Learning to speak up in rural Ghana

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Category: Youth News

Created on Friday, 05 December 2014 00:00

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Learning to speak up in rural Ghana

Girls growing up in rural Ghana often lack the self-confidence of their peers in urban areas, which can put them at a disadvantage in later life. Gender activists are trying to help.

As dozens of schoolchildren at the Kumbungu District Assembly Junior High School in Ghana's Northern Region gather for morning assembly, 14-year-old Kadijah Alhassan stands out in front ready to address the crowd.

Morning assembly is held in all Ghanaian lower level schools. Students pledge out loud to be obedient and patriotic.

"I promise on my honor to be faithful and loyal to Ghana, my motherland," they declare in unison.

As the moment for her to speak to the school approaches, Kadijah knows she has the necessary self-confidence.

She used to be rather more diffident, until she attended a mentorship club.

“It helped me to speak in public because when I was not part of this club, I was not able to speak in public. And in class I didn't know how to answer questions but now, I can do that,” she told DW.

One generation helping another

The mentorship club was the brainchild of Hikmat Baba Dua, 24, a graduate from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. She had noticed that girls from rural backgrounds in Ghana tend to lack in self-esteem, be timid and shy and have difficulty with public speaking. As well as helping the girls develop interpersonal skills, the club also offers them assistance in choosing a career.

Dua runs an organization called the League of Young Female Leaders and says most girls need help. "This help can only come from a generational mentorship where we have graduates of tertiary institutions linking them up with our sisters in junior schools," she said.

Kadijah wants to work in journalism. She says this because "in Ghana there are more confusions about the political parties and I want to be part of those who are educating them.”

Ghanaian gender activist Hafsatu Sumani believes rural women's low self-confidence is linked to cultural stereotypes.

“It is only in urban areas where you will find young girls talking in public or even in the midst of men discussing, but if you go to the villages, you will find meetings where you don't have young girls or even women participating. It is just because they feel that women do not have that knowledge to participate,” she told DW.

Sumani says a timid girl becomes a timid woman when she grows up, and this keeps many women from realizing their potential.

Date 17.11.2014

Author Maxwell Suuk / mc

Source: Deutsche Welle

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Mother, 25, Sells Newborn Boy to Childless Couple for £130

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Category: Youth News

Created on Saturday, 07 June 2014 00:00

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Mother, 25, Sells Newborn Boy to Childless Couple for £130

A single mother of four was so poor she felt forced to sell her newborn son for £130 in rural India.

Gauri Shah, 32, who lives in a slum near railway tracks in a village, in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal with her three daughters aged between three and eight years old was abandoned by her husband eight months ago when she was expecting her fourth child.

She sold the baby boy to a childless couple but he was rescued after neighbours raised the alarm.

The ten-day-old baby is now being cared for at a children’s home.

His mother gave birth to him on May 25 but was uncertain how she could raise him alone so she sold the tot – who is yet to be named – to a childless couple seven days later.

However, the news soon spread within the village and the local government quickly stepped in and rescued the child.

But Mrs Shah refuses to take him back and the little baby was handed over to a children’s home.

Her only source of income is the money her 70-year-old mother gets after a day begging for hours on the streets.

She said that she feels no remorse about selling off her newborn baby, as she believes it was the best decision for her son and three daughters.

She said: ‘My husband left me eight months ago with three daughters. We depend on whatever money my mother manages to collect. She had to borrow Rs 100 (£1) from our neighbour for my delivery. I have no money to raise my children, how will I take care of another?

‘After I was discharged from the hospital, a childless couple approached me and asked me to give them my son for Rs13000. I accepted the offer, as I had no other option. I thought my son would live a better life with them.’

Mrs Shah said she would take back her son if the government helped her with some benefits.

The state administration has now given her 60 days to think about whether she will accept the baby. After that the infant will be given away for adoption.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

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Former criminal with more than 50 convictions gets degree - in CRIMINOLOGY

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Category: Youth News

Created on Wednesday, 16 July 2014 00:00

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Former criminal with more than 50 convictions gets degree - in CRIMINOLOGY

Natalie Atkinson has turned her life around with a first class degree in Policing, Investigation and Criminology.

A 25-year-old woman with more than 50 convictions has turned her life around to graduate from university with a first class degree in criminology with honours.

Natalie Atkinson put her troubled past behind her to be awarded top marks in her Policing, Investigation and Criminology degree.

Despite leaving school when she was just 14-years-old she scored 95 per cent in her dissertation.

The clever alumna will go on to do a Master’s degree in Criminology after being accepted at the London School of Economics (LSE).

She was crowned the National Union of Students (NUS) Endsleigh Student of the Year during a ceremony at Bolton’s Macron Football Stadium.

Natalie who studied at the University of Cumbria said: “It’s amazing and to be honest I am still in shock.

“I have gone from being a prolific offender living a chaotic lifestyle to living a settled and happy life, so if I can do it then anyone can.

“Looking back, if someone had said to me a few years ago that in 2014 I’d be graduating with a first class honours degree, moving to London to commence a Master’s degree and looking forward to a successful career, I would have laughed.

“But this is my life.

“If you set your mind to it anything is achievable, but it is up to you to make the changes that need to be made.

“All you need to do is take little steps to begin with and you will see things changing. Everyone will have a different path to desistance, you just need to find yours.”

Proud Natalie, from Lancaster, is now an activist for troubled teens and recently presented BBC3 documentary Banged Up and Left to Fail.

The show highlights the plight of of youngsters going through the criminal justice system and their lack of prospects.

In the hour-long programme she meets jailed young offenders while also liaising with MP Jeremy Wright, Minister for Prisons.

She told the cameras how she had more than 50 criminal convictions and claimed to have committed more than 100 offences, including battery, damage, theft and assaulting a police officer.

“Throughout my teenage years I was a persistent offender, constantly in and out of police cells and once I turned 18 prison,” she said.

“Prison made me worse. I wanted rehabilitating, not a chance - I was just punished, I was contained ,I was held...then let out.”

“At 13, I used to want to go back to secure units because its the only place I would feel safe and settled.

“It all changed when i turned 18, I graduated to the adult criminal justice system, a week after my 18th birthday I was locked up in HMP Styal.

“My history of assaults meant I was high risk and put on the wing with the most serious adult offenders.

“It was a whole different world, there was violence, fighting, aggression.

“I learned more about drugs than I’d ever known and got addicted to subutex, a heroin substitute. One inmate took her own life because she couldn’t cope.”

Natalie added: “Returning to education was one of the biggest challenges I had to overcome.

“When I first started University I was so nervous that I would not fit in, as I thought everyone would know I am an ex-offender and that I would not be able to do the work.”

University of Cumbria Student Union Chief Executive Daryl Ormerod said: “Natalie’s story is compelling.

“Her ongoing commitment to developing herself so that she may in turn help others as she has been helped, is simply inspiring.

“We are proud to have her amongst our membership, and wish her well for what I am sure will be a highly successful future.”

By Stephen White

Source: Mirror UK

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Poly students worried over POTAG strike

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Category: The ClassRoom

Created on Friday, 16 May 2014 00:00

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Poly students worried over POTAG strike

Student of Accra Polytechnic have expressed their disappointment at the timing of the strike by their lecturers.

The students say the ongoing strike by the members of the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) will adversely affect their preparations for the end of semester examinations expected to begin in June.

POTAG announced an indefinite nationwide strike in protest against the unwillingness of government to pay their Book and Research Allowance for the 2013/2014 academic year.

In an interview with Citi News, some students of the Accra Polytechnic said the strike is unfair.

“We will be having mid-semester exams next week and we also haven’t completed all the topics in our handout that is going to cover the exams. We have to do it on our own and it is going to be a bit stressful,” said a student.

Another also complained saying, “it’s going to affect us a lot because we need lecturers to come and explain certain things to us. We can’t do things on our own and their TAs [Teaching Assistants] are also not coming to class.”

Citi News’ Ashanti Regional correspondent, Hawa Iddrisu upon a visit to the Kumasi Polytechnic reported that students were seen sitting in groups discussing the strike while others were seen studying under trees.

The final year students of the school noted that they will be affected the most because they were scheduled to meet their lecturers on a one-on-one session for their final examination.

Some of them complained that the completion of their thesis hangs in balance as their supervisors are not prepared to examine them. Others also wondered if their upcoming examinations will take place since the timetable has already been released.

“We don’t know whether there will be any lecturers to supervise, whether they will even bring the questions for us to write the exams and if it doesn’t happen, it will affect us a lot,” a student said.

They, therefore, appealed to government and the Education Ministry to as a matter of urgency, address the concerns of POTAG members to enable them resume classes and complete their examinations as planned.

Meanwhile, members of the Accra Polytechnic branch of POTAG say the only way to get them back to the lecture halls will be for government to heed their call for the maintenance of their research allowance.

Derrick Okine Addo, the Chairman of the Accra Polytechnic branch of POTAG told Citi News, government has breached the terms and conditions of service for POTAG members.

He disclosed that POTAG has been meeting with government but no positive outcome was achieved, hence, their decision to lay down their tools. The Education Ministry last year announced its intention to scrap the book and research allowance being enjoyed by university lecturers.

The Ministry disclosed that government was considering merging all the research allowances into one, to be known as the National Research Fund.

Every lecturer is paid between $400 and $600 a year as book and research allowance.

Government spends $7 million yearly on book and research allowance.

But this decision has been fiercely resisted by both POTAG and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG).

Source: Citifmonline.com

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