By Ellen Agbavor
The Founder and Chief Advisor of International Youth Fellowship (IYF), Dr. Ock Soo is of the view that most challenges that confront people, societies are Mindset related.
“We have seen several attempts and agenda by governments, past and present to come up with various strategies to curb the filth in our cities, especially the capital, Accra. Sadly enough, many of these agenda had yielded very little to no results due to the mindset of most people”, Dr. Park said.
According to him, many support the President’s recently launched “Clean your frontage” agenda, a select few of them at the IYF are by extension and in addition advocating for a “Clean Heart & Mindset” agenda.
“When the society fails, or sees less of a need to keep a clean environment and surrounding, It’s imperative that such society requires more than a call to action to clean our environment. Adding that “such a society requires a deliberate and consistent Mindset transformation to make the agenda of keeping a clean environment become not just a thought, but an attitude and a way of life, on daily basis”.
Dr. Park’s definition for mindset education concept is character reformation, heart education, emotional intelligence and control.
The human heart or mind are things we cannot see with our eyes, however, there is a flow of streams and rivers, that is also the way the heart flows, Dr. Park explained.Most people want to be successful and live happy lives, however not anyone can live the life that they desire which is due to the orientation of the heart, A slogan from the life transforming concept mindset education, ” a changed mindset leads to a changed life and by extension a changed society” .
He further explained that a true change comes about when it occurs within a person and its reflected in his or her actions, attitude and life.
“A true reflection of cleanliness in the life of a person or a society can only be sustainable when the essence of ensuring and maintaining this state of cleanliness, is well grounded in the heart, mind and soul of the individual or society”, he said.
Dr. Park was speaking at the launch of “The Clean Heart, Clean Accra Project, in Accra. A follow-up initiative to “the Clean Your Frontage” programme launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo – Addo, with the sole aim of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
He said that Research gate’s Rethinking Waste articles indicate that 3, 390 tons of solid waste is generated in a day in Accra alone.
Government would have to spend millions of Ghana Cedis to partly manage this Man – made menace. It’s obvious that the issues of or dirty streets and surrounding in several parts of Ghana has prevailed over the past decades, with not much of an improvement seen in this regard. Saying that “while some of us agree that strong state institution and systems are a major part of getting the society clean, it is also the case that when the societal mindset is not influenced and changed positively, these institutions would not be effective in ensuring a holistic change reflective enough in the life of such society.
There are several example and references that could be drawn from parts of Africa, Europe, America and other places where streets are included and not just those capitals.
He said in the case of these states, considerable efforts was put into changing the mindset of the populace which in turn reflected in their change of attitude and national life.
He would also visit to the President at the Jubilee House to deliberate further on the Clean Ghana Project and the way forward.
