“Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Come and let us sing a joyful song unto the Lord, for His goodness and mercies endures forever. Let the lessons begin, and the singing too. Let there be love and happiness!”- This was the mood during the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols which took place at the Institute22^nd December, 2022, to crown a very successful 2022.

The Festival and Carols told the tale of how humanity fell, how the Messiah was to come, and how Jesus was born and how his life unfolded. 

 The event, co-hosted by the Institute Welfare, was well attended by staff who enjoyed the melodious music from the Noguchi Choir and the Viral Melodies. The Welfare chair, Prof. Kusi, in his welcome address, reiterated the need to see Christmas as “a time for sober reflection, past and future, a time of forgiveness, a time to show love to one another.” 

The festival was made even more remarkable by the staff reading the nine lessons in English, Ewe, Ga, Twi, and Buli in between the melodious carols from the choirs in attendance. 

The Quality Office, led by the Institute Quality Officer Dr. Susan Adu-Amankwah, also used the festival to launch the Noguchi Quality Week which will take place from 27^th February – 3^rd March, 2023. With planned activities like departmental preliminary quizzes, a safety sport audit, a treasure hunt, a lecture on quality management systems, and the crowning of the Face of Quality, the celebration is guaranteed to be interesting. Quality, according to Dr. Adu-Amankwah, “allows us to meet and surpass our client’s expectations and guarantees we are compliant with our social contract with clients and the people of Ghana. The slogan for the week’s celebration is “Think Research, Think Quality, Think Noguchi.”  

The Director, Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, in her end of year message to staff, thanked all for their dedication and support. She highlighted some of the year’s achievements including the significant leap in grantsmanship, AREF awards won by three staff of the institute which was unprecedented, a new Institute logo that had the backing of the College of Health Sciences, the training of at least one staff from the various administrative units, and the extensive public engagements during the celebration of various health days in the course of the year, and the Annual Research Meeting which was well patronised by staff and external partners. She also talked about the new Institute website after which the site was officially launched. 

Professor William Ampofo, a patron of Noguchi Choir and an MTN Hero of Change 2022, presented gifts to the Viral Melodies and the Noguchi Choir.  The festival was attended by representatives of the JICA Ghana Office and the School of Public Health, and Rev. Seth Asomani, a founding father of the Noguchi Choir and former Librarian of the Institute.

Mrs. Angela Appiah-Kubi was the lively mistress of ceremony, and the two Choirs were directed by Dr. Isaac Darko Otchere (Noguchi Choir) and Dr. Evelyn Yayra Bonney (Viral Melodies of the Virology Department). 

We thank the organizing team led by the ever-reliable Mrs. Augustina Ayeh, with support from the Institute Welfare, for putting this beautiful ceremony together. We look forward to an exciting 2023.