{"id":18846,"date":"2022-04-18T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/uncategorized\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind"},"modified":"2022-04-18T12:22:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T12:22:48","slug":"ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind","title":{"rendered":"Ghana Association of Hamilton leaving no senior behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. <\/strong><\/span>There is a saying in Ghana, Mama Cee tells me, that goes something like this: \u201cThe parents look after the young when they cut their teeth and the young look after the parents when they lose theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That latter part has perhaps never been truer, at least here in Hamilton among the city\u2019s prominent Ghanian community, than during the last two years of COVID-19 lockdown and pandemic response.<\/p>\n

Mama Cee is actually Comfort Afari. That\u2019s another thing, Mama Cee tells me, about Ghanian culture. They love nicknames and that\u2019s hers \u2014 Mama Cee.<\/p>\n

Mama Cee and Barb Anie met with me recently to talk about the inspired, creative and thorough work being done, especially around COVID need in the community, by the Ghana Association of Hamilton, of which Mama Cee is president and Barb is a member.<\/p>\n

There are, by the association\u2019s estimate, about 5,000 Ghanian-Canadians in the city, and you don\u2019t have to look very far to discern the contribution they\u2019ve made to this city. The late Dora Anie, for instance, Barb\u2019s mother, was a member of the Ghana Association, and the association always supported the work she did, furthering international ties between Hamilton and education in Ghana with her Schools of Dreams and A Taste of Africa events. These continue today, largely under the leadership of Barb who, like her mother, is a member of the Ghana Association.<\/p>\n

The spirited Ghanian community here is a key part of the growing African profile in Hamilton\u2019s Black population, in which those of Caribbean origin have traditionally predominated. As Mama Cee points out, there are now in Hamilton sizeable and growing communities of those from countries like the Ivory Coast, Burundi, Nigeria, Somalia and Cameroon.Especially during unsettled times such as COVID has been, people often fall back on the communities they know best, and so, with that in mind, Mama Cee, Barb and the association put in place a culturally sensitive plan of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, through my professional experience as a social worker, I was aware of the loneliness and isolation that many feel, especially seniors, especially among immigrants,\u201d says Momma Cee, who has a Master\u2019s degree in social work from McMaster and works as a counsellor at Conestoga College.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognized early on that we have to acknowledge the contribution of our seniors in the building the community, and the last thing we wanted was for them to feel like they were forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barb says the association has reached between 70 and 75 Ghanian seniors (65 and over) in Hamilton and most of them were immigrants, born in Ghana, as was Mama Cee, who came to Canada (B.C.) in1986 and to Hamilton first in 1997 for a time before she and her husband worked overseas and then again, permanently in 2008.<\/p>\n

They know how many Ghanian-Canadians there are here because part of the association\u2019s larger effort was putting together a databank. The databank, like so many other planks of the association\u2019s integrated response, was partly made possible by a grant they obtained totalling $25,000 through the Hamilton Community Foundation\u2019s Pandemic Response Fund.<\/p>\n

The association\u2019s \u201cHonouring Our Elders Project\u201d took effect last September and features four principal pillars \u2014 a seniors buddy transportation program; a seniors\u2019 day program; food provision program; technology device program.\u201cThe focus for the initiative is to serve Ghanaian seniors in the community in culturally appropriate ways with issues that they face such as isolation and mental health that has only been heightened due to COVID-19,\u201d says Mama Cee.<\/p>\n

The very first step the association took, Phase 1, was to furnish the seniors with personal protective equipment<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the idea was to keep the community (especially vulnerable seniors) connected in every meaningful way: Socially (through visits, including hair appointments, coffee dates, places of worship and excursions, lockdowns allowing, with volunteer pickups and drop-offs); technologically (the association provided 29 seniors with 10.5 Samsun Galaxy tablets); physically (through online fitness, yoga and exercise programs); nutritionally (through the food provision program, seniors got vouchers redeemable at any of the Ghanaian-owned stores \u2014 Rama Tropical, Mama Africa Tropical Afrocan Caribbean Tropical Grocers Inc.) and psychologically (shared information about and access to mental health resources).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I did when I came to Hamilton,\u201d says Mama Cee, \u201cwas seek out a Ghanian space,\u201d whether that be an association or a church. So when she was rooted here she joined the association. Now she is president.<\/p>\n

Says Barb, \u201cSo many great things have happened under her leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, what the association is doing is a kind of model for how to keep communities of all kinds connected, especially with their seniors and vulnerable populations \u2014 connected and mutually supportive.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Ghana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. There is a saying in Ghana, Mama Cee tells me, that goes something like this: \u201cThe parents look after the young when they cut their teeth and the young look after the parents when they lose theirs.\u201d That latter part has perhaps never been truer, at least here in Hamilton among the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[5092,5096,6343,429,7814],"class_list":["post-18846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ghana","tag-association","tag-ghana","tag-senior"],"yoast_head":"\nGhana Association of Hamilton leaving no senior behind - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There is a saying in Ghana, Mama Cee tells me, that goes something like this: \u201cThe parents look after the young when the ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghana Association of Hamilton leaving no senior behind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a saying in Ghana, Mama Cee tells me, that goes something like this: \u201cThe parents look after the young when the ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-18T12:00:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-18T12:22:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2022\/04\/img-625d57facec2d.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1086\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"830\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ghana Association of Hamilton leaving no senior behind\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-18T12:00:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T12:22:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind\"},\"wordCount\":799,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2022\/04\/img-625d57facec2d.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Ghana\",\"association\",\"ghana\",\"Senior\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/ghana-association-of-hamilton-leaving-no-senior-behind\",\"name\":\"Ghana Association of Hamilton leaving no senior behind - 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