Published On: Mon, Feb 4th, 2013

Miss Virginia Plus America Wraps Up Her Visit To Ghana On Road Safety Campaign

Ms. Road Safety, Mr. Noble Appiah,Ms. VA Plus America 2012 at NRSC

This past month, Ms. Virginia Plus America 2012, A.G. Ansong was in Ghana, going around the country to spread the message of road safety. Arriving in Ghana on January 5th, 2013, the Holiday Inn Accra Ghana graciously co-sponsored her initial stay in Ghana.

When asked about her stay at the Holiday Inn Accra, Ms. Ansong replied, “The Holiday Inn is so beautiful, the people who work there are so kind, and I will forever be grateful to Mr. Potter and Ms. Laryea-Moni for extending their hospitality towards me.

I have never seen a hotel like that before and everything is amazing—from the rooms to the artwork to the continental breakfast—I can not wait to go back! Holiday Inn Accra is the master of hospitality and it is now my official hotel! A visit to Ghana will not be complete without visiting the Holiday Inn” .

While staying in Ghana, Ms. Virginia Plus America 2012 had the opportunity to visit many places and participate in many events. On January 17th, Ms. Ansong was a guest on Viasat1′s “This Morning “ show ,and had the opportunity to discuss road safety in Ghana and the impacts and relevance of road safety in Ghana. Having witnessed bicycles crossing the highway and people daring to run across the highways when cars are travelling at least 60 mph, Ms. Ansong emphasized the importance of road safety, stating, “There needs to be a public outcry. People need to get upset when there is a road accident. Ghana has one of the highest road accident rates in the world, it is sickening. I have heard the President is interested in studying road accidents, if so, I would like to be involved.

Road accidents affect the youth the most and the youth of Ghana are the future of Ghana. When all these people die, it means that the GDP is being affected, it means that the breadwinners are dying and affecting the family structure, it means that there are less people to contribute to society.

Road accidents/fatalities are a serious problem and EVERYONE in Ghana should be concerned, not just the people who are directly affected by it. Your economy WILL suffer and your government industries will suffer if all of your manpower is dying unnecessarily, because many road accidents CAN be avoided and prevented. Very soon, within the next ten years, road accidents will be one of the leading causes of death in the world”.

While in Ghana, Ms.Ansong also had the opportunity to visit an orphanage to teach about road safety, specifically Osu Children’s Home. “The children at the Osu Children’s Home are quite lovely, and it was great being able to teach young kids about road safety and the dangers of crossing the street.

We used a kid to serve as the “car” and role played different scenarios of how to and how not to cross the street. It was good. At the end of the day, I was able to donate toys which were donated to me by Crayola LLC, (the people who make crayons), so I was quite grateful for their donation.”

Ms. Ansong also briefly visited the Ecole Ronsard School, one of the premiere French-English schools in Ghana, located in East Legon, Ghana on Kinshasa Avenue.

In between visiting Viasat1 and the National Road Safety Commission, Ms. Ansong, an avid lover of Ghanaian music , got the opportunity to visit MOB studios in Tema, a recording studio owned by Awal, a.k.a Possigee. While at MOB Studios in Tema, apart from seeing Possigee, she was pleasantly surprised to see Fuse ODG and Atumpan, and Tema artists including Rampee, Stay J, Shamelongo, Sarkodie, Qweku from Ikonz, CharcoBouy, and music producer KillBeatz. She also received her Children of the Future T-shirt and wristband, which she wears proudly.

“The Children of the Future Foundation is a foundation I have deeply believed in since day one, I donate to it, and I support it as much as I can. Being in Tema and seeing all the artists and being able to finally watch the THIS IS WHO I AM video in its entirety was a great moment.

ACOTF is a great foundation and everyone should get involved because it is a movement. A movement to help the needy. Seeing all the musicians was also quite wonderful. Never in a million years was I expecting to see FUSE ODG and I definitely was not expecting to witness him making a song with a Ghanaian artist. I will keep that part a secret but let’s just say FUSE ODG has a HIT SONG coming out with a GH artist very soon.

MOB Studios was and is a great place to be and I look forward to visiting again in the future”. Apart from visiting with MOB studios, she also visited MUSIGA headquarters, and had the opportunity to meet with Obour and Chizzy, and briefly saw Edem ,Esther Freeman,Stay J, and Iwan, at the MUSIGA Stakeholders Meeting. “I am such a Ghana Music fanatic. Maybe you’ll see me at this year’s Ghana Music Awards presenting an award, if I am invited by Charterhouse. Of course I would go, Ghana music is one of the country’s gems”.

When visiting the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), Ms. Ansong was pleasantly surprised with the products the NRSC had, in regards to road safety. “The National Road Safety Commission, under the leadership of Mr. Noble Appiah, is really trying to bring attention to the issue of road safety. He gave me so much material to bring back with me, including the teachers guide to teaching about road safety in the classroom, and other handbooks.

The NRSC is an important agency because their main focus is road safety. They have the ability to solely focus on this area and it is critical that the government continue aiding and assisting them so that they can aid the people of Ghana.” Ghana has a Miss Road Safety and fortunately, Ms. Ansong had the privilege of meeting her and her team.

The goal of Miss Road Safety is to go around Ghana teaching others about road safety and she can be found in churches, cab depots, anywhere- teaching about road safety.”I am so happy that Ghana has a ‘Miss Road Safety’. I met with her, Ms. Bishara, and apart from being beautiful, she is very smart. Ghana has a great representative serving as Miss Road Safety and we plan on working on road safety projects together this year.”

“The road deaths happening in Ghana are out of this world and out of control. The new N1 highway is becoming a hot place to be if you want to die. So many people have died on that road. A young child died a few weeks ago, more people have died before her, and an actress was injured on it a few weeks ago (an actress whom I had recently met at the GOTV Launching at the Movenpick Hotel)… how many people have to die on that road before the government steps in? This highway was built under the supervision of MIDA and the MCA Ghana Program.

If you go to the website, http://mida.gov.gh/site/?page_id=264, it specifically states that this highway is intended to “make an immense impact on the economy of the nation”. Well that is true, lots of people are dying and therefore the population numbers are going down and the economy will suffer due to the result of the loss of manpower. So yes an impact is being made, but it is not a POSITIVE impact. The goal of MIDA is to “reduce poverty through Economic Growth”.

People are dying on a national highway—how is that encouraging economic growth? If anything, it is INCREASING poverty because the people who are dying, many of them are the breadwinners for their homes and when they die unexpectedly , it puts the family in a hard economic situation, driving them into DEEPER poverty.

I just read that five new interchanges have been designed for the N1 highway.No no no no no, this has to stop. Before ANY interchanges are constructed, the Government of Ghana MUST sit down with the community and fix the problems that are currently occurring with all the deaths. Next , they need to sit down with their urban planners to access the space and see how the space is programmed around the highway—This is the MAIN thing the government needs to do.

This will tell them EXACTLY where footbridges need to be placed. KNUST produces fine urban planners, and I am even one—there are people who are willing to help , we just need the Government to include us. After the government does their assessment and fixes the existing problems on the N1 highway, then they can move forward and start looking at interchanges, but for now, no interchanges should be constructed until they fix the high road fatality problem that is currently occurring.

The accidents that have involved University of Ghana students—that too needs to be assessed. Too many people are dying in Ghana due to road accidents. If you do not believe me, go look at this website: http://ghanaroadaccidents.blogspot.com/, and read about all the road accidents that happen weekly in Ghana. It is very sad.

I have tried to do my part, to teach people about road safety, and I hope others will pitch in and try to educate others, drive safely, make sure their cars are maintained, and avoid dangerous maneuvers, such as trying to run across busy highways.”

AT VIASSAT THIS MORNING SHOW DISCUSSING ROAD SAFETY