Christine Churcher - woman of many parts

Daily Graphic. Pg 11. Sat. Feb 27/10

Article: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

A TRIED and tested politician and one of the few women who championed the cause of gender equality in Ghana’s Parliament is Ms Christine Churcher.
At the time when women advocates complained there were only a handful of women in decision-making positions, she was one of the few who were at the helm of affairs.
A former Minister of Environment and Science and a Minister of State in charge of Education, Ms Churcher contributed a lot to ensuring that more girl-children were sent to school.
A former senior prefect of Mfantsiman Girls School and a Junior Common Room (JCR) President, Volta Hall, University of Ghana, Legon, Ms Churcher, when she was appointed the Minister for Environment and Science was very active in policy issues such as sound management of chemicals, the African Stockpiles programme and oceans and coastal management and compliance.
With her organisational skills which won her the Cape Coast Constituency seat on three consecutive ocassions in 1996, 2000 and 2004, she is now vying for the position of the National Women’s Organiser.
Her vision is to ensure that women in her party are not marginalised so as to be represented at all levels in the party.
Her desire for women in the NPP is to ensure that their potentials are not under utilised but harnessed for the growth of the party by ensuring that they are placed side by side with their male counterparts in the 2010 general elections.
A former Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Council on Women and Development, Ms Churcher’s aim is to provide the right leadership training skills to women in the NPP so as to build their capacities to make them effective in both party activities and in their personal lives.
A women’s advocate herself, she is aiming at providing women with the right leadership in the NPP that would propel them to greater heights with the conviction that the potential of women in the party can be unearthed for greater benefits.
Her motivation is that with her organisational skills and expertise, NPP women from across the country can work together to bring the party back to power in 2012.
Since she began her campaign to be elected as the women’s organiser, Ms Churcher has appealed to women within the party to give her the mandate so that she can, together with them, change the hitherto traditional roles of women in the party, saying that “the NPP can no longer take for granted the role of its women if it wanted to re-capture power in 2012.
Her campaign message is that she has every confidence in the capabilities of women in her party, and that all they needed was a strong advocate who would give them a voice at the table where decisions are made in the party.