2020 All Africa Service Day held across West Africa.

Amid the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) global pandemic, hundreds of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints along with their friends across West Africa came out to participate in this year’s All Africa Service Day held on Saturday, 15^th August, 2020. This year’s activities tempered by the COVID-19 pandemic saw participants focus on tree planting, blood donation, cleaning and painting of public buildings, donation of materials at orphanages and general environmental sanitation.

In Tamale, Ghana, Church units in the Ghana Kumasi Area Coordinating Council partnered with an organization known as Green Republic and officials of the Ministry of Forestry to plant One thousand(1,000) trees to help combat the effects of climate change in the region.

Maintaining strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols, over 300 volunteers from Three Stakes( similar to a Diocese) in Accra, Ghana  were at the headquarters of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Accra, to give the buildings and the premises a facelift. The service project coincided with the 85^th anniversary of the establishment of the corporation. Mr. Ebenezer Odzawo, the Deputy Director of Radio speaking on behalf of the Management of GBC at the end of the exercise, thanked the Church for their service:  “On behalf of the management and staff of the Ghana Broadcasting Cooperation, I will like to express our sincere appreciation to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for choosing GBC out of the several organizations in the country. It is a privilege that the Church came to join us celebrate our 85^th anniversary, this is a beautiful birthday present to all of us at GBC.”

In the Cape Coast Region of Ghana, members of the Ghana Cape Coast Stake rendered their service at the Ankafor Psychiatric Hospital. For three hours, they swept, cleaned, and fumigated the administrative block of the hospital. They ended their service with a donation of soaps, detergents, toilet tissue rolls, clothing and other toiletries which were gathered from members from the various units within the stake. Staff of the Hospital were highly impressed with the level of service rendered and stated that the items received were the very items urgently needed by the patients of the hospital.

In Senegal, recent Government restrictions on public gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic prevented many members of the Church from participating in this year’s activities. Nevertheless, twenty-two members and twelve non-member friends came together to help clean up part of the Bel-Air Beach in Dakar, the surroundings of the Madiinoll Ellmi Mosque in St. Louis and to put smiles on the faces of the children at the Children Smiles Orphanage in Mbour.

In Liberia, volunteers cleaned and painted the Gardnerville Administrative and Court buildings. The officials of the Court house thanked the Church for the facelift given to their buildings. According to them, the buildings had not been painted for a very long time. Members of the Church also donated sanitizing materials to the offices in the courthouse to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the area.

In Togo, the National Blood Transfusion Center (CNTS) in Lome received materials to help protect the center’s staff and donors from COVID-19 during the blood donation process. The Center thanked the Church for the donation and asked for help in creating awareness on the need for blood donation by the citizenry.

Several Stakes in the Nigeria Benin City Area Coordinating Council participated in the 2020 All Africa Service Day by rendering various services ranging from Cleaning, weeding, painting to desilting drainages:

Benin City Nigeria Uzebu Stake: Member of the Stake helped to prepare a secondary school in the area – Asoro Grammar School for students to write their terminal examinations. The school has not been in use since the COVID-19 lockdown in March, 2020.

Benin City Nigeria Oregbeni Stake: In anticipation of the relaxation of the COVID-19 restrictions, members of the Oregbgeni Stake cleaned up the public park in the area – Ramat Park.

Asaba Nigeria Stake: Members engaged in Clearing, Raking and weeding of Asagba Primary School, Ambassador Leo Okogwu Street, Okpanam Road, General Hospital, Ibusa, Obobo Square, Illah, Primary Healthcare, Ugbolu and Community town hall, Illah. The exercise was carried out to rid the various locations of weeds and dangerous reptiles.

Benin City Nigeria Ugbowo Stake: Members of the Stake worked on making Guobadia Street motorable. The road had fallen into a deplorable state. Work done included desilting drainages and sand-filling of potholes.

Benin City Nigeria Siluko Stake: Members worked in the Ogida and Uwelu communities weeding and desilting drainages in the area.