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As part of activities marking this year’s Earth Day celebration, the Association of Spouses of Heads of Mission (ASOHOM) is helping raise awareness of the need to protect the environment.

The event, which comes off Saturday, April 27, is being organized by Jamestown Café and the environmental group Plastic Punch.

ASOHOM, an organization of the spouses of ambassadors and heads of other foreign missions in Ghana, advocates for the introduction of environmentally sustainable measures in the community, setting examples for best practices at embassies and official residences.

This year, ASOHOM is supporting the Earth Day programme put together by Joe Addo and Allotey Bruce-Konuah at the Jamestown Cafe and Plastic Punch.

Plastic Punch is an international team of dedicated Ghanaian professionals aimed at protecting the environment from plastic waste, providing better waste management solutions, while improving people’s living conditions.

There will be a programme for the local Usshertown/Jamestown children which will include a talk from the Wulomo about the sacred nature of the Korle Lagoon and other Ga waterways.

There will also be a video footage with environmental messaging by Plastic Punch, and arts and crafts activities to educate members of the Jamestown community.

There will be a tour by local fishermen of the Jamestown fishing village and coastline for dignitaries, including government representatives and diplomats including the EU, UK, Australian and Norwegian Ambassadors.

Many of the foreign missions represented by ASOHOM have established Green Teams to find ways to reduce the environmental foot print of the missions.


Some of the measures introduced include going totally solar, eliminating the use of plastics — particularly single-use plastics – and ensuring all waste is segregated and either composted, recycled, or reused.

“As spouses of heads of missions here in Ghana, we believe it is important to lead by example and to try and raise everyone’s level of awareness about the need to protect the environment,” Teresa Barnes, President of ASOHOM and spouse of Australian Ambassador Andrew Barnes noted.

The first Earth Day was held on 22 April 1970, and is considered to be the birthday of the modern environmental protection movement.

Since then, Earth Day has been celebrated annually on 22 April with events in support of the environment to raise awareness about environmental issues and to encourage environmental protection and greater care of planet Earth.

This year 22 April fell on Easter Monday so it has been celebrated on a range of other days around 22 April.