SPEECH BY MR. MAGNUS REX DANQUAH, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, RICS CONSULT LIMITED AT THE TOTAL EMANCIPATION 2010 EVENT ORGANISED BY FAMILY VISION AFRICA PROJECT AT THE NOVOTEL HOTEL ON SATURDAY, 30TH OCTOBER
Mr. Chairman;
Representative of H. E. the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Honourable Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs;
Nananom;
Distinguished Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media;
I deem it a great honour for which I would forever be grateful to the organizers, Family Vision Africa Project, considering my rather humble and ordinary beginnings as an orphan at a very early, tender age and also that I have long traveled this road that the youth that the Project will cater for will definitely travel.
Mr. Chairman, please permit me to quote the Holy Book intermittently as I progress with my speech to take us on a path, which is very common to a lot of the youth of Ghana and Africa, especially the needy, under-privileged, orphans but mostly brilliant and gifted, and yet we as a people lose it all because of one thing: DREAMS and how we handle them, especially the dreamers.
It is recorded in the book of Genesis that Joseph had a dream……then later Joseph had another dream………
Let me state that communities, societies, nations, and continents are built and shaped by dreamers, it is dreamers who persevere and turn their dreams into producing inventions and designs that impact on our day-to-day lives, shape the future of tomorrow for all of us; and it is dreamers who worked on the seven wonders of the world, which still stand to our amazement today.
It is people with discernment, however, who could tell which of our children are dreamers, gifted and need the support of an entire village.
Long ago in this country, a whole village could decide to pool resources to sponsor the son or daughter of a neighbor to continue with his or her education, particularly outside the community, believing that that one individual will return one day after furthering his / her education to contribute to the general well-being of the rest of village. He or she is also expected to return and play his or her part towards the growth and development of the village, which helped to put him or her through education.
Gone, also are those days when we were all responsible for more than our own children, making the youth more responsible and disciplined, knowing even when you are in public and aware from the eyes of your own parents, you are not alone since you would be expected to behave with decorum towards all, whom you were supposed to offer the same respect as you would to your own parents.
Mr. Chairman, I have digressed a bit because I gather we have assembled here because of the DREAM of our son and brother, Prince Williams Oduro, the Executive Chairman of the Family Vision Africa.
Like Joseph son of Jacob, our brother and son had a dream in 2007 to establish the Family Vision Africa project to provide capacity building, financial and technical assistance through innovative programmes and strategies to create equal opportunities for the empowerment of under-privileged women for sustainable livelihood; supplying medical assistance; to building schools and providing educational opportunities for the under-privileged children on the streets and in rural communities.
As part of our brother and son’s dream, the Family Vision Africa Project has been able to acquire twenty acres of land in Essiam in the Ejumako-Enyan-Essiam District in the Central Region for a proposed village project.
According to his dream, the 20-acre model community-based educational complex project, when completed will provide an educational complex of classrooms, library, computer laboratory, reading rooms, boarding facility and administrative block; a Sick Bay; Counseling and Placement Centre; Sports Complex and Fitness Centre; Volunteers Block; Arts Museum and Centre; and a Garden for relaxation.
The question we have to answer for ourselves this evening is whether we want to be like Joseph’s brothers and family or like of old, we would as a village contribute so that collectively we can assist our brother and son to realize his dream?
Or would we like Joseph’s brothers and family think otherwise till when the project is completed and we come back during our other lives-after-death and find ourselves as under-privileged, apply for support from the Family Vision Africa project?
Mr. Chairman, before writing this speech, I had wondered why our brother and son chose to select me to come and be part of this evening’s function? What attributes did he and his team see in me and what is it that I am not seeing of myself to question their judgment?
Yes, I was an orphan;
Yes, I had lots of dreams like Joseph and our brother and son, Prince Williams Oduro, indeed admittedly much bigger than this in the beginning but truthfully, I have lived greater part of all these dreams because I had people who like in the village, believed in me and my dreams and helped in diverse ways to enable me realize most of them.
Thus, when our brother and son approached me and invited me to be part of this evening’s event, I wasn’t seeing him but myself at the beginning of my own journey, taking various proposals, projects and events for sponsorship and support by others, both corporate and individuals.
Mr. Chairman, I was looking at myself whilst he tried to convince me of the viability of the project; why I should believe and share his faith in himself and the project he wants to undertake to impact the society; I was looking at myself on my first day at trying my hands at presentation and even not appropriately dressed and yet, the gentleman I was talking to had all the patience to correct me during the presentation and to ask me to come back the following day for my break.
As I talk about all these things, please I would want you to do likewise and to appreciate why we need to give others a break, unconditional, because one day our own children, and children’s children would be sitting before somebody else and what we do here this evening will make the difference in their lives, too.
Life is one long journey and as a nation, we should begin to appreciate that and act accordingly.
The problems we face today as a nation and as a continent are not insurmountable, for as long as we begin to dream again like Joseph and our brother and son, Prince Williams Oduro.
Indeed, let’s begin to dream BIG again for it is only dreamers who shape the future as Joseph did ending up as the head of government in a foreign land; it is only dreamers who can look into the future and build subways in Europe and Americas at a time that there was no traffic but could look into the future and realize the possibilities; it is dreamers who would invent things seen in their dreams and actualize them, knowing that it would help the bigger society, nation and continent.
Dreamers, who get the strategic support of others, create industries to provide employment for our mass unemployed youth; and it is dreamers who see opportunities where others see stumbling blocks to create the kind of future we all desire for ourselves.
Mr. Chairman, it is for all these reasons that I am gratified to be here this evening to be part of the Family Vision Africa dream and call on all to endeavour to lend any kind of support to make the dream come to pass and by it make the district a much better place through this project.
Thank you for your attention and God richly bless us all and make our nation, Ghana great and strong.
