Cape Coast Nov. 3, GNA – The Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) – United States of America, has launched an endowment fund to support members and facilitate activities of the Association.
The Dr Juliet Ohemeng-Ntiamoah and Professor Yaw Yeboah Endowment Fund, an initiative of the current executive, seeks to raise funds to drive the course of the Association in response to its rising membership.
Since GRASAG-USA was established some seven years ago, the Association had survived on the benevolence of few members, a situation, which retarded growth.
In spite of the challenges, the Association said it had supported more than 500 members through academic and professional development programmes and provided financial support for some 50 prospective students.
Mr Acquah Sam, the President of the Association, during the virtual launch, expressed the hope that the endowment fund would alleviate the financial burden faced by most members and appealed to the public to generously donate to support its activities.
Dr Michael Boakye-Yiadom, Director General of the UNESCO Category II Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA), who chaired the occasion, expressed his excitement over the initiative and touted it as a laudable idea worthy of emulation.
He said the project would empower the many Ghanaian students who travelled to the US to study to excel, stressing that: “This is a shining example for others to follow.”
Rev John Ntim Fordjour, a Deputy Minister of Education, who represented the Minister of Education, described the fund as “historic” and a step in the right direction, which would provide support for Ghanaians studying in the US.
He commended the leadership of the Association for the initiative and pledged the Ministry’s support to ensure that the fund thrived to serve its purpose.
“I expect this endowment fund to create opportunities for us to add on to the already sterling and outstanding members from our Ghanaian community who are making us proud,” he added.
Prof Yaw Yeboah, a patron of the Association, and one of the individuals in whose honour the endowment fund was named, was full of appreciation to the administration for bestowing on him such an “outstanding recognition.”
He charged the Association to “manage the fund wisely and make sure it is invested to grow.”
Dr Juliet Ohemeng-Ntiamoah, the Founding President of GRASAG-USA, who shares the fund’s name, described the gesture as humbling.
She was optimistic that with the right assistance and contribution, the fund would raise enough money to support the many projects of the Association.
The event also saw the launch of the “GRASAG-USA Giving Day” as another means of raising funds.
The new universal ‘GoFund Me’ platform received some $2,425 as seed money and is expected to have donations from both members and all who share in the vision of the Association.
Dignitaries present at the launch were Prof Yayra Dzakadzie, the Director of Tertiary Education at the Ministry of Education, Nana Gyamfi Adwabour, Executive Director of Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling; Madam Angela Affran, the Technical Advisor to the Minister of Education, and Prof Paul Ventura, Board of Trustees, US Africa Initiative.
GNA