WELCOME ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT PATRICK MANCHA SOSSOU
	Torgbiwo, Mamawo, Special Guest of Honor, Reverend Fathers, Invited Guests, distinguished and highly motivated members of the EAGB, ladies and gentlemen. It is with great honor and humility that I stand here this evening to extend a warm welcome to all of you without exception. On behalf of the Executives and the General Membership of the Ewe Association of Greater Boston, and on my own behalf, I heartily extend a heartfelt Boston welcome to you to our Inaugural Ceremony. I know, you have traveled from very far, far and near to grace this special occasion. It is my fervent and singular hope that your time here with us will definitely be a time well spent and each of us will cherish this moment for many years to come. The Ewe Association of Greater Boston is an Association of Ewes from Benin, Ghana and Togo, who have come together to celebrate our rich cultural heritage and to create a community for ourselves so far away from our original homes. We also intend to serve as forum for discussing interesting events in Eweland and to raise funds whenever possible to assist with credible, sustainable and needed development projects in our countries of Benin, Ghana and Togo. In pursuit of this noble goal, I am very excited to announce, on behalf of the General Membership of our Association, the formation and properly registered Ewe Association of Greater Boston Charitable Foundation, a 501(C) (3) organization which will be in the forefront of our collective efforts to raise and mobilize funds from all sources towards undertaking development projects back home. In the months and years to come, we will be knocking on your doors to make contributions towards our noble projects. More importantly, your contributions to the Charitable Foundation are tax deductible and you will be supporting a worthy cause. Invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, we are here today, clad in our rich and elegant cultural outfits to celebrate the inauguration of an Association, which we hope will be here for so many years to come and definitely outlive the pioneers whose commitment, single mindedness and absolute desire for success has brought us this far. The EAGB came into being as a result of the dogged determination of a few Ewes in the Greater Boston area some 2 years ago. What started as an idealistic concept has now grown in leaps and bounds. I am so very proud to announce that, as we ngather here for our Inauguration, this young Association, has 80 fully registered and dues paying members. Not only that, members take our monthly meeting attendance so seriously, we almost always have a full house during our meetings. Congratulations to our members for rising to the occasions and making this Association a proud one to belong to. Mina miwoe woanyo!!! Xesiayi!!! Invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, our major goal is to promote friendship, unity and Ewe pride amongst all our members and in the process provide a forum for education as well as social and cultural awareness of the EWE heritage. At this point, I will like to remind us to re-commit ourselves for the great and challenging tasks ahead of us. We should not be tempted to rest on our early achievements. We all worked very hard to get to this point and it behooves us to continue with togetherness to carry high our Ewe heritage and be the soldiers for good causes in Eweland. Tonight is a celebratory evening and may I take this opportunity to acknowledge the wonderful work that has been done by our Executives in successfully steering the affairs of the Association. Your willingness to serve and the voluntary spirits exhibited by each of us are worthy of emulation. Three cheers to you all. The rocks of this Association are the general members. Your individual and collective efforts have brought us smoothly this far and we are counting on you to carry us into the future. Endless success is our goal. Invited Guests, ladies and gentlemen, the yeoman’s job done by members of the Inaugural Ceremony Planning Committees cannot pass without mention. We are very grateful for your efforts. Your handiworks are on display tonight for everyone to see. Great job, my compatriots. Torgbiwo, Mamawo, Special Guest of Honor, Reverend Fathers, Invited Guests, distinguished and highly motivated members of the EAGB, ladies and gentlemen, at this juncture, I will like to state categorically that, the state of our Association is very= strong and the future looks extremely bright. We still have ways to go and our paths will have some bumps but we shall persevere and emerge victorious at all times. Mina mi woe woanyo!!! Xesiayi!!! The following are some of the special goals the Association will be focusing on in the coming years: 1. Raise funds to support and or build clinics, schools and do other humanitarian projects in Ghana, Benin and Togo. 2. A serious and determined quest to a acquire a property to serve as a Function/Community Center for the Association. 3. Initiate a special appeal/drive to encourage our young adults to join the Association. This is critical to ensuring the continuity and longevity that we envisage for this Association 4. Develop programs to increase general member and foster a strong, vibrant and dynamic community for our members. On the program tonight is a Fundraising for our Association. Please be generous, dig your hands deep into your pockets, wallets and purses and help a worthy cause. We are counting on you. Now, before I take my seat, I will like to once again, on behalf the Executives and General Membership of the Association and on my own behalf, extend to you all, a hearty welcome to our Inaugural Ceremony. Please, enjoy yourselves as much as you can whilst helping our infant Association to grow from strength to strength. THANK YOU!!!!!!! Mia Wor Zor Looooooooooooooo. Mia Woe Va Edor Wor Ge!!!!! Akpe Na Mi Kata!!!