For many decades, the Odwira Festival has been an expression of Ghana’s colourful, vibrant and rich traditional culture.
This year’s event, witnessed a partnership between The Angeles Foundation and The Mastercard Foundation to create awareness of COVID-19 vaccines in selected communities in Ghana.
The significance of the annual festival is rooted in thanksgiving for bountiful harvests and the acknowledgement of the area’s ancestors.
For decades, the Odwira Festival has been an expression of Ghana’s colourful, vibrant and diverse cultural identity, bringing together people from all walks of life to celebrate themes of victory, gratitude and harvest in unity.
Being a Yam Festival, gratitude for the harvest is underpinned in the cultural ritual of “feeding ancestors”; traditional authorities perform this function.
The theme of the Angeles Foundation Campaign “Obiaa B3 W)” is linked to the Mastercard Foundation’s Public Awareness Campaign #ItsUpToUs.
The primary goals of the Mastercard Foundation Public Awareness Campaign are to encourage Ghanaians in the demographic group aged 18 to 45 to get the COVID-19 vaccine, dispel myths and conspiracy theories associated with COVID-19 vaccines and encourage communities to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
An interview with the founder of the Angeles Foundation, Kobi Hemaa Osisiadan-Bekoe, highlighted the responsibility of individuals to get vaccinated and become vaccine ambassadors in their communities to mitigate the transmission and effects of the COVID-19 virus.
Volunteers wearing #ItsUpToUs, Mastercard Foundation and “Obiara B3W)’ Tee-shirts took the campaign door to door on the principal street and the market culminating with a vaccination exercise in front of the Chief’s Palace.
To attract the youth’s attention and achieve the campaign’s purpose, the CEO of the Angeles Foundation, Boris Osisiadan-Nimpong, led the youth in a community dance competition using the “ObiaraB3Wo’ Campaign song.
During the festival, the campaign was boosted by the presence of members of the Lions Club, National Health Insurance Scheme, and Ghana health services to promote Covid 19 vaccines and good health practices.
