Pg 43. Feb 28/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE government’s affordable housing project is expected to receive a projected sum of GH¢108 million by March this year to help complete work at five sites which have already taken off in four regions.
The money, which is being sourced from five local financial sources by the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, with the Ministry of Finance as its guarantor, is to help complete the work on schedule.
The sector Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, did not indicate who the financiers were but he told the Daily Graphic after a meeting in Accra on Monday with contractors working on the projects that an amount of GH¢30 million, being outstanding bills, had been made available to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department to be paid to 111 contractors.
The minister said so far, GH¢5 million, being part of the amount, had been paid to some contractors.
It would be recalled that the sod was cut on September 1, 2005 to mark the commencement of the multi-million dollar affordable housing project.
The first phase was expected to be completed by the middle of this year but work on the project had, for over a year now, slowed down, as lack of funds is hindering its smooth implementation.
The projects are located at five sites, namely, Kpone and Borteyman in the Greater Accra Region, Asokore Mampong in the Ashanti Region, Koforidua in the Eastern Region and Tamale in the Northern Region.
The minister said the move to source additional funds from other sources to help complete the project on schedule had become necessary since, according to him, the HIPC funds which were the traditional source of funding for the project were currently being overstretched.
So far, he said, over GH¢40 million had been spent on projects which were currently at various levels, including one in Wa in the Upper West Region which was yet to take off.
Alhaji Boniface called on the consultants and contractors working on the project to support the government so that it would achieve its aim of helping to ease the housing problem in the country.
He said the project, which was a laudable one, was also promoting the local industry, especially contractors, and, therefore, called on them not to abandon their projects when funds were not flowing.
The contractors, who made their concerns known to the minister, also appealed for VAT be taken off all purchases for the project to reduce the cost of materials and make the apartments affordable.
They complained about the high cost of materials, saying that if it was not checked, the completed projects would no longer be affordable as expected.
They said most of them were abandoning the projects because they were spending more than they budgeted for and they were, therefore, running at a loss.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
AGREDS better the lives of street girls
Pg 11. Tues. Feb. 26/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Life Line Project of the Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services (AGREDS) at Agbogbloshie in Accra has, over the years, brought relief to hundreds of street girls whose lives on the streets exposed them to various social problems.
The centre, which trains young girls in dressmaking, hairdressing, catering and batik and tie and dye-making, has become a lifeline project for girls who are exposed to deplorable conditions on the streets.
Most of the girls who find refuge at the centre are those who are exposed to the worse forms of child labour, servitude, domestic work, child abuse and trafficking.
Presently, there are 85 girls at the centre who are undergoing a one-year training in various skills.
Last year, 97 girls graduated from the centre and after they had been equipped with the needed tools to start their lives, most of them were reintegrated with their families, especially in the northern part of the country, while others who, for various reasons, could not go back to their communities are undergoing apprenticeship in Accra.
But for the timely intervention of the AGREDS project, the children who are aged between nine and 18 would have grown to become social misfits who will pose a burden to society.
To give hope and encouragement to these young girls at the centre, some privileged group of young girls visited them and donated clothes, shoes and other items to them.
The privileged girls, who have formed a teenagers’ non-governmental organisation known as the Shalom Teenagers Foundation, led by its Founder, Angela Lucas, a Form Two Junior High School pupil of the St Lawrence Preparatory School in North Kaneshie, were able to gather some used items from their neighbourhoods and friends and donated to the centre, with assistance from Reverend Dr. Harry S. Insaidoo of the Assemblies of God Church, North Kaneshie.
According to Angela, the group was aimed at educating their fellow teenage girls on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, the need to abstain from social and immoral vices, teenage pregnancy and also cultivate better habits such as being obedient and responsible.
Some members of the New Testament Church of Chelton in London also presented clothing and chocolates to the young ladies to inspire them to aim high and not to demean themselves as a result of their circumstances.
Four members of the New Testament Church who are in the country as guests of the North Kaneshie Branch of the Assemblies of God Church took turns to speak words of encouragement to the young girls.
They tasked the girls not to see their situation as hopeless but remain resolute to develop their talents.
They also asked them to take their skills training seriously to acquire skills to help them to lead meaningful lives and look ahead for a brighter future.
The Manager of the centre, Mrs Susana Mahama, who received the items on behalf of the girls, thanked the donors for coming to the aid of the centre.
The girls later entertained their guests with some traditional dances.
•
Above: Seated are some of the beneficiaries of the AGREDS project and members of the Shalom Teenagers Foundation. Insert is Angela Lucas (left), Founder of the foundation presenting some of the items to Mrs Sussana Mahama, Manager of the centre.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Life Line Project of the Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services (AGREDS) at Agbogbloshie in Accra has, over the years, brought relief to hundreds of street girls whose lives on the streets exposed them to various social problems.
The centre, which trains young girls in dressmaking, hairdressing, catering and batik and tie and dye-making, has become a lifeline project for girls who are exposed to deplorable conditions on the streets.
Most of the girls who find refuge at the centre are those who are exposed to the worse forms of child labour, servitude, domestic work, child abuse and trafficking.
Presently, there are 85 girls at the centre who are undergoing a one-year training in various skills.
Last year, 97 girls graduated from the centre and after they had been equipped with the needed tools to start their lives, most of them were reintegrated with their families, especially in the northern part of the country, while others who, for various reasons, could not go back to their communities are undergoing apprenticeship in Accra.
But for the timely intervention of the AGREDS project, the children who are aged between nine and 18 would have grown to become social misfits who will pose a burden to society.
To give hope and encouragement to these young girls at the centre, some privileged group of young girls visited them and donated clothes, shoes and other items to them.
The privileged girls, who have formed a teenagers’ non-governmental organisation known as the Shalom Teenagers Foundation, led by its Founder, Angela Lucas, a Form Two Junior High School pupil of the St Lawrence Preparatory School in North Kaneshie, were able to gather some used items from their neighbourhoods and friends and donated to the centre, with assistance from Reverend Dr. Harry S. Insaidoo of the Assemblies of God Church, North Kaneshie.
According to Angela, the group was aimed at educating their fellow teenage girls on the dangers of HIV/AIDS, the need to abstain from social and immoral vices, teenage pregnancy and also cultivate better habits such as being obedient and responsible.
Some members of the New Testament Church of Chelton in London also presented clothing and chocolates to the young ladies to inspire them to aim high and not to demean themselves as a result of their circumstances.
Four members of the New Testament Church who are in the country as guests of the North Kaneshie Branch of the Assemblies of God Church took turns to speak words of encouragement to the young girls.
They tasked the girls not to see their situation as hopeless but remain resolute to develop their talents.
They also asked them to take their skills training seriously to acquire skills to help them to lead meaningful lives and look ahead for a brighter future.
The Manager of the centre, Mrs Susana Mahama, who received the items on behalf of the girls, thanked the donors for coming to the aid of the centre.
The girls later entertained their guests with some traditional dances.
•
Above: Seated are some of the beneficiaries of the AGREDS project and members of the Shalom Teenagers Foundation. Insert is Angela Lucas (left), Founder of the foundation presenting some of the items to Mrs Sussana Mahama, Manager of the centre.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Imports of single therapy drugs for malaria to stop
pg 47. Feb. 25/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) is working with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) to stop the importation of single therapy drugs (mono-therapy) for the treatment of malaria.
The Programme Manager of the NMCP, Dr Mrs Constance Bart-Plange, who made this known, said although the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) policy that stated that only a combination of drugs should be used to treat malaria was still in force, many types of single therapy drugs were still openly sold on the Ghanaian market.
Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange said the NMCP and the FDB intended to impose a ban on the importation of these mono-therapies, while they worked to gradually rid the country of those that were already in.
She noted that continuous use of these single therapy drugs would lead to drug resistance again “and soon we would have to use a combination of three drugs”.
She reiterated that the recommended combination drug, artesunate-amodiaquine, had been proven to be effective and encouraged them to use it for the treatment of malaria to prevent resistance.
Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange made this known during discussions at a two-day media advocacy training workshop on malaria held in Accra for 20 journalists invited from all the regions.
It was organised by the Ghana Voices for Malaria-Free Future and sponsored by the John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programmes.
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite known as the plasmodium genome and carried by the anopheles (female) mosquito. According to health experts, malaria is a persistent health problem and a leading cause of death among children especially in Africa.
It is said to kill one child every 30 seconds with more than a million deaths each year across the world and 90 per cent of such deaths occurring in Africa.
Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange advised pregnant women not to take artesunate amodiaquine in the first trimester because, according to her, it could cause foetal malformation.
She said contrary to people’s perception that mosquitoes bred in dirty gutters, rubbish dump or filthy areas, the anopheles mosquito, which transmits malaria to humans, rather preferred relatively clean water, adding that it was rather the culex mosquito which in dirty gutters.
"The anopheles is choosy in terms of where it breeds," she stressed.
She said the anopheles mosquito laid its eggs in areas where it could get clean stagnant water such as in flower pots, ponds, potholes, dugout pits, hoof prints, puddles, rice fields and streams.
On the economic burden of malaria to the country, Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange said on the average, each household in the country spent GH¢338 annually on malarial treatment and the amount in total was equivalent to 9.74 per cent of the government’s per capita expenditure of health.
She mentioned some of the challenges that the NMCP was facing as the management, mostly incorrectly, of majority of cases at home; poor management of the disease in hospitals; the malarial parasites resistance to chloroquine; and poor prevention methods such as the non-use of bed nets by children and pregnant women.
She said her outfit had, therefore, taken actions such as the provision of early diagnosis and prompt treatment, implementation of selective and sustainable preventive measures such as the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), and promotion of evidence-based research.
A Research Scientist, Prof. Isabella Quakyi of the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, in a presentation said there was hope for the production of an appropriate vaccine to fight malaria because scientist had discovered the mosquito genes that caused malaria in people.
Prof. Quakyi said the dynamic nature of the malarial parasite had made it difficult for scientists to discover the mosquito genes in the past and reiterated that the discovery of the gene was welcome news.
According to Prof. Quakyi, “the spit of a mosquito contains 10,000 parasites and it was left with scientist to discover which of the parasites causes malaria”.
Prof. Quakyi, therefore, called for more advocacy that would enlighten people especially at the community levels to let people know some of the actions they take that cause malaria.
Opening the workshop, the Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Elias Sory, said no individual action towards the tackling of malaria in the country could bring about its eradication and therefore called for the combination of efforts.
He called on the media to tackle malarial issues with the same zeal with which they approached politics in order to achieve the needed change.
A Medical Entomologist of the NMCP, Mrs Aba Baffoe-Wilmot, said the national malarial monitoring and evaluation plan, malarial data management, as well as malarial data collection, were being reviewed as part of efforts to help fight malaria in the country.
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
The National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) is working with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) to stop the importation of single therapy drugs (mono-therapy) for the treatment of malaria.
The Programme Manager of the NMCP, Dr Mrs Constance Bart-Plange, who made this known, said although the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) policy that stated that only a combination of drugs should be used to treat malaria was still in force, many types of single therapy drugs were still openly sold on the Ghanaian market.
Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange said the NMCP and the FDB intended to impose a ban on the importation of these mono-therapies, while they worked to gradually rid the country of those that were already in.
She noted that continuous use of these single therapy drugs would lead to drug resistance again “and soon we would have to use a combination of three drugs”.
She reiterated that the recommended combination drug, artesunate-amodiaquine, had been proven to be effective and encouraged them to use it for the treatment of malaria to prevent resistance.
Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange made this known during discussions at a two-day media advocacy training workshop on malaria held in Accra for 20 journalists invited from all the regions.
It was organised by the Ghana Voices for Malaria-Free Future and sponsored by the John Hopkins University Centre for Communications Programmes.
Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite known as the plasmodium genome and carried by the anopheles (female) mosquito. According to health experts, malaria is a persistent health problem and a leading cause of death among children especially in Africa.
It is said to kill one child every 30 seconds with more than a million deaths each year across the world and 90 per cent of such deaths occurring in Africa.
Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange advised pregnant women not to take artesunate amodiaquine in the first trimester because, according to her, it could cause foetal malformation.
She said contrary to people’s perception that mosquitoes bred in dirty gutters, rubbish dump or filthy areas, the anopheles mosquito, which transmits malaria to humans, rather preferred relatively clean water, adding that it was rather the culex mosquito which in dirty gutters.
"The anopheles is choosy in terms of where it breeds," she stressed.
She said the anopheles mosquito laid its eggs in areas where it could get clean stagnant water such as in flower pots, ponds, potholes, dugout pits, hoof prints, puddles, rice fields and streams.
On the economic burden of malaria to the country, Dr (Mrs) Bart-Plange said on the average, each household in the country spent GH¢338 annually on malarial treatment and the amount in total was equivalent to 9.74 per cent of the government’s per capita expenditure of health.
She mentioned some of the challenges that the NMCP was facing as the management, mostly incorrectly, of majority of cases at home; poor management of the disease in hospitals; the malarial parasites resistance to chloroquine; and poor prevention methods such as the non-use of bed nets by children and pregnant women.
She said her outfit had, therefore, taken actions such as the provision of early diagnosis and prompt treatment, implementation of selective and sustainable preventive measures such as the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), and promotion of evidence-based research.
A Research Scientist, Prof. Isabella Quakyi of the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, in a presentation said there was hope for the production of an appropriate vaccine to fight malaria because scientist had discovered the mosquito genes that caused malaria in people.
Prof. Quakyi said the dynamic nature of the malarial parasite had made it difficult for scientists to discover the mosquito genes in the past and reiterated that the discovery of the gene was welcome news.
According to Prof. Quakyi, “the spit of a mosquito contains 10,000 parasites and it was left with scientist to discover which of the parasites causes malaria”.
Prof. Quakyi, therefore, called for more advocacy that would enlighten people especially at the community levels to let people know some of the actions they take that cause malaria.
Opening the workshop, the Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Elias Sory, said no individual action towards the tackling of malaria in the country could bring about its eradication and therefore called for the combination of efforts.
He called on the media to tackle malarial issues with the same zeal with which they approached politics in order to achieve the needed change.
A Medical Entomologist of the NMCP, Mrs Aba Baffoe-Wilmot, said the national malarial monitoring and evaluation plan, malarial data management, as well as malarial data collection, were being reviewed as part of efforts to help fight malaria in the country.
Bishop T' Ga club donates to sickle cell clinic
Pg 11. Monday, Feb. 25/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Sickle Cell Clinic of the Centre for Clinical Genetics at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra has received a computer and accessories worth GH¢891 (£450) to facilitate the storing of records.
Presently, the centre has recorded 23,203 patients since it was established about 30 years ago but most of the records which are not properly stored are worn out.
The equipment — which included a scanner, a copier, a printer and monitor — was a response to the centre’s call for assistance to enable it to keep proper records, which a London-based social club, The Bishop T’ Ga Club, responded to.
Led by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Nii Yarteh, the club presented the computer and accessories to the acting Head of the centre, Professor George Ankrah-Badu, in Accra yesterday.
According to Prof. Ankrah-Badu, presently a total of two per cent of the country’s population were born with sickle cell, which, according to him, was an inherited disorder which needed to be managed properly to improve the health needs of affected people including children.
He said the incidence of children being born with the disease had not improved as efforts to help tackle the disease in the country had not been well managed due to the lack of funds.
He said the disease was not attracting funds to mitigate the plight of people suffering from it because it was not infectious neither was it contagious and therefore Ghanaians and the international community had become complacent about it.
Prof. Ankrah-Badu said the neglect of the disease would lead to more children dying, since, according to him, the number of children with sickle cell were more likely to die from malaria and other complications than children without sickle cell.
Nii Yarteh, who was accompanied by some members of the club, said the club was inspired to help the centre back home to properly cater for its patients after members had attended a lecture in London on sickle cell.
He said the club presently had a membership of 30 and also requested the centre to furnish the club with a list of its pressing needs so that the club could assist in acquiring them to enable the centre to function properly.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Sickle Cell Clinic of the Centre for Clinical Genetics at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra has received a computer and accessories worth GH¢891 (£450) to facilitate the storing of records.
Presently, the centre has recorded 23,203 patients since it was established about 30 years ago but most of the records which are not properly stored are worn out.
The equipment — which included a scanner, a copier, a printer and monitor — was a response to the centre’s call for assistance to enable it to keep proper records, which a London-based social club, The Bishop T’ Ga Club, responded to.
Led by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Nii Yarteh, the club presented the computer and accessories to the acting Head of the centre, Professor George Ankrah-Badu, in Accra yesterday.
According to Prof. Ankrah-Badu, presently a total of two per cent of the country’s population were born with sickle cell, which, according to him, was an inherited disorder which needed to be managed properly to improve the health needs of affected people including children.
He said the incidence of children being born with the disease had not improved as efforts to help tackle the disease in the country had not been well managed due to the lack of funds.
He said the disease was not attracting funds to mitigate the plight of people suffering from it because it was not infectious neither was it contagious and therefore Ghanaians and the international community had become complacent about it.
Prof. Ankrah-Badu said the neglect of the disease would lead to more children dying, since, according to him, the number of children with sickle cell were more likely to die from malaria and other complications than children without sickle cell.
Nii Yarteh, who was accompanied by some members of the club, said the club was inspired to help the centre back home to properly cater for its patients after members had attended a lecture in London on sickle cell.
He said the club presently had a membership of 30 and also requested the centre to furnish the club with a list of its pressing needs so that the club could assist in acquiring them to enable the centre to function properly.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Hundreds give thanks to God for successful Ghana 2008
Spread Monday Feb. 18/08
Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah & Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
HUNDREDS of Ghanaians from all walks of life gathered at the Independence Square in Accra last Saturday to give thanks to God for seeing the nation through the successful hosting of the 26th Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
The service, which was organised by the Women’s Aglow International, was also used to honour the mothers of the players of the Black Stars.
In attendance were Ministers of State, ministers of the gospel, mothers of some of the Black Stars players, supporters unions, football fans and the general public who adorned themselves in the national colours of red, gold and green, with the Black Star.
Ministers who attended the programme were the Minister of State in charge of Education, Youth and Sports, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, the Deputy Minster of Education, Mr O.B. Amoah, the Minister of Aviation, Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Minister of Chieftancy Affairs, Mr S.K. Boafo, and the Deputy Minister of Harbours and Railways, Ms Sophia Horner-Sam.
Some government officials who were present were the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi, and the Chief Operating Officer of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Ghana 2008, Mr Rex Magnus Danquah, both of whom danced and praised God for a successful tournament.
Music was provided by the Police Band and some Ghanaian musicians, notably Grace Ashy, who is well noted for singing in honour of the senior national team.
As the congregation sang, clapped and danced to the glory of God, some among them, including the mothers of some of the players, were seen doing the ‘kangaroo dance’ which featured prominently during the tournament.
The various supporters groups displayed their dancing skills as they danced in special ways unique to each group.
The President of the Women’s Aglow International, Mrs Emelia Boadi Dankwa, and the National Prayer Co-ordinator of the fellowship, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie, on behalf of the fellowship presented gifts to the mothers of the players who were present.
The mothers present included Madam Mary Donkor, mother of the acting skipper, John Mensah; Madam Comfort Afua Amoate, the mother of the injured skipper, Stephen Appiah; Madam Cecilia Love Amoako, the mother of Baffour and Asamoah Gyan, and Ms Jennie Everett, the mother of Manuel Junior Agogo.
The rest were the mother of Richard and Laryea Kingson, Madam Mary Tsotso, Madam Aba Gyande, the mother of Michael Essien, and Hajia Kande, Sulley Ali Muntari’s mother.
Mrs Jane Acquah, the wife of the late former Chief Justice, was also present.
Also present were One Man Supporter, Mr Abraham Boakye, who is also the President of the Ghana Supporters Union, the President of the Women Supporters Union, Ms Freda Prempeh, Mr Edmund Ackah, the President of the Nation-wide Supporters Union, among others.
Addressing the gathering, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, a Minister of State at the Ministry of Education, who was the guest of honour, congratulated Women’s Aglow on their initiative, saying it was appropriate to give honour where it was due.
She said never in the history of the nation had the country been so united as it did during the 21 days of soccer, saying that the tournament also united the whole of Africa, sending a positive message to the international community.
She said although Ghana did not win the cup, as had been expected by all, the players made the country proud by playing their hearts out to capture the third place.
Ms Ohene said with determination and hard work, the country was able to overcome all obstacles that came its way during the preparatory stages of the organisation of the tournament.
She said although the tourism and hospitality industry did not cash in as much as was expected, the preparation in itself had afforded most hospitality industries to upgrade their facilities, as well as train more people in the industry to be more efficient and serviceable.
Speaking on behalf of the mothers of the players, Ms Everett thanked Women’s Aglow for the honour them.
Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah & Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
HUNDREDS of Ghanaians from all walks of life gathered at the Independence Square in Accra last Saturday to give thanks to God for seeing the nation through the successful hosting of the 26th Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
The service, which was organised by the Women’s Aglow International, was also used to honour the mothers of the players of the Black Stars.
In attendance were Ministers of State, ministers of the gospel, mothers of some of the Black Stars players, supporters unions, football fans and the general public who adorned themselves in the national colours of red, gold and green, with the Black Star.
Ministers who attended the programme were the Minister of State in charge of Education, Youth and Sports, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, the Deputy Minster of Education, Mr O.B. Amoah, the Minister of Aviation, Ms Gloria Akuffo, the Minister of Chieftancy Affairs, Mr S.K. Boafo, and the Deputy Minister of Harbours and Railways, Ms Sophia Horner-Sam.
Some government officials who were present were the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi, and the Chief Operating Officer of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Ghana 2008, Mr Rex Magnus Danquah, both of whom danced and praised God for a successful tournament.
Music was provided by the Police Band and some Ghanaian musicians, notably Grace Ashy, who is well noted for singing in honour of the senior national team.
As the congregation sang, clapped and danced to the glory of God, some among them, including the mothers of some of the players, were seen doing the ‘kangaroo dance’ which featured prominently during the tournament.
The various supporters groups displayed their dancing skills as they danced in special ways unique to each group.
The President of the Women’s Aglow International, Mrs Emelia Boadi Dankwa, and the National Prayer Co-ordinator of the fellowship, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie, on behalf of the fellowship presented gifts to the mothers of the players who were present.
The mothers present included Madam Mary Donkor, mother of the acting skipper, John Mensah; Madam Comfort Afua Amoate, the mother of the injured skipper, Stephen Appiah; Madam Cecilia Love Amoako, the mother of Baffour and Asamoah Gyan, and Ms Jennie Everett, the mother of Manuel Junior Agogo.
The rest were the mother of Richard and Laryea Kingson, Madam Mary Tsotso, Madam Aba Gyande, the mother of Michael Essien, and Hajia Kande, Sulley Ali Muntari’s mother.
Mrs Jane Acquah, the wife of the late former Chief Justice, was also present.
Also present were One Man Supporter, Mr Abraham Boakye, who is also the President of the Ghana Supporters Union, the President of the Women Supporters Union, Ms Freda Prempeh, Mr Edmund Ackah, the President of the Nation-wide Supporters Union, among others.
Addressing the gathering, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, a Minister of State at the Ministry of Education, who was the guest of honour, congratulated Women’s Aglow on their initiative, saying it was appropriate to give honour where it was due.
She said never in the history of the nation had the country been so united as it did during the 21 days of soccer, saying that the tournament also united the whole of Africa, sending a positive message to the international community.
She said although Ghana did not win the cup, as had been expected by all, the players made the country proud by playing their hearts out to capture the third place.
Ms Ohene said with determination and hard work, the country was able to overcome all obstacles that came its way during the preparatory stages of the organisation of the tournament.
She said although the tourism and hospitality industry did not cash in as much as was expected, the preparation in itself had afforded most hospitality industries to upgrade their facilities, as well as train more people in the industry to be more efficient and serviceable.
Speaking on behalf of the mothers of the players, Ms Everett thanked Women’s Aglow for the honour them.
Use approved feminine hygiene products -Dr Ashitey
Pg 17 (women's page) Sat. Feb. 16 2008
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
It is a common practice for some women to use herbal concoctions, ordinary soaps, chemicals, and antiseptic such as dettol as feminine hygiene products to clean the inner part of their genital organ.
This, according to health experts, sometimes irritate the vagina to cause sours while some of these unapproved products also wash away the protective shields of the vagina allowing infections to occur rapidly in those areas.
To offer women a better alternative, ‘femfresh’, a leading feminine hygiene brand in the United Kingdom (UK), has launched a variety of feminine hygiene products for Ghanaian women to improve their health.
The UK product, marketed in Ghana by All Pharma (GH) Limited, a subsidiary of Allipharma UK Limited, comprises wipes, intimate wash, talc-free powder, deodorant and body wash for general use.
Launching the products in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Mrs Gladys Norley Ashitey, cautioned women against the use of unorthodox feminine hygiene products in cleansing their intimate parts.
She said that was necessary to avoid complications that resulted from the development of disease conditions such as thrush and other infections.
Dr Ashitey, who performed the ceremony with the Deputy British High Commissioner, Mrs Menna Rawlings, further urged women to opt for products that were balanced in terms of acidity to avoid unnecessary irritations to their intimate parts.
She also called on women to make wise decisions when it came to their genital health care by going in for products that were body friendly and did not cause allergic conditions.
She said “we believe that when the woman is healthy, Ghana is also healthy and the huge sums of money spent on ill-health could be channelled to other profitable ventures towards national development”.
Dr (Mrs) Ashitey said the launch of the product showed that the government of Ghana was investor friendly and committed to promoting private sector investment for the development of the entire country.
She said the Ministry of Health had adopted a paradigm shift mainly focussing on preventive health care, adding that the ministry expected individuals to take simple measures to prevent certain serious diseases.
She said the ministry had introduced the regenerative health and nutrition programme aimed at educating people to adopt healthier lifestyles for their well-being.
Mrs Rawlings, for her part, said through the UK Trade Investment, Ghana had also joined the international market to use one of Britons most quality feminine product.
The Chief Executive Officer of All Pharma Ghana, Mr Patrick Karikari, in a presentation said ‘femfresh’ had a 56 per cent market share in feminine hygiene products in the UK.
He, however, cautioned that it could not be used to cure already existing conditions affecting some women such as offensive vagina odours or infections but rather could be used to prevent such conditions.
He said the product had been gynaecologically tested and approved and when used it ensured that the vagina was clean and fresh, adding that women who used it always felt great and were more confident with themselves.
Pix shows Dr (Mrs) Glagys Ashitey (left) unveiling the ‘femfresh’ range of products with the Deputy British High Commissioner, Mrs Menna Rawlings.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
It is a common practice for some women to use herbal concoctions, ordinary soaps, chemicals, and antiseptic such as dettol as feminine hygiene products to clean the inner part of their genital organ.
This, according to health experts, sometimes irritate the vagina to cause sours while some of these unapproved products also wash away the protective shields of the vagina allowing infections to occur rapidly in those areas.
To offer women a better alternative, ‘femfresh’, a leading feminine hygiene brand in the United Kingdom (UK), has launched a variety of feminine hygiene products for Ghanaian women to improve their health.
The UK product, marketed in Ghana by All Pharma (GH) Limited, a subsidiary of Allipharma UK Limited, comprises wipes, intimate wash, talc-free powder, deodorant and body wash for general use.
Launching the products in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Mrs Gladys Norley Ashitey, cautioned women against the use of unorthodox feminine hygiene products in cleansing their intimate parts.
She said that was necessary to avoid complications that resulted from the development of disease conditions such as thrush and other infections.
Dr Ashitey, who performed the ceremony with the Deputy British High Commissioner, Mrs Menna Rawlings, further urged women to opt for products that were balanced in terms of acidity to avoid unnecessary irritations to their intimate parts.
She also called on women to make wise decisions when it came to their genital health care by going in for products that were body friendly and did not cause allergic conditions.
She said “we believe that when the woman is healthy, Ghana is also healthy and the huge sums of money spent on ill-health could be channelled to other profitable ventures towards national development”.
Dr (Mrs) Ashitey said the launch of the product showed that the government of Ghana was investor friendly and committed to promoting private sector investment for the development of the entire country.
She said the Ministry of Health had adopted a paradigm shift mainly focussing on preventive health care, adding that the ministry expected individuals to take simple measures to prevent certain serious diseases.
She said the ministry had introduced the regenerative health and nutrition programme aimed at educating people to adopt healthier lifestyles for their well-being.
Mrs Rawlings, for her part, said through the UK Trade Investment, Ghana had also joined the international market to use one of Britons most quality feminine product.
The Chief Executive Officer of All Pharma Ghana, Mr Patrick Karikari, in a presentation said ‘femfresh’ had a 56 per cent market share in feminine hygiene products in the UK.
He, however, cautioned that it could not be used to cure already existing conditions affecting some women such as offensive vagina odours or infections but rather could be used to prevent such conditions.
He said the product had been gynaecologically tested and approved and when used it ensured that the vagina was clean and fresh, adding that women who used it always felt great and were more confident with themselves.
Pix shows Dr (Mrs) Glagys Ashitey (left) unveiling the ‘femfresh’ range of products with the Deputy British High Commissioner, Mrs Menna Rawlings.
Guinea worm-Ghana records lowest cases
Pg 3. Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
GUINEA worm infestation cases in Ghana last year was 3,432, the lowest number recorded since the the Guinea Worm Eradication Pogramme (GWEP) was introduced in 1989.
Although figures for 1989 to 1994 are not available, the record showed that there were 8,432 cases in 1994 peaking to 9,027 in 1999.
The National Programme Manager of GWEP, Dr Andrew Seidu Korkor told a media briefing workshop on progress so far made on the eradication process that the country was on course at totally eradicating guinea worm from the country by 2009.
The eradication programme, he said, will however have to be sustained for three years before the country can be certified as Guinea Worm free by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The country, he said recorded its lowest number of cases of 167 for the first time from October to December 2007 as against 1,165 cases during the same period in 2006.
This according to him was an unprecedented record that needed to be sustained if the country is to be freed from guinea worm.
The Northern Region, he said has been identified as the most endemic area contributing 96 per cent of the total cases across the country with most cases coming from the Savelugu District, followed by the Brong Ahafo Region 1.3 per cent, the Volta and Upper West Regions 7 percent each while the other regions contributed 1.0 per cent of total cases reported.
He noted that since guinea worm had a one-year incubation period, the progress made was good news to the country and added that a further reduction was expected for 2008.
Dr Korkor said the disease was more prevalent in areas where there is scarcity of potable water and therefore the government, together with other development partners such as UNICEF, WHO, JICA, Church of Christ, World Vision, Ghana among others were working to ensure that adequate portable water were supplied to communities that are most affected.
He said although the Guinea worm disease was a health problem, it required the intervention of all since it affected all sectors in the country.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Mrs Gladys Norley Ashitey, in an address, attributed the achievements so far made to the prudent measures that were taken by the government and its development partners.
She mentioned some of the interventions as the opening of case treatment centres in September 2006 to January 2007, the provision of funds for free treatment of guinea worm patients and the finalisation of several water projects in some towns including Sang, Daire, Savelugu and Wantugu.
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Elias K. Sory said there was the need for measures to be taken so that the gains made so far do not become a wasted effort and called for the documentation on the country’s eradication process so as to serve as a reference point in future.
As part of its social responsibility, the Managing Director of Barclays Bank, Ms Magaret Mwanakatwe presented a cheque of GH¢8,941 to support the programme.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
GUINEA worm infestation cases in Ghana last year was 3,432, the lowest number recorded since the the Guinea Worm Eradication Pogramme (GWEP) was introduced in 1989.
Although figures for 1989 to 1994 are not available, the record showed that there were 8,432 cases in 1994 peaking to 9,027 in 1999.
The National Programme Manager of GWEP, Dr Andrew Seidu Korkor told a media briefing workshop on progress so far made on the eradication process that the country was on course at totally eradicating guinea worm from the country by 2009.
The eradication programme, he said, will however have to be sustained for three years before the country can be certified as Guinea Worm free by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The country, he said recorded its lowest number of cases of 167 for the first time from October to December 2007 as against 1,165 cases during the same period in 2006.
This according to him was an unprecedented record that needed to be sustained if the country is to be freed from guinea worm.
The Northern Region, he said has been identified as the most endemic area contributing 96 per cent of the total cases across the country with most cases coming from the Savelugu District, followed by the Brong Ahafo Region 1.3 per cent, the Volta and Upper West Regions 7 percent each while the other regions contributed 1.0 per cent of total cases reported.
He noted that since guinea worm had a one-year incubation period, the progress made was good news to the country and added that a further reduction was expected for 2008.
Dr Korkor said the disease was more prevalent in areas where there is scarcity of potable water and therefore the government, together with other development partners such as UNICEF, WHO, JICA, Church of Christ, World Vision, Ghana among others were working to ensure that adequate portable water were supplied to communities that are most affected.
He said although the Guinea worm disease was a health problem, it required the intervention of all since it affected all sectors in the country.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Mrs Gladys Norley Ashitey, in an address, attributed the achievements so far made to the prudent measures that were taken by the government and its development partners.
She mentioned some of the interventions as the opening of case treatment centres in September 2006 to January 2007, the provision of funds for free treatment of guinea worm patients and the finalisation of several water projects in some towns including Sang, Daire, Savelugu and Wantugu.
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Elias K. Sory said there was the need for measures to be taken so that the gains made so far do not become a wasted effort and called for the documentation on the country’s eradication process so as to serve as a reference point in future.
As part of its social responsibility, the Managing Director of Barclays Bank, Ms Magaret Mwanakatwe presented a cheque of GH¢8,941 to support the programme.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Chefs showcase chocolate dishes
Spread Friday Feb. 15/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
About 75 chefs from Accra who prepared more than 200 chocolate dishes showcased their products at a special National Chocolate Day celebration held yesterday.
The dishes included chocolate turn-overs, chocolate and apple pie, fruit chocolate cookies, chocolate cup surprise, chocolate rolls and chocolate doughnut.
The day, which also coincided with the celebration of St Valentine’s Day, was dedicated to the promotion of made-in- Ghana chocolate by the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations.
The chefs were from the Koala Shopping Mall (Pastries Section), the Airport View Hotel, Shushu Catering Services, the Ghana Prisons Service, Sticky Fingers Customised Food Service, Deansdel Catering, Airport West Hotel, La Diplomate Conference Centre, among others.
The Deputy Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, who launched the day, commended the chefs for their effort in promoting Ghana’s chocolate.
He called on them to ensure that they served the dishes in their various restaurants and hotels so that both local people and tourists could patronise it, adding that Valentine’s Day was dedicated to Ghana’s chocolate to ensure that people patronised it for the country to earn more income from the sale of chocolate.
He said dedicating the day to promoting and projecting chocolate would also serve as a morale booster for cocoa farmers in the country so that they would produce more cocoa for both the local and international markets.
The deputy minister, who sampled all the varieties of dishes on display, told the Daily Graphic that the preparation of local desserts from chocolate must be promoted in all the districts of the country.
The National President of the Ghana Chefs Association, Mr Stephen Cofie Dzilah, said the association came together last year to partner the ministry to help in projecting the National Chocolate Day.
To that end, he said, a chocolatier from France was invited into the country to train 80 of the chefs on ways of preparing different chocolate dishes for dessert.
He said the association had the aim of promoting Ghanaian dishes, adding that it was on record for being the first to project the government’s initiative on cassava through its preparation of different dishes of cassava for an exhibition.
Earlier, the chefs had presented varieties of chocolate dishes to the First Family, which were received by the First Lady, Mrs Theresa Kufuor.
They also presented assorted chocolate dishes to HelpAge Ghana, a home for the aged.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
About 75 chefs from Accra who prepared more than 200 chocolate dishes showcased their products at a special National Chocolate Day celebration held yesterday.
The dishes included chocolate turn-overs, chocolate and apple pie, fruit chocolate cookies, chocolate cup surprise, chocolate rolls and chocolate doughnut.
The day, which also coincided with the celebration of St Valentine’s Day, was dedicated to the promotion of made-in- Ghana chocolate by the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations.
The chefs were from the Koala Shopping Mall (Pastries Section), the Airport View Hotel, Shushu Catering Services, the Ghana Prisons Service, Sticky Fingers Customised Food Service, Deansdel Catering, Airport West Hotel, La Diplomate Conference Centre, among others.
The Deputy Minister for Tourism and Diasporan Relations, Mr Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, who launched the day, commended the chefs for their effort in promoting Ghana’s chocolate.
He called on them to ensure that they served the dishes in their various restaurants and hotels so that both local people and tourists could patronise it, adding that Valentine’s Day was dedicated to Ghana’s chocolate to ensure that people patronised it for the country to earn more income from the sale of chocolate.
He said dedicating the day to promoting and projecting chocolate would also serve as a morale booster for cocoa farmers in the country so that they would produce more cocoa for both the local and international markets.
The deputy minister, who sampled all the varieties of dishes on display, told the Daily Graphic that the preparation of local desserts from chocolate must be promoted in all the districts of the country.
The National President of the Ghana Chefs Association, Mr Stephen Cofie Dzilah, said the association came together last year to partner the ministry to help in projecting the National Chocolate Day.
To that end, he said, a chocolatier from France was invited into the country to train 80 of the chefs on ways of preparing different chocolate dishes for dessert.
He said the association had the aim of promoting Ghanaian dishes, adding that it was on record for being the first to project the government’s initiative on cassava through its preparation of different dishes of cassava for an exhibition.
Earlier, the chefs had presented varieties of chocolate dishes to the First Family, which were received by the First Lady, Mrs Theresa Kufuor.
They also presented assorted chocolate dishes to HelpAge Ghana, a home for the aged.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
ECCD Committee for Accra/Tema
Pg 17 (w'mens page) Thurs Feb. 14/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Madam Theresa Amerley Tagoe, has inaugurated the Greater Accra/Tema District Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Committee in Accra.
This brings to 39 the number of ECCDs inaugurated across the country, to implement the ECCD policy at the district level.
The ECCD policy, which is aimed at the holistic development of the child from zero to eight years, was launched by the government in August 2004 to provide a framework that will serve as the guidance for the government, and other relevant sector ministries, district assemblies, communities, families, the private sector and non-governmental organisation to effectively implement ECCD programmes.
Madam Tagoe said over the years, governments had developed laws and policies to ensure the total welfare of the Ghanaian child, and mentioned the Children’s Act of 1998, the Criminal Code Amendment Act (Act 554), the Human Trafficking Act (Act 694), and the ECCD policy as some of the legislation that had been enacted.
She said to ensure the effective implementation of these laws and policies, it was important to create a favourable environment for effective programming, implementation, and monitoring strategies, which she added called for an effective collaboration and networking between the government, ministries, departments and agencies (MDA’s) and non-governmental organisations.
She said ECCD programmes helped to build good foundations for the development of a nation’s human capital, stressing that such programmes had the highest rate of return of child development activities, and effective means of reducing poverty.
Madam Tagoe said the benefits of ECCD would among other things ensure a greater social equity, increase in the efficacy of other investments and address the needs of mothers while helping their children, adding that an integrated programme for children could modify the effects of socio-economic and gender-related inequalities, including some of the most entrenched causes of poverty.
The National Co-ordinator of ECCD, Mrs Ruth Addison, who enumerated some of the benefits derived from incorporating ECCD into national policies, said it helped to improve the psycho-social and health needs of the child, in addition to improving their progress and performance in school.
She further indicated that ECCD also helped to improve the health of both parents and children due to improved knowledge on how to take good care of their children, and added that it also improved their leadership skills.
She said at the community level, ECCD policies helped to bridge the gab between children in the rural poor and those in the urban-rich areas.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Madam Theresa Amerley Tagoe, has inaugurated the Greater Accra/Tema District Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Committee in Accra.
This brings to 39 the number of ECCDs inaugurated across the country, to implement the ECCD policy at the district level.
The ECCD policy, which is aimed at the holistic development of the child from zero to eight years, was launched by the government in August 2004 to provide a framework that will serve as the guidance for the government, and other relevant sector ministries, district assemblies, communities, families, the private sector and non-governmental organisation to effectively implement ECCD programmes.
Madam Tagoe said over the years, governments had developed laws and policies to ensure the total welfare of the Ghanaian child, and mentioned the Children’s Act of 1998, the Criminal Code Amendment Act (Act 554), the Human Trafficking Act (Act 694), and the ECCD policy as some of the legislation that had been enacted.
She said to ensure the effective implementation of these laws and policies, it was important to create a favourable environment for effective programming, implementation, and monitoring strategies, which she added called for an effective collaboration and networking between the government, ministries, departments and agencies (MDA’s) and non-governmental organisations.
She said ECCD programmes helped to build good foundations for the development of a nation’s human capital, stressing that such programmes had the highest rate of return of child development activities, and effective means of reducing poverty.
Madam Tagoe said the benefits of ECCD would among other things ensure a greater social equity, increase in the efficacy of other investments and address the needs of mothers while helping their children, adding that an integrated programme for children could modify the effects of socio-economic and gender-related inequalities, including some of the most entrenched causes of poverty.
The National Co-ordinator of ECCD, Mrs Ruth Addison, who enumerated some of the benefits derived from incorporating ECCD into national policies, said it helped to improve the psycho-social and health needs of the child, in addition to improving their progress and performance in school.
She further indicated that ECCD also helped to improve the health of both parents and children due to improved knowledge on how to take good care of their children, and added that it also improved their leadership skills.
She said at the community level, ECCD policies helped to bridge the gab between children in the rural poor and those in the urban-rich areas.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Golden Beach Hotels to support faculty for Hospitality management
Spread, Tuesday Feb. 12/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
Golden Beach Hotels (GBH), a hospitality industry in the country, together with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) will introduce a faculty in hospitality management at the UCC from September this year.
The course will be a one-year certificate programme; diploma and degree courses have already been developed by the university.
This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer of GBH, Mr Yaw Kwarteng, when he paid a courtesy call on the Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ibrahim Awal yesterday.
The visit was to offer an opportunity to GBH which manages three hotels in the country: the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Elmina and Busia Beach Resorts, and the GCGL, the leading media house in the country, an opportunity to establish a relationship that would be of mutual benefit to both companies and the country as a whole.
Mr Kwarteng said the UMES will be providing visiting lecturers as well as training lecturers for the programme and added that GCGL could be brought on board to publicise on the need for people to be aware of the hospitality industry, which had a huge potential in the country.
He said there was the need for a hospitality programme at the university level since that sector lacked quality personnel and that often left tourists and visitors dissatisfied.
Mr Kwarteng said although GBH had for sometime now been trying on its own to boost the hospitality industry, it had not had the needed impact therefore with a pragmatic approach and collaboration of other sectors such as the media, the right impact could be made for the country to benefit from more resources in the hospitality industry.
Mr Awal, who was at the meeting with the General Manager of G-Pack, a subsidiary of GCGL, Mr Charles Antwi, and the Advertising Manager of GCGL, Mr Frank Oduro, commended the GBH for its effort in ensuring that the hospitality industry was given the needed push to maximise returns for the country.
He, however, called on the company to employ more tactical approaches such as inculcating the benefits of tourism in the younger generations so as to ensure that they would grow with that idea.
He commended the Junior Graphic, another of the company’s publications, to Mr Kwarteng and suggested that programmes targeted at children could be channelled through it for the desired impact.
He assured Mr Kwarteng, who was accompanied by the Chief Marketing Officer of the GBH, Ms Jeanne Donkoh, of the GCGL’s readiness to assist the GBH to project hospitality in the country.
Mr Awal took Mr Kwarteng and Ms Donkoh round the newsroom and some of the facilities of the GCGL including the G-Pack section where commercial printing is done. He said GCGL had the capacity to produce all the advertising needs of the GBH.
He said GCGL had a 70 per cent market impact in terms of the media and said a partnership to that effect would be to the mutual benefit of all.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
Golden Beach Hotels (GBH), a hospitality industry in the country, together with the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) will introduce a faculty in hospitality management at the UCC from September this year.
The course will be a one-year certificate programme; diploma and degree courses have already been developed by the university.
This was made known by the Chief Executive Officer of GBH, Mr Yaw Kwarteng, when he paid a courtesy call on the Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ibrahim Awal yesterday.
The visit was to offer an opportunity to GBH which manages three hotels in the country: the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Elmina and Busia Beach Resorts, and the GCGL, the leading media house in the country, an opportunity to establish a relationship that would be of mutual benefit to both companies and the country as a whole.
Mr Kwarteng said the UMES will be providing visiting lecturers as well as training lecturers for the programme and added that GCGL could be brought on board to publicise on the need for people to be aware of the hospitality industry, which had a huge potential in the country.
He said there was the need for a hospitality programme at the university level since that sector lacked quality personnel and that often left tourists and visitors dissatisfied.
Mr Kwarteng said although GBH had for sometime now been trying on its own to boost the hospitality industry, it had not had the needed impact therefore with a pragmatic approach and collaboration of other sectors such as the media, the right impact could be made for the country to benefit from more resources in the hospitality industry.
Mr Awal, who was at the meeting with the General Manager of G-Pack, a subsidiary of GCGL, Mr Charles Antwi, and the Advertising Manager of GCGL, Mr Frank Oduro, commended the GBH for its effort in ensuring that the hospitality industry was given the needed push to maximise returns for the country.
He, however, called on the company to employ more tactical approaches such as inculcating the benefits of tourism in the younger generations so as to ensure that they would grow with that idea.
He commended the Junior Graphic, another of the company’s publications, to Mr Kwarteng and suggested that programmes targeted at children could be channelled through it for the desired impact.
He assured Mr Kwarteng, who was accompanied by the Chief Marketing Officer of the GBH, Ms Jeanne Donkoh, of the GCGL’s readiness to assist the GBH to project hospitality in the country.
Mr Awal took Mr Kwarteng and Ms Donkoh round the newsroom and some of the facilities of the GCGL including the G-Pack section where commercial printing is done. He said GCGL had the capacity to produce all the advertising needs of the GBH.
He said GCGL had a 70 per cent market impact in terms of the media and said a partnership to that effect would be to the mutual benefit of all.
Landlord sets tenant’s room on fire
Back pg. Tuesday, Feb. 12/08
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A landlord who set fire to the room of a tenant following a disagreement over an increase in rent is in the grips of the law.
The landlord, Mr James Quaye, who is also a transport operator at Awoshie, was alleged to have set fire to the room of one of his tenants, Mr Mensah Badu, 73, in the early hours of Friday, February 8, 2008, because the tenant argued with him over an increase in rent from GH¢15 to GH¢20, for a single room that he rents at Awoshie-Baah Yard, a suburb of Accra.
The fire destroyed a bed, chairs, clothing, books and other personal belongings of the tenant.
According to other tenants in the house, Mr Quaye, who lives some few metres away, went to the house earlier in the evening to announce the increase in the rent.
The victim, who was then in his room, came out on hearing the voice of the landlord in the compound, and on seeing him, Mr Quaye was said to have drawn closer to him to announce the increase in rent.
Seeing that the landlord was shouting, Mr Badu asked him to calm down and call a meeting the following morning.
This seemed to have infuriated Mr Quaye, who left the scene but soon came back with a stick and in the full glare of other tenants beat up Mr Badu.
The victim, who stays alone, was said to have managed to get out of his way, locked his door and went to inform his son about the situation, but on his return at midnight with his son, they were greeted with fumes of smoke coming out of Mr Badu’s room.
According to one of the tenants, who was an eyewitness, after beating up Mr Badu, the landlord went and came back some few minutes later and was seen trying to forcibly open the door to Mr Badu’s room.
The eyewitness said when he was not successful, the landlord forcibly entered another tenant’s room from where he took a pestle with which he broke the door to Mr Badu’s room and then left the house.
He said the tenants retired to bed at around 11.30 p.m. and some few minutes later they heard the sound of stones being thrown onto the roof of the house which forced them to come out and that was when they realised there was fire in the room of Mr Badu.
According to the eyewitness, the stones were thrown on the roof by some neighbours who said they saw the landlord set fire to the room but because they could not shout for fear of being noticed, they decided to throw the stones on the roof to alert the other tenants.
The co-tenants put off the fire and went back to sleep after which Mr Badu arrived with his son, but left again because he could not sleep in the room.
The eyewitness said around 4 a.m., they heard shouts of fire, from one of the tenants who had woken up only to realise that Mr Badu’s room was again on fire, supposedly started from another side of the room.
According to the tenants the incident was not the first to have happened in the house. They claimed that in October, 2006, a similar incident occurred when the same landlord’s attempt to increase the rent was resisted by a lady in the house.
The tenants said the next day, all personal belongings of the lady got burnt under mysterious circumstances.
When the police was contacted, they confirmed the incident but said it was under investigations.
Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
A landlord who set fire to the room of a tenant following a disagreement over an increase in rent is in the grips of the law.
The landlord, Mr James Quaye, who is also a transport operator at Awoshie, was alleged to have set fire to the room of one of his tenants, Mr Mensah Badu, 73, in the early hours of Friday, February 8, 2008, because the tenant argued with him over an increase in rent from GH¢15 to GH¢20, for a single room that he rents at Awoshie-Baah Yard, a suburb of Accra.
The fire destroyed a bed, chairs, clothing, books and other personal belongings of the tenant.
According to other tenants in the house, Mr Quaye, who lives some few metres away, went to the house earlier in the evening to announce the increase in the rent.
The victim, who was then in his room, came out on hearing the voice of the landlord in the compound, and on seeing him, Mr Quaye was said to have drawn closer to him to announce the increase in rent.
Seeing that the landlord was shouting, Mr Badu asked him to calm down and call a meeting the following morning.
This seemed to have infuriated Mr Quaye, who left the scene but soon came back with a stick and in the full glare of other tenants beat up Mr Badu.
The victim, who stays alone, was said to have managed to get out of his way, locked his door and went to inform his son about the situation, but on his return at midnight with his son, they were greeted with fumes of smoke coming out of Mr Badu’s room.
According to one of the tenants, who was an eyewitness, after beating up Mr Badu, the landlord went and came back some few minutes later and was seen trying to forcibly open the door to Mr Badu’s room.
The eyewitness said when he was not successful, the landlord forcibly entered another tenant’s room from where he took a pestle with which he broke the door to Mr Badu’s room and then left the house.
He said the tenants retired to bed at around 11.30 p.m. and some few minutes later they heard the sound of stones being thrown onto the roof of the house which forced them to come out and that was when they realised there was fire in the room of Mr Badu.
According to the eyewitness, the stones were thrown on the roof by some neighbours who said they saw the landlord set fire to the room but because they could not shout for fear of being noticed, they decided to throw the stones on the roof to alert the other tenants.
The co-tenants put off the fire and went back to sleep after which Mr Badu arrived with his son, but left again because he could not sleep in the room.
The eyewitness said around 4 a.m., they heard shouts of fire, from one of the tenants who had woken up only to realise that Mr Badu’s room was again on fire, supposedly started from another side of the room.
According to the tenants the incident was not the first to have happened in the house. They claimed that in October, 2006, a similar incident occurred when the same landlord’s attempt to increase the rent was resisted by a lady in the house.
The tenants said the next day, all personal belongings of the lady got burnt under mysterious circumstances.
When the police was contacted, they confirmed the incident but said it was under investigations.
Monday, February 11, 2008
MCA projects to enhance agriculture
Pg 44 Feb. 11/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
PROJECTS in the agricultural sector totalling $106m are expected to be contracted out under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme in Ghana by the middle of the year.
Areas to benefit include transportation to open up the agricultural sector, the provision of credit facilities for farmers and infrastructure such as the building of silos to prevent post-harvest losses.
This was made known in Accra on Tuesday by Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), the implementing organ of the MCA programme in Ghana, at the first anniversary of the programme.
At the end of the five-year period, the programme, which started its operations in the country from February 16, 2007 with finance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the USA, is expected to inject $547m into the country.
The amount will be committed to reducing poverty by raising farmer incomes through private sector-led agribusiness development in some of the poorest regions of the country, as well as enhance the competitiveness of Ghana’s agricultural produce in regional and international markets.
According to Mr Eson-Benjamin, who was assisted by Mr Matthew Eric Armah, the Chief Operating Officer of MiDA, last year Ghana committed $45m into the agricultural sector and that as of the end of the third quarter of the year, a total of $20.1m had been received from the MCA.
He said at the end of the five-year programme, 31 old and new districts in northern and southern Ghana and the Affram Basin would have benefited from 950 kilometres and 230 kilometres of feeder and tarred roads, respectively.
He said the government had put in place a strong monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team to ensure that the programme, which was being implemented in three areas — agriculture, transportation and rural services projects — was free from any external and internal shocks.
He gave the assurance that the country was on course to fulfil its requirement under the programme and qualify for a second compact of the programme.
The Resident Country Director of the MCC, Mr Jim Bednar, at a roundtable to brief the media on the background of the MCC, said so far 16 countries, including Ghana, had benefited under the programme, while nine others, including Burkina Faso, Namibia and Senegal, were yet to be added to it.
He said since its creation in 2004, the MCC had approved nearly $5.9 billion in compact and threshold assistance to poor countries across the world.
Mr Bednar said before a country could become eligible to receive assistance, the MCC examined its performance on 17 independent and transparent policy indicators, such as investing in education, control of corruption and natural resource management, and said the programme was using independent indicators to ensure that it provided a fair grounding for all eligible countries.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
PROJECTS in the agricultural sector totalling $106m are expected to be contracted out under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme in Ghana by the middle of the year.
Areas to benefit include transportation to open up the agricultural sector, the provision of credit facilities for farmers and infrastructure such as the building of silos to prevent post-harvest losses.
This was made known in Accra on Tuesday by Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), the implementing organ of the MCA programme in Ghana, at the first anniversary of the programme.
At the end of the five-year period, the programme, which started its operations in the country from February 16, 2007 with finance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the USA, is expected to inject $547m into the country.
The amount will be committed to reducing poverty by raising farmer incomes through private sector-led agribusiness development in some of the poorest regions of the country, as well as enhance the competitiveness of Ghana’s agricultural produce in regional and international markets.
According to Mr Eson-Benjamin, who was assisted by Mr Matthew Eric Armah, the Chief Operating Officer of MiDA, last year Ghana committed $45m into the agricultural sector and that as of the end of the third quarter of the year, a total of $20.1m had been received from the MCA.
He said at the end of the five-year programme, 31 old and new districts in northern and southern Ghana and the Affram Basin would have benefited from 950 kilometres and 230 kilometres of feeder and tarred roads, respectively.
He said the government had put in place a strong monitoring and evaluation (M&E) team to ensure that the programme, which was being implemented in three areas — agriculture, transportation and rural services projects — was free from any external and internal shocks.
He gave the assurance that the country was on course to fulfil its requirement under the programme and qualify for a second compact of the programme.
The Resident Country Director of the MCC, Mr Jim Bednar, at a roundtable to brief the media on the background of the MCC, said so far 16 countries, including Ghana, had benefited under the programme, while nine others, including Burkina Faso, Namibia and Senegal, were yet to be added to it.
He said since its creation in 2004, the MCC had approved nearly $5.9 billion in compact and threshold assistance to poor countries across the world.
Mr Bednar said before a country could become eligible to receive assistance, the MCC examined its performance on 17 independent and transparent policy indicators, such as investing in education, control of corruption and natural resource management, and said the programme was using independent indicators to ensure that it provided a fair grounding for all eligible countries.
Non-traditional exporters get boost
pg 57. Feb. 11/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
EXPORTERS registered with the Ghana Export Promotions Council (GEPC) will soon benefit from a partnership agreement that will enable them to meet requirements in exporting traditional goods to the European market.
The agreement signed between the council and the centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), an agency of The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will offer training and capacity building programmes for middle-level management of business organisations.
The package will as well enable the beneficiaries to understand the tools for promoting exports into the EU markets.
Director of the CBI, Mr Ton Lansink, signed for his organisation, while the Executive Secretary of the GEPC, Mr Edward Collins Boateng, also signed for the council in Accra as a climax to a week-long consultative programme between the two entities.
According to Mr Lansink, CBI was noted for its programmes in assisting companies in developing countries to access the EU markets by strengthening their competitiveness for the EU markets.
He said currently, due to global trends, there was the need for exporters to be abreast of time so they could fit into the international markets.
The Deputy Ambassador of The Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, Mr M. Bierkens, assured the GEPC of his government’s readiness to help promote the harmonisation of the agreement to the benefit both countries.
For his part, Mr Boateng said as facilitators in the export business, the partnership agreement was going to aid the GEPC in strengthening its relationship with export associations in the country.
A Deputy Director at the GEPC, Mr Gerald Nyarko-Mensah, later told the Daily Graphic that the council had about 20 export associations, made up of about 3,000 registered exporters across the country, but only 300 of them were active.
He explained that that was because most of the exporters in the country were producing sub-standard goods incapable of competing on the EU market.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
EXPORTERS registered with the Ghana Export Promotions Council (GEPC) will soon benefit from a partnership agreement that will enable them to meet requirements in exporting traditional goods to the European market.
The agreement signed between the council and the centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), an agency of The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will offer training and capacity building programmes for middle-level management of business organisations.
The package will as well enable the beneficiaries to understand the tools for promoting exports into the EU markets.
Director of the CBI, Mr Ton Lansink, signed for his organisation, while the Executive Secretary of the GEPC, Mr Edward Collins Boateng, also signed for the council in Accra as a climax to a week-long consultative programme between the two entities.
According to Mr Lansink, CBI was noted for its programmes in assisting companies in developing countries to access the EU markets by strengthening their competitiveness for the EU markets.
He said currently, due to global trends, there was the need for exporters to be abreast of time so they could fit into the international markets.
The Deputy Ambassador of The Netherlands Embassy in Ghana, Mr M. Bierkens, assured the GEPC of his government’s readiness to help promote the harmonisation of the agreement to the benefit both countries.
For his part, Mr Boateng said as facilitators in the export business, the partnership agreement was going to aid the GEPC in strengthening its relationship with export associations in the country.
A Deputy Director at the GEPC, Mr Gerald Nyarko-Mensah, later told the Daily Graphic that the council had about 20 export associations, made up of about 3,000 registered exporters across the country, but only 300 of them were active.
He explained that that was because most of the exporters in the country were producing sub-standard goods incapable of competing on the EU market.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Government, civil society must unite for child survival
Pg 11. Tuesday Feb. 05/08
By: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE 2008 State of the World’s Children report, released by UNICEF late last month, has shown that up to half of the world’s under five deaths are caused by undernutrition.
It noted that 26,000 children under five, the world over, died mostly from preventable causes and nearly all of these children lived in the developing world, of which 60 countries, including Ghana, were the worse affected.
"The report described the impact of simple and affordable, life-saving measures, such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunisation, insecticide treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation," as key to achieving child survival across the world.
The report observed that more than one third of these children died during the first month of their lives, usually at home, and without access to essential health services and basic commodities that might save their lives.
Of particular significance in the report, however, is new data showing that deaths worldwide are at a record below 9.7 million per year - down from almost 13 million in 1990.
Most of these children were said to die before their 5th birthday, due to unsafe water, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene, with some of them succumbing to respiratory or diarrhoea infections.
Meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4), which aimed at ‘reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five’ had become a challenge, especially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which the report described as being the “furthest behind on almost all of the health-related MDGs”.
According to the report, “if current trends continued, 4.3 million child deaths will occur in 2015 which could have been averted had MDG 4 been met”.
Child survival matters, according to UNICEF, which deprive infants and young children of basic health care and deny them the nutrients needed for growth and development, set them up to fail in life.
However, it said when children were well nourished, cared for and provided with safe and stimulating environment, they were more likely to survive to have less disease and fewer illnesses, and to fully develop thinking, language, emotional and social skills.
Children who have all the basic health care, when they entered school according to the report, were more likely to succeed, and later in life, they had a greater chance of becoming creative and productive members of society.
According to experts, improving nutrition and achieving MDG 1, which aimed at reducing poverty and hunger, would help avert child deaths from diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, HIV and measles as well as neo-natal and child mortality.
The report focused on Ghana. Bridging the urban-rural divide in terms of scaling up safe water, adequate sanitation and improved hygiene practices, saying that among the largest disparities in safe water and basic sanitation were those between urban and rural populations.
Globally, access to improved drinking water sources is 95 per cent in urban areas compared with 73 per cent in rural areas. The report stated that the urban-rural divide in drinking water was at its widest in sub-Saharan Africa, where 81 per cent of the people in urban areas were served compared with 41 per cent in rural areas.
In Ghana, the report indicated that coverage of rural water and sanitation was, until recently, behind the average for sub-Saharan Africa, but was currently expanding at a rate of about 200,000 people, or more than one per cent of the population a year.
The report said the change had been dramatic and reflected a sweeping reform programme introduced by the government in the early 1990s in order to address the inefficiencies of a top-down system that was unresponsive and failed to deliver, especially in rural areas.
It said Ghana’s participatory approach of involving local governments and communities in water delivery had resulted in a dramatic increase in access to water, from 55 per cent in 1990 to 75 per cent in 2004, and access was currently accelerating.
The report underscored the fact that achieving the MDG goals will result in hundreds of millions of children and men and women being relieved of hunger, utilising safe water and basic sanitation, as well as obtaining education and enjoying the same economic advantages and political opportunities that were available to others.
It said although several regions and countries were lagging behind, the targets were all reachable in the time remaining if the political will, the necessary resources and the required strategies were put in place.
The MDGs, according to the report, could be met in full and on time only if governments, donors, civil society and other stakeholders united for child survival and committed themselves to ensuring that the health-related objectives were met.
• These kids who are having fun need to have all the basic amenities to enable them have a healthy growth. It is in line with this that the achievement of the MDGs which among others will help the children to develop their full potentials, is esential to child survival.
By: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE 2008 State of the World’s Children report, released by UNICEF late last month, has shown that up to half of the world’s under five deaths are caused by undernutrition.
It noted that 26,000 children under five, the world over, died mostly from preventable causes and nearly all of these children lived in the developing world, of which 60 countries, including Ghana, were the worse affected.
"The report described the impact of simple and affordable, life-saving measures, such as exclusive breastfeeding, immunisation, insecticide treated bed nets and vitamin A supplementation," as key to achieving child survival across the world.
The report observed that more than one third of these children died during the first month of their lives, usually at home, and without access to essential health services and basic commodities that might save their lives.
Of particular significance in the report, however, is new data showing that deaths worldwide are at a record below 9.7 million per year - down from almost 13 million in 1990.
Most of these children were said to die before their 5th birthday, due to unsafe water, poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene, with some of them succumbing to respiratory or diarrhoea infections.
Meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4), which aimed at ‘reducing by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five’ had become a challenge, especially for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, a region which the report described as being the “furthest behind on almost all of the health-related MDGs”.
According to the report, “if current trends continued, 4.3 million child deaths will occur in 2015 which could have been averted had MDG 4 been met”.
Child survival matters, according to UNICEF, which deprive infants and young children of basic health care and deny them the nutrients needed for growth and development, set them up to fail in life.
However, it said when children were well nourished, cared for and provided with safe and stimulating environment, they were more likely to survive to have less disease and fewer illnesses, and to fully develop thinking, language, emotional and social skills.
Children who have all the basic health care, when they entered school according to the report, were more likely to succeed, and later in life, they had a greater chance of becoming creative and productive members of society.
According to experts, improving nutrition and achieving MDG 1, which aimed at reducing poverty and hunger, would help avert child deaths from diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, HIV and measles as well as neo-natal and child mortality.
The report focused on Ghana. Bridging the urban-rural divide in terms of scaling up safe water, adequate sanitation and improved hygiene practices, saying that among the largest disparities in safe water and basic sanitation were those between urban and rural populations.
Globally, access to improved drinking water sources is 95 per cent in urban areas compared with 73 per cent in rural areas. The report stated that the urban-rural divide in drinking water was at its widest in sub-Saharan Africa, where 81 per cent of the people in urban areas were served compared with 41 per cent in rural areas.
In Ghana, the report indicated that coverage of rural water and sanitation was, until recently, behind the average for sub-Saharan Africa, but was currently expanding at a rate of about 200,000 people, or more than one per cent of the population a year.
The report said the change had been dramatic and reflected a sweeping reform programme introduced by the government in the early 1990s in order to address the inefficiencies of a top-down system that was unresponsive and failed to deliver, especially in rural areas.
It said Ghana’s participatory approach of involving local governments and communities in water delivery had resulted in a dramatic increase in access to water, from 55 per cent in 1990 to 75 per cent in 2004, and access was currently accelerating.
The report underscored the fact that achieving the MDG goals will result in hundreds of millions of children and men and women being relieved of hunger, utilising safe water and basic sanitation, as well as obtaining education and enjoying the same economic advantages and political opportunities that were available to others.
It said although several regions and countries were lagging behind, the targets were all reachable in the time remaining if the political will, the necessary resources and the required strategies were put in place.
The MDGs, according to the report, could be met in full and on time only if governments, donors, civil society and other stakeholders united for child survival and committed themselves to ensuring that the health-related objectives were met.
• These kids who are having fun need to have all the basic amenities to enable them have a healthy growth. It is in line with this that the achievement of the MDGs which among others will help the children to develop their full potentials, is esential to child survival.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Forum held on dangers of child trafficking
pg 17 Feb. 02/08
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho, Old Ningo
TRAFFICKING of children to the city has existed over the years and parents of some of these children did not even know where the children were being taken to.
In some cases the parents were given monies which served as though the children had been bought and these children were taken to either farmlands or fishing communities to work. Some of them were as young as five years and could not even trace their homes, nor could they even give the full names of their parents.
These children were most often deprived of education, basic social amenities such as proper clothing (they were normally in scanty clothes) and shelters and access to good health care and all these factors hampered their overall growth.
The issue of child trafficking still exists but in a more dynamic form as most traffickers use the children for various intentions such as for the purposes of child prostitution, servitude, slavery or for rituals.
Those who are used in slavery in the fishing or farming communities are made to perform hazardous task such as diving into the sea or river to de-tangle ropes, an activity which most often results in the death of the children.
However, in 2005, Ghana passed a law against human trafficking (Human Trafficking Act, 2005 Act 694). The law, among other things, makes it an offence to recruit children who are not up to 18 years for hard work and those above 13 years for light work.
The law criminalises the exploitation, transportation and recruitment of children from their place of origin to different places for the purposes of going there to work or serve.
It is against this backdrop that the Department of Children under the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) has been organising sensitisation programmes for communities where the issue of child trafficking is more prevalent in the country.
Although an action plan on the law is yet to be unveiled for its successful implementation to serve as a deterrent to traffickers, the department continues to organise these sensitisation programmes to educate the general populace on the dangers of trafficking people.
One such programme was the organisation of a puppet show for schoolchildren in Old Ningo in the Dangbe West District of the Greater Accra Region.
The show was aimed at educating the children on the dangers of working under hazardous conditions and what they could do when they found themselves in such situations.
The Project Officer from the Department of Children, Mr Clarke Noyoru, who explained the offences relating to human trafficking, said the law generally looked at three main issues: which were the act or conduct of the trafficker, means of trafficking and the purpose or intention for which the trafficking was done.
With regard to the act, Mr Noyoru said it was normally done through the harbouring, transferring, facilitating or receiving the trafficked children from their parents or guardians to where they were made to work.
He explained the means as how the act was exhibited — whether through force, threat or cohesion — and said most often traffickers abducted some of the children from their places of abode.
The third act that the law looked at was the purpose for which the child had been trafficked and this involved whether the child was being used for exploitative purposes to enrich the pockets of the trafficker or whether the child was made to perform a hazardous task or introduced to prostitution or used for ritual purposes.
He said a case could formally be made against a person where one could prove all of the three instances, adding that when found guilty, one was to serve a non-negotiable custodial sentence of 5 years and the assets of the trafficker also sold and placed into a human trafficking fund.
He warned that when caught, people who were also aware of trafficking situations but did not report to the police or any law enforcement agency also had to pay a minimum of 250 penalty units.
He said currently the government was focussing on the rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration of trafficked children, adding that such children when rescued were taken through counselling, while members in communities where they were re-integrated were also given some orientation to accept them in order to make life more comfortable for the children.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Akyea, said the Ningo area was noted for child trafficking especially to Akosombo and other countries such as Gambia.
He said it was heart-warming that most of the kids who were sent to go through the ordeal of performing hazardous work had returned and were currently reunited with their parents.
The Presiding Member of the Dangbe West District Assembly, Madam Sarah Addo, told the Daily Graphic that the assembly was currently educating parents in the area to desist from the act of giving their children away.
She said the assembly had also made arrangements to ensure that returnees were counselled so that they were traumatised by their ordeal.
Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho, Old Ningo
TRAFFICKING of children to the city has existed over the years and parents of some of these children did not even know where the children were being taken to.
In some cases the parents were given monies which served as though the children had been bought and these children were taken to either farmlands or fishing communities to work. Some of them were as young as five years and could not even trace their homes, nor could they even give the full names of their parents.
These children were most often deprived of education, basic social amenities such as proper clothing (they were normally in scanty clothes) and shelters and access to good health care and all these factors hampered their overall growth.
The issue of child trafficking still exists but in a more dynamic form as most traffickers use the children for various intentions such as for the purposes of child prostitution, servitude, slavery or for rituals.
Those who are used in slavery in the fishing or farming communities are made to perform hazardous task such as diving into the sea or river to de-tangle ropes, an activity which most often results in the death of the children.
However, in 2005, Ghana passed a law against human trafficking (Human Trafficking Act, 2005 Act 694). The law, among other things, makes it an offence to recruit children who are not up to 18 years for hard work and those above 13 years for light work.
The law criminalises the exploitation, transportation and recruitment of children from their place of origin to different places for the purposes of going there to work or serve.
It is against this backdrop that the Department of Children under the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) has been organising sensitisation programmes for communities where the issue of child trafficking is more prevalent in the country.
Although an action plan on the law is yet to be unveiled for its successful implementation to serve as a deterrent to traffickers, the department continues to organise these sensitisation programmes to educate the general populace on the dangers of trafficking people.
One such programme was the organisation of a puppet show for schoolchildren in Old Ningo in the Dangbe West District of the Greater Accra Region.
The show was aimed at educating the children on the dangers of working under hazardous conditions and what they could do when they found themselves in such situations.
The Project Officer from the Department of Children, Mr Clarke Noyoru, who explained the offences relating to human trafficking, said the law generally looked at three main issues: which were the act or conduct of the trafficker, means of trafficking and the purpose or intention for which the trafficking was done.
With regard to the act, Mr Noyoru said it was normally done through the harbouring, transferring, facilitating or receiving the trafficked children from their parents or guardians to where they were made to work.
He explained the means as how the act was exhibited — whether through force, threat or cohesion — and said most often traffickers abducted some of the children from their places of abode.
The third act that the law looked at was the purpose for which the child had been trafficked and this involved whether the child was being used for exploitative purposes to enrich the pockets of the trafficker or whether the child was made to perform a hazardous task or introduced to prostitution or used for ritual purposes.
He said a case could formally be made against a person where one could prove all of the three instances, adding that when found guilty, one was to serve a non-negotiable custodial sentence of 5 years and the assets of the trafficker also sold and placed into a human trafficking fund.
He warned that when caught, people who were also aware of trafficking situations but did not report to the police or any law enforcement agency also had to pay a minimum of 250 penalty units.
He said currently the government was focussing on the rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration of trafficked children, adding that such children when rescued were taken through counselling, while members in communities where they were re-integrated were also given some orientation to accept them in order to make life more comfortable for the children.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Akyea, said the Ningo area was noted for child trafficking especially to Akosombo and other countries such as Gambia.
He said it was heart-warming that most of the kids who were sent to go through the ordeal of performing hazardous work had returned and were currently reunited with their parents.
The Presiding Member of the Dangbe West District Assembly, Madam Sarah Addo, told the Daily Graphic that the assembly was currently educating parents in the area to desist from the act of giving their children away.
She said the assembly had also made arrangements to ensure that returnees were counselled so that they were traumatised by their ordeal.
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