Ghanaian group in Canada honour Her Excellency Rev Dr Ocansey

Renowned philanthropist, Her Excellency Rev Dr Ocansey, a Princess from the Ocansey Royal family of Ghana, has received the prestigious Living Legend of Legal Migration Award in Edmonton Canada, from the Fraternity Group of Ghanaians in Edmonton and Calgary on December 13, 2014.

The group held a special ‘Tribute to HE Rev Dr Ocansey’ during the Ghana-Canada Legal Migration recognition ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.

‘Ghanaians overseas remit over three billion dollars home to Ghana every year,’ said Mr. Charles Mukwah, founder of the Fraternity Group of Ghanaians in Edmonton and Calgary. ‘This makes legal migration critical for Ghana’s development agenda. Princess Ocansey founded the Ghana-Canada Legal Migration program of which many of us here are beneficiaries, including our wives and children. Her vision has transformed our lives in incredible ways! This is why we are honouring Her Excellency Rev Dr Ocansey, with the ‘Living Legend of Legal Migration Award’, and having this tribute to her,’ said Mr. Charles Mukwah.

‘We will also be honouring and recognising five major employers where our brothers are working very successfully, said Mr. Isaac Okumo, Acting Chairman and executive member of the Fraternity Group in Edmonton, now working with PTI in Edmonton. These were employers Rev Dr Ocansey sought when she first came to Canada in 2006, to start this laudable program, the Ghana-Canada Legal Migration program. These companies have shown excellence in providing great settlement and integration services to our members and we want to appreciate them. They are: Standens, PTI, Berry Y and V, Canada Bread and Lower Mainland Steel. We will also be recognising the Alberta Building Trades Union, as well as Mr. Olie Schell, former Director of the Alberta Industry Training, all of whom have been very helpful to us.

‘Through this program, we have benefitted and it has impacted our whole families,’ said Louis Asare, Executive board member of the Fraternity Group, now working with Canada Bread, in Edmonton.

'As Ghana has just appointed a new High Commissioner to Canada, HE Dr Sulley Gariba, we petition him to have the Government focus on expanding the foundation that Rev Dr Ocansey has laid through the Ghana-Canada Legal Migration Program. This program ensures that we have all the proper certificates and documentation needed to succeed in Canada, so we are all succeeding,' ended Louis.

‘I am very happy today because I know how hard Rev Dr Ocansey worked to make this a reality,’ said Nana Sam who worked alongside Rev Dr Ocansey in establishing the Ghana-Canada Legal Migration Program. ‘She faced many difficulties, but because of her trust in God, she was not moved. If there is one thing we have learned from Rev Dr Ocansey, is to trust God completely and to never give up!’ said Nana Sam, a beneficiary now working with Trican in Red Deer.

HE Rev Dr Ocansey, an Engineering graduate of Rutgers University College of Engineering, said, ‘Now God uses me to re-engineer the destinies of the underserved of my people to His Glory’.

Her Excellency also recently received support from the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, for her peace efforts in the Middle East, as co-chair of the ‘We Support Peace’ campaign, which she co-chairs with, Mrs Harriet Fulbright of the renowned Fulbright Scholarship Fund, by former US Senator Fulbright.

Dr. Ocansey is a recognised global leader in stopping human suffering. Her work with HIV/AIDS patients and orphans has received both White House recognition and through her UK branch of Save a Million Lives, recognition from Buckingham Palace.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters and Chaplaincy from the Canadian International Chaplaincy Academy (CICA) University and Seminary and she is a Word of Life Ministries International (WOLMI) Ambassador-at-Large. WOLMI is the first and only Full Gospel Organisation to be accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council.

She was a recent recipient of the prestigious Bridge Builders Award presented in Washington DC during the historic US-Africa Leaders Summit in August 2014 and was recently appointed Chairperson of the US-Africa Ebola Working Group in Washington DC. She is also founder of the Eradicate Ebola Now Initiative working with the University of Alberta, Canada towards its first Ebola Roundtable in March 2015. She is well known in Canada for her humanitarian visits to the sick children of both the Alberta Children’s Hospital as well as the BC Children’s hospital.

The Fraternity group of Ghanaians in Edmonton was formed in January 2013 and the Calgary group was formed in October 2014. The group was formed to be ‘our brother’s keeper’, as taught through core values training at Channels of Blessings, by Rev Dr. Ocansey.

Ghana and Canada established diplomatic relations in 1957, when Canada established a High Commission in Ghana. In that same year, Ghana became the first African country to receive Canadian assistance. In 1962, Ghana, an English speaking country, opened its High Commission in Ottawa. The two countries share the same republic day, July 1. Bilateral relations between Ghana and Canada are strong and long-standing and Ghana is considered a model of democracy and stability in West Africa. Since 2006, through the Ghana-Canada legal migration program, Ghanaian tradesmen have helped fill skills shortages in Canada, with the advantage of speaking English, these skilled workers have done well in Alberta.

There are currently pipefitters, welders, ironworkers, carpenters and many tradesmen from Ghana in Alberta through the Ghana-Canada legal migration program.