Columbus, Ghanaians bond through agriculture project
Three teenage girls from Ghana perused the flowers and plants in the garden behind the North YMCA, picking ripe tomatoes and examining the peppers.
“This is your sister garden,” Dustin Homan said to the visitors from western Africa. Two of them are from Accra, Columbus’ sister city since 2015, and one is from nearby.
In a studio inside, the girls gathered around a white table and prepped the vegetables for salsa. Tasting periodically, Homan, program manager for 4-H Club special projects with Ohio State University, gave out instructions.
Five Ghanaian visitors arrived Wednesday morning — the three girls and two adults. Fame Makafui Nissi-Brown, 16, and Emelia Naa Adai Ashiley, 16, represented the YMCA in Accra and Theodora Ama Kensema, 15, the 4-H in Ghana. Here in central Ohio, YMCA staff members, 4-H members and Sister Cities International and Ohio State University staff and faculty members spent a week with them talking about agriculture.
The visit was funded with the help of Ohio State’s Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation, a program researching sustainable food security across the globe.
The project has four objectives: Establishing sister gardens, teaching the importance of food security and sustainable agriculture and youth involvement, transcending borders and forming relationships.
In 2015, Roman Catholic Cardinal Peter Turkson visited Ohio to discuss Pope Francis’ recent proclamation about the importance of the environment. That and a recent eight-month trip to Ghana inspired Homan and other Ohio State faculty and staff members to start the project.
Nissi-Brown said that at first she was not excited to come to America to learn about agriculture. Yet through her experience, she said, she learned about the importance of agriculture to any country’s survival.
She now wants to start an initiative through her YMCA called Girls Green. Currently, Nissi-Brown said, agriculture is seen as a “poor man’s job.” The purpose of Girls Green will be to revive agriculture’s stature in society.
Appiah Kwaku Boateng, founder and executive director of 4-H Ghana, one of the adult chaperones, said the visit was exceptional.
Tim Sword, president of Greater Columbus Sister Cities International, has worked with the Sister Cities nonprofit for two and a half years. The sister city relationship Columbus has with Accra also influenced the decision to bring people from Ghana.
“This relationship with Accra has been dynamic,” Sword said, including educational, community and cultural connections.
Homan hopes the girls will be inspired and take the initiative back to Ghana.
“I hear the girls say, ‘I want to do this back home,’” Homan said.