Women urged to help protect environment
Women have been urged to protect the environment by embracing environmentally- friendly lifestyles that would prevent the degradation of the environment.
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The advice was given to members of the Council of Catholic Women during the celebration of this year’s World Union of Catholic Women Organisation Day in Accra.
The global theme for this year’s celebration was: “Women, sowers of Hope”, and the Ghana chapter based its celebration on the theme: “The effects of environmental degradation on human life.”
Environmental Protection Agency
While speaking to a cross section of members of various women associations in the Catholic Church, a Chief Programme Officer at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Natural Resource Department, Mrs Florence Agyei Martey, encouraged women to play their roles in carrying out and supporting environmental protection activities, stressing that women could take numerous actions to help protect the environment.
She said women could protect the environment through proper management of domestic waste, decrease their demand for goods which are perishable and the use of disposable items.
“We must reduce the waste we generate at home, especially food waste, and also practise waste segregation at home and ensure that our waste is properly disposed of,” Mrs Agyei Martey stressed.
She added that women could contribute to saving the environment by taking part in advocacy work to increase public awareness of environmental protection.
Ambassadors of peace
In a keynote address, the Secretary of the National Council of Catholic Women Ghana, Mrs Mary Harlley, urged the women to be ambassadors of peace in the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections, stressing, “We must be bold and have the courage to speak against the wrongdoings in our community as much as possible.”
She stated, “Women and children suffer most when there is war, so women must ensure peace. Mothers should advise their children, particularly the youth, not to allow any politician to use them to disturb the peace in the country before, during or after the elections.”
In a welcome address, the President of the Accra Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women, Mrs Margaret Yeboah, explained that the council was an umbrella body of all women groups in the Catholic Church.
Every five years, she said, the World Union of Catholic Women Organisation, of which the Council of Catholic Women, Ghana, is a member, deliberates on a chosen theme to find ways of helping themselves, their families, communities and the church.
During a question and answer session, some of the women underscored how relevant it was to protect the environment, pointing out that their little actions should not be dismissed as irrelevant.
The participants said to be better stewards of God’s creation, they could, in addition to advocating environmental justice, cook only what could reasonably be consumed, and care for water bodies, plants and animals.
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