The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Ghana has joined the national government's tree planting drive to plant 5 million trees on June 11, 2021. The government initiative, dubbed the Green Ghana Project, intends to plant 5 million trees in a single day. Adventist churches, institutions, conferences, schools, hospitals and members are planting 1 million of those trees, 20 percent of the national goal.
Pastor Thomas Techie Ocran, president of the Southern Ghana Union Conference, joined members of the diplomatic corp and other dignitaries to plant a tree on behalf of the Adventist Church in Ghana on June 11, 2021. “The [Adventist] Church in Ghana is planting 1 million trees in support of the government project of planting 5 million trees in 2021 because Adventists have always been in the forefront of tree planting in Ghana,” said Ocran.
Ocran’s plant, marked “F6,” stands in the yard of the Ghana Seismology Department in Accra. Ocran stated that the church is proud to associate itself with the Green Ghana Project because God’s people are called to care for the earth. “Since the year 2000, ADRA Ghana has supported communities and farmers to plant trees all over the country, and most amenity trees on Ghana’s highways were planted by ADRA,” he said. “This is, however, the first time we are asking all members, institutions, schools, hospitals, and churches to plant trees and invest in ensuring that the trees grow. The response has been good.”
Earlier in the week, Ocran and Kwame Boakye-Kwanin, president of the Adventist Church in North Ghana, appealed to church members through messages on HopeTV Ghana to join the campaign by planting and caring for the plants.
The church is running a hashtag #sdagreengh and has encouraged members and institutions to share pictures on social media with that tag.