Ghana marks UN Day with pledge to combat Ebola

Ghana Friday marked the 69th United Nations Day, pledging its readiness to cooperate with the UN Mission for Emergency Ebola Response (UNMEER) to execute its mandate.
The event, which was marked with a flag-raising ceremony at the forecourt of the State House in the national capital, attracted government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, senior officers of the security agencies, schoolchildren, chiefs and heads and staff of UN agencies in Ghana.
The Day, celebrated on October 24 since 1948, is set aside by the UN General Assembly to highlight, celebrate and reflect on the work of the world body.
Minister of Youth and Sports Mahama Ayariga reiterated the government's readiness to cooperate with UNMEER to execute its mandate, saying Ebola, being a global challenge, could be tackled globally.
Since March 2014, the West African sub-region has been hit by the deadly Ebola virus that has killed more than 4,500 people and infected over 9,000 others..
Ghana has been instrumental in the launch of the ECOWAS Ebola Pool Fund set up to raise funds for the most affected countries.
In his capacity as ECOWAS Chair, Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama, in September 2014, visited the three hardest affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and donated relief items for distribution to affected people.
Presently, Ghana, in support of the global fight against the Ebola epidemic, is hosting the UNMEER to help with the coordination of international aid.
He said Ghana believed that the UN provided the best global platform where issues of common interest were deliberated upon internationally.
"On this occasion of this UN Day, let us remind ourselves that our individual and collective efforts are critical, more than ever before, to assist the United Nations achieve our shared goals and make the world a better place for us all," he said.
The Country Director of UNAIDS, Girmay Haile, said the UN aimed to empower girls and young women by addressing the priorities issues of maternal mortality and the gap between boys and girls in education.
He said since effective youth engagement needed to be inclusive, the focus on the UN in Ghana lay in empowering girls and young women, who are a particularly vulnerable segment of the population.
"Let us all join in to celebrate our organization, the United Nations, and the unique contributions it is making in support of women and girls all over the world so that they can bring to bear their vast potential as global citizens," said Haile, who represented the UN Country Coordinator, Susan Namondo Ngongi.
This year's UN Day celebration is under the global theme: ' Global Citizenship and Youth' while the local theme for Ghana is ' Youth Engagement for Nation Building'.
Ghana's celebration will involve a week-long series of activities comprising television and radio shows to sensitize the general public on the activities and achievements of the UN.