)

Ghana President says more US aid needed
13 April 2006 - Ghana's President Kufuor thanked US President Bush for his financial support for Ghana, but added that the African nation needs more assistance. Ghana is benefitting from duty-free exports for more than 6,400 African products to US markets, but has yet to receive funding that was promised two years ago. (more)