Community Baptist Church Awards Scholarships to Montreal Ghanaian Youth

When Reverend Daniel Addai Smith arrived in Montreal, Canada in November 2003 to head the fledgling Ghanaian Community Anointing Baptist Church, he immediately identified a need in the community: effective support for the education of the youth in the six thousand strong Ghanaian community in the eastern Canadian City of Montreal. He immediately set out to work with the avowed mission that “the community and church are inseparable” and that the Church's work should contribute to a progressive and vibrant community. “You cannot minister only unto the spiritual needs of people and ignore their physical and developmental needs because it is the latter that prepares the individual for effective spiritual development”, the unassuming Pastor frequently declares.

Putting together a group of dedicated community members, Reverend Addai Smith launched the Anointing Baptist Foundation to undertake the community outreach work of the Church. In July 2004 the Foundation decided to launch a Scholarship Scheme to assist Ghanaian-Canadian youth with financial and other logistic support for their vocational and academic programs. With financial support from the Church's members and the Mustard Seed Foundation in Washington D.C the Foundation awarded the first set of Scholarships to a group of six Ghanaian youth on Saturday November 13, 2004 at an impressive Awards Ceremony at the Church's premises in Montreal.

The proud 2004 premier Scholarship Award recipients were Catherina Osei, a Nursing Student at Riverside Academy, Abena Amosa, Commerce student at John Abbott College, and Matilda Antwiwaa, an Accounting student at LaSalle College. Others were Patience Dzandu, a Social Work student of McGill University, Dorothy Yeboah a Medical Research student at the University of Ottawa and Josephine Abrokwaa, student in Actuarial Mathematics at University of Quebec, Montreal Campus. The Chairperson of the Scholarship Awards Committee, Michael Baffoe appealed to members of Montreal's Ghanaian community for active support for this noble venture and worthwhile project. “We are all winners if we actively support initiatives aimed at the educational advancement of our community's youth”, he said.