Article: Salome Donkor (published on 20/11/2010
THE Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit attended by world leaders, along with the private sector, foundations, international organisations, civil society and research organisations, in New York in September this year kicked off a major concerted world-wide effort to accelerate progress on women and children's health.
Reports from that summit indicate that child mortality (MDG 4) has been reduced, but not significant enough to reach the target, while maternal mortality (MDG 5) remains high in much of the developing world.
Deliberately ambitious, the MDGs have provided a global agenda that has galvanised international action towards agreed indices of change, including a specific target of reducing the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth by three-quarters by 2015.
The MDGs give a central place to maternal health and gender equality and MDG 5 — improving maternal health — is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because if it fails, the other goals will also fail.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2006 report, while women in northern Europe have a one in 4,000 likelihood of dying from pregnancy-related causes, for those in sub-Saharan Africa the chance is one in 16.
Available evidence shows that 75 per cent of these deaths are preventable and that the timely provision of blood transfusion, caesarian section, oxytocin and antibiotic therapy and the timely management of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia are sufficient to reduce maternal mortality rates by 50 per 100,000 without the need for advanced technology and safe support mechanisms.
The problem of maternal mortality causes more anxiety and uneasiness, considering the fact that the factors that jeopardise maternal and new-born survival are preventable or treatable with essential services and, the most effective, affordable public health interventions.
Maternal mortality is defined by health experts as the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination. According to the experts, an obstetric emergency is not a situation where the expectant mother involved could be asked to come back the next day, since that can result in her death.
Evidence from 20 years of research and pilot interventions has identified five primary causes of deaths among pregnant women. Pregnancy-related conditions, also known as obstetric complications, include post-partum haemorrhage (bleeding), eclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy), sepsis (infection), prolonged or obstructed labour, as well as complications of abortion, and these are the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries.
Maternal mortality is a global issue and the concern for reducing it stems from the fact that at least 583,000 women die each year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The alarming situation is that almost 90 per cent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The situation in Ghana is equally gloomy, with an institutional maternal mortality rate of 250 per 100,000 live births. Reducing maternal and neonatal mortality has been a challenge in Ghana over the past decades, as many more women continue to fall prey to this problem, in spite of the efforts by the government, the development partners, the private sector and civil society.
Attaining MDGs 4 and 5, still remains a big challenge to most developing nations, Ghana included. For this reason, the World’s Children Report for 2009 prepared by UNICEF called on political leaders, governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to generate action at all levels to address the problem of maternal and neonatal deaths.
The MDGs Summit also expressed grave concern over the slow progress being made in reducing maternal mortality and improving maternal and reproductive health and the summit indicated that progress on the other MDGs was fragile and must be sustained to avoid reversal.
Similarly, the Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, in an address read on his behalf at the 52nd annual general meeting of the Ghana Medical Association in Koforidua recently, on the theme, “Maternal Health Care in Ghana: The Realities Beyond the Policies”, said there were numerous challenges facing the health sector which could only be addressed through collaboration between the government and the GMA to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
He said such an initiative would also enable the country to attain its MDGs in the health sector and expressed the hope that the GMA would embrace the slogan, “Zero Tolerance for Maternal and Infant and Childhood Deaths”, and work in that direction to find solutions to the problems associated with such deaths.
The situation has been attributed to several factors, and with such growing concerns, the Ghana office of the World Bank (WB) is taking the initiative to hold deliberations with relevant players, especially in the public sector, as part of an identification mission being undertaken in preparation of a pilot project to implement results-based financing in the area of reproductive healthcare delivery in the country.
In line with the programme, a round-table discussion on the issues, the challenges and the way forward to identify possible actions was organised in Accra on Wednesday on the theme, “Reducing maternal and neonatal mortality through dialogue and action”.
The programme brought together a number of core practitioners and policy makers and other stakeholders to brainstorm on the problems, challenges and possible actions that can be taken to address the neonatal and maternal mortality issues confronting the country.
The programme, from the World Bank’s perspective, seeks to explore the extent to which civil society organisations, through civic engagement, could contribute to the bank’s regular programmes/projects on improving maternal health.
In his opening remarks, the World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Mr Ishac Diwan, said there was the need to keep searching for more solutions and explore the usefulness of results-based financing.
An extended term consultant on financial management of the World Bank, Mrs Elizabeth Alluah Vaah, said the meeting was aimed at getting everybody’s view on the way forward, stressing, “We don’t have to throw our hands in despair.”
Discussion on the subject was generated after a documentary on maternal healthcare delivery in Ghana, produced by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) and titled, “The lights have gone our again”, had been shown.
It showed that lack of facilities, delay in accessing health facilities, acute shortage of skilled staff working under severe pressure, unsafe abortion, anaemia, lack of family planning services, as well as dissatisfaction on the part of some patients with the services provided by health service staff, negatively affected maternal healthcare delivery in the country.
Participants asserted that the problem was multi-dimensional and required effective public/private sector partnership to come up with a solution.
One issue that cropped up was the phasing out of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and the role of faith-based groups in the provision of maternal healthcare delivery.
While some maintained that TBAs and faith-based groups could not be done away with in maternal healthcare delivery, since those in the rural areas preferred patronising their services to visiting health facilities, others insisted that receiving antenatal care from a skilled provider, mostly a nurse or a midwife, and going through supervised delivery by a trained health official, was necessary to dealing with obstetric complications.
For her part, Madam Florence Okra, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Eve’s Foundation, an NGO that offers education on safe motherhood, suggested that TBAs and community-based attendants
should be trained and certified to team up with private midwives to offer the needed maternal health care to people, mostly in the rural communities where health facilities are inaccessible.
Ms Petra Vergeer, Health Specialist, made a presentation on the Concept of Results-Based Financing as a vehicle to achieve accountability for results and said the concept involved focusing on maternal and child health, increasing quantity and quality of selected health services provided, increasing health worker motivation, as well as providing financial incentives for health facilities for more quantity and quality services, in addition to providing financial incentives for pregnant women to deliver in health facilities.
A social development specialist of the World Bank, Ms Beatrix Alla-Mensah, said every year the bank selected a theme under its small grant programme and that was used to apply for funding and then advertised for civil society organisations (CSOs) to put in applications.
She said the theme for the small grant project in the coming year was on maternal health and that the bank, through its small grants programme, was looking to engage CSOs to identify innovative ways by which they could engage the public, sensitise and educate them as a way of addressing the demand side of the problem of maternal and neonatal mortality at the community, district and national levels.
Like the observation made by participants at the MDG Summit in New York, those who attended the focus group discussion in Accra realised key areas where CSOs could begin some civic engagement work in achieving “Zero Tolerance for Maternal and Infant and Childhood Deaths”.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Expanding radiotherapy centres to boost cancer treatment
Article: Salome Donkor
THE word ‘cancer’ evokes desperation that stirs grief and pain, a scourge that strains intellectual, social and emotional resources.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that there are over 20 million people living with cancer in the world today, with the majority in the developing world.
According to medical experts, cancer, which is the term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and invade other tissues, is one of the killer diseases among both men and women.
Each cancer is thought to first start from one abnormal cell. What seems to happen is that certain vital genes which control how cells divide and multiply are damaged or altered. This makes the cell abnormal. If the abnormal cell survives, it may multiply “out of control” into a malignant tumour, which consists of cancer cells that have the ability to spread beyond the original area.
Dr Clegg Lamptey of the Surgical Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra says cancer affects various parts of the body, which results in various types of cancers, each with its own name and its treatment.
Some types of cancers that affect parts of the body are breast, lung, stomach, skin, cervical and prostate cancers. Doctors say cancers in children can affect any part of their bodies. Leukaemia is a type of cancer that starts in blood-forming tissues such as the bone marrow and causes the production of large numbers of abnormal blood cells which enter the blood.
Given the complex nature of the disease, early detection of cancer is crucial for effective treatment and such detection is almost impossible without the requisite equipment and trained personnel.
Doctors contend that irrespective of the type of cancer a patient develops, he or she may need one of the following processes — surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy — and that usually patients who have prostate and breast cancers go through hormonal therapy.
For this reason, the news that Ghana has secured $13.5 million loan from the OPEC Fund and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa to upgrade and expand the radiotherapy centres at the Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Accra and Kumasi respectively could be described as a positive step to enhance the care and treatment of cancer cases in the country.
The story published in the Daily Graphic early April, quoted the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, as stating in an interview that another $9 million dollars was being sourced to establish a new radiotherapy centre at the Tamale Teaching Hospital to serve the northern part of the country and neighbouring West African countries not having radiotherapy facilities.
She said the projects were being undertaken in line with the government’s determination to ensure that cancer cases received prompt attention at the country’s two teaching hospitals.
Ms Ayittey said upgrading and expanding the two centres would enhance the care and treatment of cancer cases in the country and ensure that cases which were hitherto referred to hospitals outside the countries were treated locally.
Doctors say cancer could be cured when detected early, and that cancers needed multi-disciplinary treatment with various specialists. However, if left untreated, it may spread and destroy surrounding tissues.
Radiotherapy is an important means of treating cancers and most cancer patients go through this treatment. According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, radiotherapy is used for the treatment of malignant cancer, and may be used as a primary or adjuvant modality. It is also common to combine radiotherapy with surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or the mixture of the three. Most common cancer types can be treated with radiotherapy in some way. The precise treatment intent (curative, adjuvant, neoadjuvant, therapeutic, or palliative) will depend on the tumour type, location, and stage, as well as the general health of the patient.
Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumour. The radiation fields may also include the draining lymph nodes, if they are clinically or radiologically involved with tumour, or if it is thought there is the risk of subclinical malignant spread. It is necessary to include a margin of normal tissue around the tumour to allow for uncertainties in daily set-up and internal tumour motion. These uncertainties can be caused by internal movement (for example, respiration and bladder filling) and movement of external skin marks relative to the tumour position.
To spare normal tissues (such as skin or organs which radiation must pass through in order to treat the tumour), shaped radiation beams are aimed from several angles of exposure to intersect at the tumour, providing a much larger absorbed dose there than in the surrounding, healthy tissue.
Lack of knowledge of the disease and the cost of treatment makes it difficult for most cancer patients to bear the cost of surgery and treatment. For that reason, some patients seek support from herbalists and pastors, instead of visiting the health facility.
Mrs Gladys Boateng, Director, Reach for Recovery, a breast cancer support group, said because of the stigmatisation, myth and fear surrounding the disease, nobody wanted to be associated with it, stressing that that was affecting the fight against the disease.
There is therefore the need for a concerted effort and intensive education to highlight the world-wide growing cancer crisis and its effect on women in particular. There is the need for counselling and other support.
It is also necessary to demystify cancer to disabuse the minds of patients of the fear, misconception and myths surrounding the disease and encourage patients to go for regular, medical examination.
The survivors are encouraged to participate in stress-relieving trips and also take active roles in visiting one another.
According to Mrs Boateng, another important aspect of cancer treatment was the need to establish a hospice for terminally ill cancer patients for proper care and support and pointed out that support groups, such as Reach for Recovery, needed to be offered the maximum support to continue their good works.
THE word ‘cancer’ evokes desperation that stirs grief and pain, a scourge that strains intellectual, social and emotional resources.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that there are over 20 million people living with cancer in the world today, with the majority in the developing world.
According to medical experts, cancer, which is the term used for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control and invade other tissues, is one of the killer diseases among both men and women.
Each cancer is thought to first start from one abnormal cell. What seems to happen is that certain vital genes which control how cells divide and multiply are damaged or altered. This makes the cell abnormal. If the abnormal cell survives, it may multiply “out of control” into a malignant tumour, which consists of cancer cells that have the ability to spread beyond the original area.
Dr Clegg Lamptey of the Surgical Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra says cancer affects various parts of the body, which results in various types of cancers, each with its own name and its treatment.
Some types of cancers that affect parts of the body are breast, lung, stomach, skin, cervical and prostate cancers. Doctors say cancers in children can affect any part of their bodies. Leukaemia is a type of cancer that starts in blood-forming tissues such as the bone marrow and causes the production of large numbers of abnormal blood cells which enter the blood.
Given the complex nature of the disease, early detection of cancer is crucial for effective treatment and such detection is almost impossible without the requisite equipment and trained personnel.
Doctors contend that irrespective of the type of cancer a patient develops, he or she may need one of the following processes — surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy — and that usually patients who have prostate and breast cancers go through hormonal therapy.
For this reason, the news that Ghana has secured $13.5 million loan from the OPEC Fund and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa to upgrade and expand the radiotherapy centres at the Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Accra and Kumasi respectively could be described as a positive step to enhance the care and treatment of cancer cases in the country.
The story published in the Daily Graphic early April, quoted the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Ayittey, as stating in an interview that another $9 million dollars was being sourced to establish a new radiotherapy centre at the Tamale Teaching Hospital to serve the northern part of the country and neighbouring West African countries not having radiotherapy facilities.
She said the projects were being undertaken in line with the government’s determination to ensure that cancer cases received prompt attention at the country’s two teaching hospitals.
Ms Ayittey said upgrading and expanding the two centres would enhance the care and treatment of cancer cases in the country and ensure that cases which were hitherto referred to hospitals outside the countries were treated locally.
Doctors say cancer could be cured when detected early, and that cancers needed multi-disciplinary treatment with various specialists. However, if left untreated, it may spread and destroy surrounding tissues.
Radiotherapy is an important means of treating cancers and most cancer patients go through this treatment. According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, radiotherapy is used for the treatment of malignant cancer, and may be used as a primary or adjuvant modality. It is also common to combine radiotherapy with surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or the mixture of the three. Most common cancer types can be treated with radiotherapy in some way. The precise treatment intent (curative, adjuvant, neoadjuvant, therapeutic, or palliative) will depend on the tumour type, location, and stage, as well as the general health of the patient.
Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumour. The radiation fields may also include the draining lymph nodes, if they are clinically or radiologically involved with tumour, or if it is thought there is the risk of subclinical malignant spread. It is necessary to include a margin of normal tissue around the tumour to allow for uncertainties in daily set-up and internal tumour motion. These uncertainties can be caused by internal movement (for example, respiration and bladder filling) and movement of external skin marks relative to the tumour position.
To spare normal tissues (such as skin or organs which radiation must pass through in order to treat the tumour), shaped radiation beams are aimed from several angles of exposure to intersect at the tumour, providing a much larger absorbed dose there than in the surrounding, healthy tissue.
Lack of knowledge of the disease and the cost of treatment makes it difficult for most cancer patients to bear the cost of surgery and treatment. For that reason, some patients seek support from herbalists and pastors, instead of visiting the health facility.
Mrs Gladys Boateng, Director, Reach for Recovery, a breast cancer support group, said because of the stigmatisation, myth and fear surrounding the disease, nobody wanted to be associated with it, stressing that that was affecting the fight against the disease.
There is therefore the need for a concerted effort and intensive education to highlight the world-wide growing cancer crisis and its effect on women in particular. There is the need for counselling and other support.
It is also necessary to demystify cancer to disabuse the minds of patients of the fear, misconception and myths surrounding the disease and encourage patients to go for regular, medical examination.
The survivors are encouraged to participate in stress-relieving trips and also take active roles in visiting one another.
According to Mrs Boateng, another important aspect of cancer treatment was the need to establish a hospice for terminally ill cancer patients for proper care and support and pointed out that support groups, such as Reach for Recovery, needed to be offered the maximum support to continue their good works.
Dealing with gender stereotypes -
Article: Salome Donkor
Inequalities between men and women, whether in the economic or cultural sense or both, certainly mean that women work hardest to produce food and water, yet benefit the least from their work.
This is because women have less power over the resources they produce.
Gender inequality impacts on access to food, property and land rights, as well as access to credit.
The World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind World-wide, indicate that women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, produce half of the world’s food and yet earn only 10 per cent of the world’s income and own less than one per cent of the world’s property.
To promote the EC/UN Partnership Programme on gender Equality for Development and Peace, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), under the auspices and sponsorship of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), recently organised a two-day forum to share experiences and exchange views with media practitioners on practices and principles for promoting gender equality as a priority development issue.
The forum discussed the Accra Agenda for Action endorsed by ministers of developing and donor countries responsible for development and heads of multilateral and bilateral development institutions, after the Third High level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Accra from September 2-4, 2008.
The document provides the framework for promoting gender equality and also provides UNIFEM with a platform to introduce its new programme for 2010 - 2013.
According to the National Programme Co-ordinator of UNIFEM, the Proposed New Programme on Financing Gender Equality and Aid Effectiveness, Programme Country Strategy, developed after the adoption of the action programme, would address four key gaps and challenges in the country.
She mentioned the need for capacity building or the strengthening of key government institutions on their roles and functions in the implementation of the national gender equality agenda, the need to strengthen gender equality and the role of civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations in monitoring and evaluating government and donors’ commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment agenda in national development plans, budgets and development co-operation frameworks.
It will also address issues associated with limited progress on mutual accountability of governments and donors, as well as the lack of relevant gender desegregated data and information on financing for gender equality, costing of gender equality and women empowerment programmes and gender responsive budgeting implementation in the country.
In identifying the main activities that will be carried out and the programme partners to achieve the expected results, UNIFEM mentions ministries, departments and agencies, United Nations agencies and other multilateral, as well as bilateral, agencies, the private sector and the media.
One important way in which the media can deal with gender inequalities is to publish stories that challenge stereotypes and these include those that overturn common assumptions about women and men in relation to their attributes, traits, roles or occupations.
Conversely, stories that reinforce stereotypes will reinscribe the generalised, simplistic and often exaggerated assumptions of masculinity and femininity in a given cultural context.
The preliminary report by the Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010, states that stories in Asia are almost eight times as likely to reinforce gender stereotypes than to challenge them.
It said in Africa, stories were almost 16 times as likely to reinforce than challenge stereotypes, adding that the larger percentage of stories that reinforced rather than challenged stereotypes suggested a need for media practitioner awareness on understanding, recognising and challenging stereotypes in reportage.
The top five topics in which women are central pertain to women in politics, violence and crime. Specifically, these are women in political power and decision-making, gender-based violence, violent crime, domestic politics and disaster. Further, the preliminary results show that women are not central at all in several news topics that are of importance to them, such as labour (employment, unemployment) and poverty (housing, social welfare and aid).
The report shows that the breakdown of topics with the highest coverage in all regions indicates that the media in Africa devoted 25 per cent of news coverage for politics and government, 21 per cent for social and legal, 19 per cent for the economy, 18 per cent for crime and violence, nine per cent for science and health,, six per cent for celebrity, the arts and the media and sports and zero per cent for the girl-child.
The hierarchy of priorities reveals the need for a radical transformation of the news media agenda towards one that is cognisant of and responsive to gender interests in the news.
The topics, ‘science and health’ and ‘social and legal’, are relevant to women’s gender interest. What is needed is a re-alignment of the priorities on the news media agenda to reflect the interest of the majority.
The most significant of participants’ commitment at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was their resolve to work together to help countries across the world build a successful future for all, a future based on a shared commitment to overcome poverty, a future in which no countries will depend on aid.
The participants agreed that by 2010, each of them should meet the commitments they had made on aid effectiveness in Paris in 2005 and in Accra and reach beyond those commitments, where they could.
They agreed to reflect and draw upon the many valuable ideas and initiatives that had been presented at the High Level Forum and asked the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness to continue monitoring progress on implementing the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action and report back to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011.
As was rightly pointed out by Dr Doris Dartey, a communications consultant and media educator, the media should not reinforce gender stereotypes or publish gender-blind stories.
There is the need for media practitioners to set their personal agendas and use the media to get people to tell their stories.
That should be done in such a way to champion cultural change, safeguard women’s rights and shine “the dark spots in society”.
Inequalities between men and women, whether in the economic or cultural sense or both, certainly mean that women work hardest to produce food and water, yet benefit the least from their work.
This is because women have less power over the resources they produce.
Gender inequality impacts on access to food, property and land rights, as well as access to credit.
The World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind World-wide, indicate that women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, produce half of the world’s food and yet earn only 10 per cent of the world’s income and own less than one per cent of the world’s property.
To promote the EC/UN Partnership Programme on gender Equality for Development and Peace, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), under the auspices and sponsorship of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), recently organised a two-day forum to share experiences and exchange views with media practitioners on practices and principles for promoting gender equality as a priority development issue.
The forum discussed the Accra Agenda for Action endorsed by ministers of developing and donor countries responsible for development and heads of multilateral and bilateral development institutions, after the Third High level Forum on Aid Effectiveness held in Accra from September 2-4, 2008.
The document provides the framework for promoting gender equality and also provides UNIFEM with a platform to introduce its new programme for 2010 - 2013.
According to the National Programme Co-ordinator of UNIFEM, the Proposed New Programme on Financing Gender Equality and Aid Effectiveness, Programme Country Strategy, developed after the adoption of the action programme, would address four key gaps and challenges in the country.
She mentioned the need for capacity building or the strengthening of key government institutions on their roles and functions in the implementation of the national gender equality agenda, the need to strengthen gender equality and the role of civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations in monitoring and evaluating government and donors’ commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment agenda in national development plans, budgets and development co-operation frameworks.
It will also address issues associated with limited progress on mutual accountability of governments and donors, as well as the lack of relevant gender desegregated data and information on financing for gender equality, costing of gender equality and women empowerment programmes and gender responsive budgeting implementation in the country.
In identifying the main activities that will be carried out and the programme partners to achieve the expected results, UNIFEM mentions ministries, departments and agencies, United Nations agencies and other multilateral, as well as bilateral, agencies, the private sector and the media.
One important way in which the media can deal with gender inequalities is to publish stories that challenge stereotypes and these include those that overturn common assumptions about women and men in relation to their attributes, traits, roles or occupations.
Conversely, stories that reinforce stereotypes will reinscribe the generalised, simplistic and often exaggerated assumptions of masculinity and femininity in a given cultural context.
The preliminary report by the Global Media Monitoring Project, 2010, states that stories in Asia are almost eight times as likely to reinforce gender stereotypes than to challenge them.
It said in Africa, stories were almost 16 times as likely to reinforce than challenge stereotypes, adding that the larger percentage of stories that reinforced rather than challenged stereotypes suggested a need for media practitioner awareness on understanding, recognising and challenging stereotypes in reportage.
The top five topics in which women are central pertain to women in politics, violence and crime. Specifically, these are women in political power and decision-making, gender-based violence, violent crime, domestic politics and disaster. Further, the preliminary results show that women are not central at all in several news topics that are of importance to them, such as labour (employment, unemployment) and poverty (housing, social welfare and aid).
The report shows that the breakdown of topics with the highest coverage in all regions indicates that the media in Africa devoted 25 per cent of news coverage for politics and government, 21 per cent for social and legal, 19 per cent for the economy, 18 per cent for crime and violence, nine per cent for science and health,, six per cent for celebrity, the arts and the media and sports and zero per cent for the girl-child.
The hierarchy of priorities reveals the need for a radical transformation of the news media agenda towards one that is cognisant of and responsive to gender interests in the news.
The topics, ‘science and health’ and ‘social and legal’, are relevant to women’s gender interest. What is needed is a re-alignment of the priorities on the news media agenda to reflect the interest of the majority.
The most significant of participants’ commitment at the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness was their resolve to work together to help countries across the world build a successful future for all, a future based on a shared commitment to overcome poverty, a future in which no countries will depend on aid.
The participants agreed that by 2010, each of them should meet the commitments they had made on aid effectiveness in Paris in 2005 and in Accra and reach beyond those commitments, where they could.
They agreed to reflect and draw upon the many valuable ideas and initiatives that had been presented at the High Level Forum and asked the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness to continue monitoring progress on implementing the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action and report back to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in 2011.
As was rightly pointed out by Dr Doris Dartey, a communications consultant and media educator, the media should not reinforce gender stereotypes or publish gender-blind stories.
There is the need for media practitioners to set their personal agendas and use the media to get people to tell their stories.
That should be done in such a way to champion cultural change, safeguard women’s rights and shine “the dark spots in society”.
Women Candidates Support Package is laudable
Article: Salome Donkor
The important role of women in politics and public office is recognised within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the indicators for monitoring MDG 3 that relates to promoting gender equality and women empowerment, is the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and other levels of decision-making process.
The 2005 World Summit Outcome reaffirmed the commitment to increase representation of women in government and decision-making bodies, including opportunities to participate fully in the political process.
Marked progress has been made since 1995 in the numbers of women elected to national parliaments and statistics from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) database on women in national parliaments indicate that 20 countries achieved over 30 per cent representation of women in 2006, which compares favourably with the very short list of five countries that had achieved this in 1995 (Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden).
The IPU database indicates that almost all of the 20 countries have used some form of electoral quotas to ensure that women account for a certain number of percentage of candidates for office or officeholders, whether through a constitutional commitment, a provision of election legislation, voluntary action by political parties, or some combination of these.
Two articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) deal with women’s participation in political and public life. Article 7 commits States parties to ensure equality between women and men in political and public life, including the right to vote, to be eligible for election, to participate in formulating government policy, to hold public office and to perform public functions. That provision also includes the right to participate in non-governmental organisations and other associations.
Article 8 requires States parties to ensure that women have equal opportunities with men to represent their governments at the international level and to participate in the work of international organisations. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women provided additional guidance in the implementation of the Convention in 1997 in its General Recommendation 23, which highlighted the application of the Convention to all levels of government and to the activities of a range of organisations concerned with public and political life, including public boards, local councils, and the activities of political parties, trade unions and professional associations.
The involvement of more women in politics and decision-making is significant, since it is expected to meet their interests and basic needs and enable them to continue to influence policies from a gender perspective and address inequalities and injustices in social relationships. The full participation of women in the electoral process was also key to the growth of democracy.
The local government system has therefore become good grounds for some women who want to enter national politics. But there are various challenges that confront women intending to enter local government, which make it difficult for them to take the initiative.
To address these challenges, which include social and economic factors, the Department of Women in the various regions have been tasked to work in collaboration with the district assemblies and identify 20 women from each district to support them to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections.
This month, the Electoral Commission (EC) also announced a package to encourage more women to contest the upcoming district level elections scheduled for October 26, this year.
Known as The Women Candidates Support Package, it is set to be introduced in recognition of the peculiar challenge women faced, with financial support from the European Union, and it will include training workshops to be attended solely by female candidates.
In 2005, with the support of the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the EC and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs undertook intensive leadership training programmes for potential women candidates for the 2006 district level elections.
In addition to this, the Women in Local Government Fund was also launched to support female contestants. Despite these, the low numbers of women in local and national politics means that it is also important to look at other methods, such as quota representation, to bridge the gap between the numbers of men and women represented in the political arena.
Ms Gloria Ofori Buadu, President of the Women Assistance Business Association (WABA), an organisation that supports women, described the EC’s initiative as a good idea but stated that there was the need to repackage these programmes well in order not to incur the displeasure of other contestants in the local elections.
She said in the last elections some male contestants used the raising of funds to support female candidates, to campaign against the women, with some of them alleging that the female candidates had been given a lot of money, while their male counterparts had none.
She also advised the EC to stick to the date fixed for the election and said in the last election, a number of the electorate lost interest in the polls as a result of the change in dates.
Some women contacted said the details of the EC’s package should be spelt out and made known to prospective contestants, to help them derive maximum benefit from the scheme, to significantly improve gender balance in decision-making at all levels.
The important role of women in politics and public office is recognised within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the indicators for monitoring MDG 3 that relates to promoting gender equality and women empowerment, is the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and other levels of decision-making process.
The 2005 World Summit Outcome reaffirmed the commitment to increase representation of women in government and decision-making bodies, including opportunities to participate fully in the political process.
Marked progress has been made since 1995 in the numbers of women elected to national parliaments and statistics from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) database on women in national parliaments indicate that 20 countries achieved over 30 per cent representation of women in 2006, which compares favourably with the very short list of five countries that had achieved this in 1995 (Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden).
The IPU database indicates that almost all of the 20 countries have used some form of electoral quotas to ensure that women account for a certain number of percentage of candidates for office or officeholders, whether through a constitutional commitment, a provision of election legislation, voluntary action by political parties, or some combination of these.
Two articles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) deal with women’s participation in political and public life. Article 7 commits States parties to ensure equality between women and men in political and public life, including the right to vote, to be eligible for election, to participate in formulating government policy, to hold public office and to perform public functions. That provision also includes the right to participate in non-governmental organisations and other associations.
Article 8 requires States parties to ensure that women have equal opportunities with men to represent their governments at the international level and to participate in the work of international organisations. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women provided additional guidance in the implementation of the Convention in 1997 in its General Recommendation 23, which highlighted the application of the Convention to all levels of government and to the activities of a range of organisations concerned with public and political life, including public boards, local councils, and the activities of political parties, trade unions and professional associations.
The involvement of more women in politics and decision-making is significant, since it is expected to meet their interests and basic needs and enable them to continue to influence policies from a gender perspective and address inequalities and injustices in social relationships. The full participation of women in the electoral process was also key to the growth of democracy.
The local government system has therefore become good grounds for some women who want to enter national politics. But there are various challenges that confront women intending to enter local government, which make it difficult for them to take the initiative.
To address these challenges, which include social and economic factors, the Department of Women in the various regions have been tasked to work in collaboration with the district assemblies and identify 20 women from each district to support them to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections.
This month, the Electoral Commission (EC) also announced a package to encourage more women to contest the upcoming district level elections scheduled for October 26, this year.
Known as The Women Candidates Support Package, it is set to be introduced in recognition of the peculiar challenge women faced, with financial support from the European Union, and it will include training workshops to be attended solely by female candidates.
In 2005, with the support of the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF), the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the EC and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs undertook intensive leadership training programmes for potential women candidates for the 2006 district level elections.
In addition to this, the Women in Local Government Fund was also launched to support female contestants. Despite these, the low numbers of women in local and national politics means that it is also important to look at other methods, such as quota representation, to bridge the gap between the numbers of men and women represented in the political arena.
Ms Gloria Ofori Buadu, President of the Women Assistance Business Association (WABA), an organisation that supports women, described the EC’s initiative as a good idea but stated that there was the need to repackage these programmes well in order not to incur the displeasure of other contestants in the local elections.
She said in the last elections some male contestants used the raising of funds to support female candidates, to campaign against the women, with some of them alleging that the female candidates had been given a lot of money, while their male counterparts had none.
She also advised the EC to stick to the date fixed for the election and said in the last election, a number of the electorate lost interest in the polls as a result of the change in dates.
Some women contacted said the details of the EC’s package should be spelt out and made known to prospective contestants, to help them derive maximum benefit from the scheme, to significantly improve gender balance in decision-making at all levels.
Children count - Make the commitment
Article: Salome Donkor
TO many parents and those who have the interest of children at heart,"every day is Children's Day". The World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland proclaimed June 1 as International Children's Day in 1925 to promote the well-being of children around the world. This followed resolutions taken at the World Conference in Geneva, Switzerland that year.
On this day, the whole world observes the need to reach out to the youngest members of our world community. Each year in commemoration of International Children's Day, Amnesty International calls on the international community to take concrete steps to protect and promote children's rights, which are the foundation for a thriving human rights culture.
It is not clear as to why June 1 was chosen as the International Children's Day: One theory has it that the Chinese consul-general in San Francisco (USA) gathered a number of Chinese orphans to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in 1925, which happened to be on June 1 that year, and also coincided with the conference in Geneva.
The day, celebrated as a holiday in some countries, is usually marked with speeches on children's rights and well-being, children TV programmes, parties, various activities involving or dedicated to children, with some families going out with their children. Many nations declare days for children on other dates.
In the United States of America, Children’s Day observations predate both Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day, though a permanent annual single Children's Day observation is not made at the national level.
The celebration of a special Children’s Day in America dates from the 1860s and earlier.
In 1856, Rev. Charles H. Leonard, then pastor of the First Universalist Church of Chelsea, Mass., set apart a Sunday for the dedication of children to the Christian life, and for the re-dedication of parents and guardians to bringing-up their children in Christian nurture. This service was first observed the second Sunday in June.
In Ghana, similar programmes are held in some churches such as the Presbyterian and Methodist that mark Children’s day with drama, Bible recitals, and talk on children’s rights and development. Such programmes are also used to raise funds in support the Children’s Ministry of those churches.
To mark the 20th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Conventions, respectively, the International Committee of the Red Cross has issued a new brochure on children and war. This brochure examines the risks faced by children caught up in armed conflict, the steps taken to address their specific needs and the rules of law defined to protect them.
Much was not heard about this year’s International Children’s Day celebration in the country, but one significant programme held in Accra on Saturday June 5, that is also related to the promotion of child’s rights, was the launch of the 2010 World Day Against Child Labour and the current International Labour Organisation (ILO) Child Labour Global Report.
The worst forms of child labour as defined in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 182 included practices such as the sale and trafficking of children, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, the use, procuring or offering of children for prostitution, or for the production of pornography or pornographic performance: And the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs.
Some people contend that there is no child labour in the country,arguing that children who help their parents to raise money
for the upkeep of the family are not engaged in child labour. However, the 2003 Ghana Child Labour Survey (GCLS 2003), revealed that 2.47 million children out of an estimated number of 6.36 million aged between 5 and 17, were economically active, with about 1.27 million in activities classified as child labour.
Speaking at the programme, the Deputy Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, was reported to have stated that child labour continued to pose problems that resulted in child abuse and hindered the growth and development of children in developing countries.
A communiqué adopted by participants after the six-day forum at the recent annual Easter School for Children in Sunyani, organised by Child's Rights International (CRI) in co-operation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), urged the Department of Social Welfare to monitor the activities of children and called on the Department of Social Welfare, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC),to institute programmes to tackle the problems of child labour and early marriages involving children.
This was based on their observations and findings during different field trips to the Techiman Market, various houses, shops and drinking bars to distribute 250 copies of the Children’s Act 560. The visit to the Techiman Market revealed that, although the day of the visit was not a market day, there were many children at the market carrying loads of food items.
The communiqué indicated that majority of the children, aged between six and 17 started selling at the age of six, with some of them ‘working’ permanently for the whole week for approximately 10 hours a day, while those working temporarily, ‘work’ five days a week, earning between GH¢1 and GH¢20, with some earning as low as 50 Ghana pesewas a day.
It said most of the children, who were malnourished, lived in rented kiosks and stores, and take unprescribed drugs to ease their body pains, and some were knocked down by vehicles without any compensation.
Recognising the need to respond to the health, education, safety, and social and emotional well-being of children, countries that joined the world community in observing International Children's Day renewed their commitment to improving the lives of children around the world.
Ghana, as well as the global community in general need to commit herself to promoting access to a quality education for all children,strive to improve the lives of young people by seeking innovative solutions to poverty,including programmes that provide emergency relief, promote economic opportunity and integrate human rights concerns into humanitarian assistance.
As a parent/guardian, we need to commit ourselves to love, cherish and nurture our children physically, mentally,emotionally, attend to their spiritual needs and affirm our love to them. All adults have the responsibility to make the world a better place for children.
TO many parents and those who have the interest of children at heart,"every day is Children's Day". The World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland proclaimed June 1 as International Children's Day in 1925 to promote the well-being of children around the world. This followed resolutions taken at the World Conference in Geneva, Switzerland that year.
On this day, the whole world observes the need to reach out to the youngest members of our world community. Each year in commemoration of International Children's Day, Amnesty International calls on the international community to take concrete steps to protect and promote children's rights, which are the foundation for a thriving human rights culture.
It is not clear as to why June 1 was chosen as the International Children's Day: One theory has it that the Chinese consul-general in San Francisco (USA) gathered a number of Chinese orphans to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in 1925, which happened to be on June 1 that year, and also coincided with the conference in Geneva.
The day, celebrated as a holiday in some countries, is usually marked with speeches on children's rights and well-being, children TV programmes, parties, various activities involving or dedicated to children, with some families going out with their children. Many nations declare days for children on other dates.
In the United States of America, Children’s Day observations predate both Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day, though a permanent annual single Children's Day observation is not made at the national level.
The celebration of a special Children’s Day in America dates from the 1860s and earlier.
In 1856, Rev. Charles H. Leonard, then pastor of the First Universalist Church of Chelsea, Mass., set apart a Sunday for the dedication of children to the Christian life, and for the re-dedication of parents and guardians to bringing-up their children in Christian nurture. This service was first observed the second Sunday in June.
In Ghana, similar programmes are held in some churches such as the Presbyterian and Methodist that mark Children’s day with drama, Bible recitals, and talk on children’s rights and development. Such programmes are also used to raise funds in support the Children’s Ministry of those churches.
To mark the 20th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the Geneva Conventions, respectively, the International Committee of the Red Cross has issued a new brochure on children and war. This brochure examines the risks faced by children caught up in armed conflict, the steps taken to address their specific needs and the rules of law defined to protect them.
Much was not heard about this year’s International Children’s Day celebration in the country, but one significant programme held in Accra on Saturday June 5, that is also related to the promotion of child’s rights, was the launch of the 2010 World Day Against Child Labour and the current International Labour Organisation (ILO) Child Labour Global Report.
The worst forms of child labour as defined in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 182 included practices such as the sale and trafficking of children, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, the use, procuring or offering of children for prostitution, or for the production of pornography or pornographic performance: And the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs.
Some people contend that there is no child labour in the country,arguing that children who help their parents to raise money
for the upkeep of the family are not engaged in child labour. However, the 2003 Ghana Child Labour Survey (GCLS 2003), revealed that 2.47 million children out of an estimated number of 6.36 million aged between 5 and 17, were economically active, with about 1.27 million in activities classified as child labour.
Speaking at the programme, the Deputy Commissioner of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, was reported to have stated that child labour continued to pose problems that resulted in child abuse and hindered the growth and development of children in developing countries.
A communiqué adopted by participants after the six-day forum at the recent annual Easter School for Children in Sunyani, organised by Child's Rights International (CRI) in co-operation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), urged the Department of Social Welfare to monitor the activities of children and called on the Department of Social Welfare, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC),to institute programmes to tackle the problems of child labour and early marriages involving children.
This was based on their observations and findings during different field trips to the Techiman Market, various houses, shops and drinking bars to distribute 250 copies of the Children’s Act 560. The visit to the Techiman Market revealed that, although the day of the visit was not a market day, there were many children at the market carrying loads of food items.
The communiqué indicated that majority of the children, aged between six and 17 started selling at the age of six, with some of them ‘working’ permanently for the whole week for approximately 10 hours a day, while those working temporarily, ‘work’ five days a week, earning between GH¢1 and GH¢20, with some earning as low as 50 Ghana pesewas a day.
It said most of the children, who were malnourished, lived in rented kiosks and stores, and take unprescribed drugs to ease their body pains, and some were knocked down by vehicles without any compensation.
Recognising the need to respond to the health, education, safety, and social and emotional well-being of children, countries that joined the world community in observing International Children's Day renewed their commitment to improving the lives of children around the world.
Ghana, as well as the global community in general need to commit herself to promoting access to a quality education for all children,strive to improve the lives of young people by seeking innovative solutions to poverty,including programmes that provide emergency relief, promote economic opportunity and integrate human rights concerns into humanitarian assistance.
As a parent/guardian, we need to commit ourselves to love, cherish and nurture our children physically, mentally,emotionally, attend to their spiritual needs and affirm our love to them. All adults have the responsibility to make the world a better place for children.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Children’s rights need protection and commitment
Article: Salome Donkor
The Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560) defines a child as a person below the age of 18 and entrusts parents with the responsibilities to protect the child from neglect, discrimination, violence, abuse, exposure to physical and moral hazards and oppression.
Media reports on the abuse of the rights of the child sometimes involving parents, who refused to provide guidance, care, assistance and maintenance for the child and assure them of their survival and development, amount to breach of the Children’s Act.
The efficient enforcement of children’s rights is affected by the fact that most children were not enlightened on their rights, while some state institutions charged with the protection of children’s rights were confronted with challenges that render their operations ineffective.
At the recent annual Easter School for Children in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, organised by Child's Rights International (CRI) in co-operation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), that provided a forum for children to actively participate in open discussions about critical issues that affected their welfare and the enjoyment of children's rights, the participants engaged in constructive dialogue with one another and with policy makers and government officials in Ghana.
The Tano North District Girl-Child Co-ordinator, Mrs Margaret Anane-Agyei, lamented the high incidence of teenage pregnancy among students in the district, in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
She said last year,23 female students who wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the district, were found to be pregnant and pointed out that apart from that, some female students found to be pregnant were in primary four and in other classes.
She attributed the problem to poverty, which she said had led to a high level of parental neglect and irresponsibility, adding that, in their quest to make money, some parents neglected the training and upbringing of their children and left them “to manage their own affairs”.
She also said the negative influence of foreign culture which made some young girls in rural communities copy foreign culture blindly, as well as peer pressure influence, have compounded the problem.
She stressed the need for churches to use the Women and Men’s Fellowships to champion parental responsibility and child upbringing, and also called for women empowerment programmes to improve the financial position of women to help them support the upkeep of their homes.
The Deputy Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Supervisor of Police (ASP) Setina Aboagye, said much as emphasis was being put on the need to arrest perpetrators of child sexual abuse, emphasis should also be placed on the need for victims of sexual abuse to make a report to the police and also seek early medical care to protect them against sexually transmitted diseases.
She also called on the media to protect sexual violence victims in order not to compound their emotional and psychological trauma.
The Executive Director of Child’s Rights International, Mr Bright Appiah, said failure to promote children’s rights amount to stifling their efforts to realise their potentials, adding that the CRI organised the programme annually on specific theme “to remind us of what we can do to protect the rights of children”.
The Associate Community Services Officer of the UNHCR, Ms Elsie Dinah Yaokumah, said like all other children, displaced and trafficked children, as well as and street children need to be provided with the basic necessities of lives namely, food clothing and shelter and pointed out that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has camps in various parts of the country, sheltering refugee children from neighbouring countries.
The participants, after the six-day forum, presented a communiqué to the Regional Co-ordinating Council,after they had visited the Techiman Market,various houses, shops and drinking bars to distribute 250 copies of the Children’s Act 560.They also visited the Sunyani Traditional Council to interact with the traditions rulers.
The communiqué called for intensive efforts to empower women through the institution of microfinance programmes, as well as the institution of a social intervention programmes to ensure that all these children are covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
It also urged the Department of Social Welfare to monitor the activities of children and urged the Department of Social Welfare, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), to institute programmes to tackle the problems of child labour and early marriages, involving children.
It further called for the translation of the Children’s Act into Child friendly versions to be produced and distributed to promote legal literacy of the Act, stressing that the production of more copies of Act 560, as well as its translation into local dialects for the appreciation of all, must be enhanced.
Children who participated in this year’s programme exhibited unique talents, in addition to sharing experiences and discussing critical issues that affected the welfare of children.
The participants entertained the gathering with cultural display to emphasise their expectations from parents, guardians, child rights activists and stakeholders, in order to bridge the gap between children’s rights and realities.
A 12-year-old Junior High School (JHS) student of the Duayaw Nkwanta District Assembly JHS, Hannah Serwaah Arthur, who was selected by her school to participate in the Presidential Dinner in Accra, won the admiration of the audience with her display of brilliance and eloquence with a recital on the importance of education and the need for parents to educate their children to help unearth their talents.
The Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560) defines a child as a person below the age of 18 and entrusts parents with the responsibilities to protect the child from neglect, discrimination, violence, abuse, exposure to physical and moral hazards and oppression.
Media reports on the abuse of the rights of the child sometimes involving parents, who refused to provide guidance, care, assistance and maintenance for the child and assure them of their survival and development, amount to breach of the Children’s Act.
The efficient enforcement of children’s rights is affected by the fact that most children were not enlightened on their rights, while some state institutions charged with the protection of children’s rights were confronted with challenges that render their operations ineffective.
At the recent annual Easter School for Children in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital, organised by Child's Rights International (CRI) in co-operation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), that provided a forum for children to actively participate in open discussions about critical issues that affected their welfare and the enjoyment of children's rights, the participants engaged in constructive dialogue with one another and with policy makers and government officials in Ghana.
The Tano North District Girl-Child Co-ordinator, Mrs Margaret Anane-Agyei, lamented the high incidence of teenage pregnancy among students in the district, in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
She said last year,23 female students who wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the district, were found to be pregnant and pointed out that apart from that, some female students found to be pregnant were in primary four and in other classes.
She attributed the problem to poverty, which she said had led to a high level of parental neglect and irresponsibility, adding that, in their quest to make money, some parents neglected the training and upbringing of their children and left them “to manage their own affairs”.
She also said the negative influence of foreign culture which made some young girls in rural communities copy foreign culture blindly, as well as peer pressure influence, have compounded the problem.
She stressed the need for churches to use the Women and Men’s Fellowships to champion parental responsibility and child upbringing, and also called for women empowerment programmes to improve the financial position of women to help them support the upkeep of their homes.
The Deputy Regional Co-ordinator of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Supervisor of Police (ASP) Setina Aboagye, said much as emphasis was being put on the need to arrest perpetrators of child sexual abuse, emphasis should also be placed on the need for victims of sexual abuse to make a report to the police and also seek early medical care to protect them against sexually transmitted diseases.
She also called on the media to protect sexual violence victims in order not to compound their emotional and psychological trauma.
The Executive Director of Child’s Rights International, Mr Bright Appiah, said failure to promote children’s rights amount to stifling their efforts to realise their potentials, adding that the CRI organised the programme annually on specific theme “to remind us of what we can do to protect the rights of children”.
The Associate Community Services Officer of the UNHCR, Ms Elsie Dinah Yaokumah, said like all other children, displaced and trafficked children, as well as and street children need to be provided with the basic necessities of lives namely, food clothing and shelter and pointed out that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has camps in various parts of the country, sheltering refugee children from neighbouring countries.
The participants, after the six-day forum, presented a communiqué to the Regional Co-ordinating Council,after they had visited the Techiman Market,various houses, shops and drinking bars to distribute 250 copies of the Children’s Act 560.They also visited the Sunyani Traditional Council to interact with the traditions rulers.
The communiqué called for intensive efforts to empower women through the institution of microfinance programmes, as well as the institution of a social intervention programmes to ensure that all these children are covered under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
It also urged the Department of Social Welfare to monitor the activities of children and urged the Department of Social Welfare, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), to institute programmes to tackle the problems of child labour and early marriages, involving children.
It further called for the translation of the Children’s Act into Child friendly versions to be produced and distributed to promote legal literacy of the Act, stressing that the production of more copies of Act 560, as well as its translation into local dialects for the appreciation of all, must be enhanced.
Children who participated in this year’s programme exhibited unique talents, in addition to sharing experiences and discussing critical issues that affected the welfare of children.
The participants entertained the gathering with cultural display to emphasise their expectations from parents, guardians, child rights activists and stakeholders, in order to bridge the gap between children’s rights and realities.
A 12-year-old Junior High School (JHS) student of the Duayaw Nkwanta District Assembly JHS, Hannah Serwaah Arthur, who was selected by her school to participate in the Presidential Dinner in Accra, won the admiration of the audience with her display of brilliance and eloquence with a recital on the importance of education and the need for parents to educate their children to help unearth their talents.
‘Shirley Graham Du Bois was a woman of many lives’
Story: Salome Donkor
Mrs Shirley Graham Du Bois, the widow of Dr W.E.B Du Bois-an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author and editor, is not only remembered for her political commitment to the civil rights movement, women’s rights and anti-colonial struggles in Africa and Asia, but also remembered as a faithful caretaker and companion of her legendary husband.
The African-American author, playwright, composer and activist for African-Americans and other people, lived between 1896 and 1977, and got married in 1951, the second marriage for both. The couple later emigrated to Ghana, and received citizenship in 1961. In 1963 her husband died.
A biography on Mrs Du Bois, titled “Race Woman: The life of Shirley Graham Du Bois” written by Dr Gerald Horne of the University of Huston, described her as a “restless, multifaceted woman” and indicated that her life began with an early commitment to uplift her race.
The book shows how Mrs Du Bois handled successfully or unsuccessfully, the conflicts that confronted her as a black woman in a male-dominated arena and her personal struggle to resolve her parenting responsibilities with her artistic and political goals.
She understood that a solid education could free her from the challenges confronting most women in her time and reasoned that education might allow her to achieve better employment and be able to better support her children. For that reason, she relocated in 1929 to Paris, France, to study music composition.
In 1965, she was made the director of Ghana Television and in 1967, she moved to Cairo, Egypt, after a military-led coup d'etat, where she continued writing and died of breast cancer in March 27, 1977 in Beijing, China, where she had gone for treatment.
An 11-member panel that discussed the book at the American Embassy in Accra recently, as part of the centenary celebrations of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, made reference to Mrs Du Bois’ political and cultural activities and commitment to uplift her race.
Prof. Ablade Glover, who met Mrs Du Bois in Ghana in 1964, described the formative years of Mrs Du Bois as interesting, considering the fact that she left her sons in the care of others to go and study in France, where she met a lot of Black Americans and Africans who shared her activist kind of thinking.
Dr Mohammed Ben Abdellah of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, touched on the frustrations of artists, like Mrs Du Bois, in her bid to get a firm grip on the theatre and her contribution to the establishment of Ghana television in 1965. It was her expectation at the establishment of Ghana Television that 85 per cent of programmes to be shown on that station would originate from Ghana.
In her presentation, Dr Esi Sutherland Addy, a scholar in Diaspora studies, African history and culture of the Arts, touched on chapter five of the book, which she said revealed the soft and vulnerable side of Mrs Du Bois who spent a lot of time caring for her husband in his latter days, while Prof. Akosua A Ampofo, of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, described Mrs Du Bois as a woman with many lives that is worthy to be considered, adding that she was a strong character in her marriage, playing the motherly role, which she described as intriguing.
The other panelists were Dr Kofi Baku, immediate Head of the History Department of the University of Ghana, Prof. Alex Quarmyne, a retired Director of Ghana Television, who took over from Mrs Du Bois as the Director of Ghana Television after she left Ghana, Madam Mamle Kabu, writer and novelist from Ghana, Ms Doris Kuwornu, Director of Corporate Affairs, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Prof. Kojo Yankah, founder of the African University College of Education, and Prof. Akosua Anyidoho, of European University in Ghana.
The discussions were followed by a Video Conference with the author described Mrs as woman with tremendous accomplishment and said he referred to her as ‘Race Woman’ because Mrs Du Bois was concerned about the life and destiny of people of African-American descent.
Mrs Shirley Graham Du Bois, the widow of Dr W.E.B Du Bois-an American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author and editor, is not only remembered for her political commitment to the civil rights movement, women’s rights and anti-colonial struggles in Africa and Asia, but also remembered as a faithful caretaker and companion of her legendary husband.
The African-American author, playwright, composer and activist for African-Americans and other people, lived between 1896 and 1977, and got married in 1951, the second marriage for both. The couple later emigrated to Ghana, and received citizenship in 1961. In 1963 her husband died.
A biography on Mrs Du Bois, titled “Race Woman: The life of Shirley Graham Du Bois” written by Dr Gerald Horne of the University of Huston, described her as a “restless, multifaceted woman” and indicated that her life began with an early commitment to uplift her race.
The book shows how Mrs Du Bois handled successfully or unsuccessfully, the conflicts that confronted her as a black woman in a male-dominated arena and her personal struggle to resolve her parenting responsibilities with her artistic and political goals.
She understood that a solid education could free her from the challenges confronting most women in her time and reasoned that education might allow her to achieve better employment and be able to better support her children. For that reason, she relocated in 1929 to Paris, France, to study music composition.
In 1965, she was made the director of Ghana Television and in 1967, she moved to Cairo, Egypt, after a military-led coup d'etat, where she continued writing and died of breast cancer in March 27, 1977 in Beijing, China, where she had gone for treatment.
An 11-member panel that discussed the book at the American Embassy in Accra recently, as part of the centenary celebrations of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, made reference to Mrs Du Bois’ political and cultural activities and commitment to uplift her race.
Prof. Ablade Glover, who met Mrs Du Bois in Ghana in 1964, described the formative years of Mrs Du Bois as interesting, considering the fact that she left her sons in the care of others to go and study in France, where she met a lot of Black Americans and Africans who shared her activist kind of thinking.
Dr Mohammed Ben Abdellah of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, touched on the frustrations of artists, like Mrs Du Bois, in her bid to get a firm grip on the theatre and her contribution to the establishment of Ghana television in 1965. It was her expectation at the establishment of Ghana Television that 85 per cent of programmes to be shown on that station would originate from Ghana.
In her presentation, Dr Esi Sutherland Addy, a scholar in Diaspora studies, African history and culture of the Arts, touched on chapter five of the book, which she said revealed the soft and vulnerable side of Mrs Du Bois who spent a lot of time caring for her husband in his latter days, while Prof. Akosua A Ampofo, of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, described Mrs Du Bois as a woman with many lives that is worthy to be considered, adding that she was a strong character in her marriage, playing the motherly role, which she described as intriguing.
The other panelists were Dr Kofi Baku, immediate Head of the History Department of the University of Ghana, Prof. Alex Quarmyne, a retired Director of Ghana Television, who took over from Mrs Du Bois as the Director of Ghana Television after she left Ghana, Madam Mamle Kabu, writer and novelist from Ghana, Ms Doris Kuwornu, Director of Corporate Affairs, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Prof. Kojo Yankah, founder of the African University College of Education, and Prof. Akosua Anyidoho, of European University in Ghana.
The discussions were followed by a Video Conference with the author described Mrs as woman with tremendous accomplishment and said he referred to her as ‘Race Woman’ because Mrs Du Bois was concerned about the life and destiny of people of African-American descent.
Monday, April 26, 2010
‘Let’s support women in local government’
Story: Salome Donkor
The role of women in politics and public office is one of the current burning governance issues because of the perceived and acknowledged potential and contribution of women to governance processes.
Gender and policy advocacy organisations recognise that improving the lives of women and other members of society require a balanced gender representation in government structures by promoting greater responsiveness to women in politics and decision-making.
For some women who want to enter national politics, governance at the various levels, namely the local or district, regional and national, is crucial to them, since it provides them with good training grounds to improve their chances of being elected to political office to promote gender-balance in decision-making at all levels.
The involvement of more women in politics and decision-making is expected to meet their interests and basic needs and enable them continue influence policies from a gender perspective and addressing inequalities and injustices in social relationships.
The local government system has therefore become good grounds for some women, who want to enter into national politics. But the most difficult challenge that confront most women intending to enter into local government, is lack of funds.
To support women in the 2006 District Assembly elections, the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), launched the “Women in Local Government Fund” to assist women aspiring to take part in local government elections.
According to the Public Relations Officer of MOWAC, Mrs Addisa Ofori Adu, each of the 1,772 women who contested the 2006 District Assembly elections, received GH¢20.00 for their campaign activities.
She said the Department of Women in the various regions have been tasked to work in collaboration with the district assemblies and identify 20 women from each district to support them to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections.
Speaking at a day’s review meeting on “Challenges and Prospects of Women in Decision-Making Positions”, in Koforidua recently, the Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Women, Ms Jane Kwapong, re-emphasised the need for the private sector, corporate bodies and related organisations and individuals to financially support the “Women in Local Government Fund”
She said society should see gender equality as a tool for sustainable development and called for support and encouragement by both men and women to ensure that more women were elected in the forthcoming district assembly elections.
Participants were drawn from civil society organisations, women’s groups, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Gender Desk Officers and assemblywomen.
She urged political parties to promote equal rights and opportunities for women and men to engage in political activities and take further steps to elect women in their “safe constituencies” to contest parliamentary elections to increase the number of women in parliament.
She said since women’s reproductive roles tended to militate against their participation in politics and other decision-making processes, there was the need to encourage the sharing of parental and household responsibilities to enable more women participate in public life.
The Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Madam Beatrice B. Boateng, who is also an elected assembly member of the New Juaben Municipal Assembly, advised women to rise above reproach in the face of all challenges and prove their worth, stressing that some women had been able to make it, despite the challenges.
She mentioned poverty as a major challenge that prevented women form aspiring to greater heights and pointed out that the problems could be overcome with determination, perseverance, hard work and optimism.
Mr Rex Baah Antiri of the Ghana Education Service (GES) appealed to the government to create an enabling environment that would strengthen women to be part of decision-making, especially at the higher levels.
He called for sustained efforts to deal with all forms of violence against women and repressive cultural practices against women to enable them contribute their quota to development.
Participants suggested that efforts should be intensified to address the issue of gender stereotyping, as well as speed up the socialisation process and gender equality, adding that the empowerment of women should not be limited to those in the towns and cities, but extended to rural women.
The role of women in politics and public office is one of the current burning governance issues because of the perceived and acknowledged potential and contribution of women to governance processes.
Gender and policy advocacy organisations recognise that improving the lives of women and other members of society require a balanced gender representation in government structures by promoting greater responsiveness to women in politics and decision-making.
For some women who want to enter national politics, governance at the various levels, namely the local or district, regional and national, is crucial to them, since it provides them with good training grounds to improve their chances of being elected to political office to promote gender-balance in decision-making at all levels.
The involvement of more women in politics and decision-making is expected to meet their interests and basic needs and enable them continue influence policies from a gender perspective and addressing inequalities and injustices in social relationships.
The local government system has therefore become good grounds for some women, who want to enter into national politics. But the most difficult challenge that confront most women intending to enter into local government, is lack of funds.
To support women in the 2006 District Assembly elections, the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), launched the “Women in Local Government Fund” to assist women aspiring to take part in local government elections.
According to the Public Relations Officer of MOWAC, Mrs Addisa Ofori Adu, each of the 1,772 women who contested the 2006 District Assembly elections, received GH¢20.00 for their campaign activities.
She said the Department of Women in the various regions have been tasked to work in collaboration with the district assemblies and identify 20 women from each district to support them to take part in the forthcoming district assembly elections.
Speaking at a day’s review meeting on “Challenges and Prospects of Women in Decision-Making Positions”, in Koforidua recently, the Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Women, Ms Jane Kwapong, re-emphasised the need for the private sector, corporate bodies and related organisations and individuals to financially support the “Women in Local Government Fund”
She said society should see gender equality as a tool for sustainable development and called for support and encouragement by both men and women to ensure that more women were elected in the forthcoming district assembly elections.
Participants were drawn from civil society organisations, women’s groups, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Gender Desk Officers and assemblywomen.
She urged political parties to promote equal rights and opportunities for women and men to engage in political activities and take further steps to elect women in their “safe constituencies” to contest parliamentary elections to increase the number of women in parliament.
She said since women’s reproductive roles tended to militate against their participation in politics and other decision-making processes, there was the need to encourage the sharing of parental and household responsibilities to enable more women participate in public life.
The Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Madam Beatrice B. Boateng, who is also an elected assembly member of the New Juaben Municipal Assembly, advised women to rise above reproach in the face of all challenges and prove their worth, stressing that some women had been able to make it, despite the challenges.
She mentioned poverty as a major challenge that prevented women form aspiring to greater heights and pointed out that the problems could be overcome with determination, perseverance, hard work and optimism.
Mr Rex Baah Antiri of the Ghana Education Service (GES) appealed to the government to create an enabling environment that would strengthen women to be part of decision-making, especially at the higher levels.
He called for sustained efforts to deal with all forms of violence against women and repressive cultural practices against women to enable them contribute their quota to development.
Participants suggested that efforts should be intensified to address the issue of gender stereotyping, as well as speed up the socialisation process and gender equality, adding that the empowerment of women should not be limited to those in the towns and cities, but extended to rural women.
Reducing maternal mortality is a concern for all
Article: Salome Donkor
When families lose their relations through maternal and neonatal death, the joy that motherhood brings to families and relatives turn into agony, suffering, pain and distress.
Stories of causes of maternal mortality and neonatal (new-born) mortality in Ghana and other developing countries with high rates of maternal mortality, paint a gloomy picture and portray a state of despair as a result of the slow progress being made in saving women’s lives quickly.
This is in view of the fact that the Ghana Demographic Health Survey, 1993 puts the maternal mortality rate in Ghana at 214 per 100,000 live births with a life time risk of one in 35, and health experts say the situation may not change by 2015 if no drastic measures are taken to reverse the situation.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2006, while women in northern Europe have a one in 4000 likelihood of dying from pregnancy-related causes, for those in sub-Saharan Africa, the chance is one in 16.
Available evidence shows that 75 per cent of these deaths are preventable and that the timely provision of blood transfusion, caesarian section, oxytocin and antibiotic therapy, and the timely management of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia are sufficient to reduce maternal mortality rates by 50 per 100,000 without the need for advanced technology and safe support mechanisms.
The problems cause more anxiety and uneasiness considering the fact that the factors that jeopardise maternal and new-born survival are preventable or treatable with essential services, and the most effective, affordable public health interventions.
Maternal mortality is defined by health experts as the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination. According to the experts, an obstetric emergency is not a situation where the expectant mother involved could be asked to come back the next day, since that can result in her death.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed to by world leaders in September 2000, included a specific target of reducing the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth by three-quarters by 2015 but health experts say the situation may not change by 2015 if no drastic measures are taken to reverse the situation.
An obstetric gynaecologist, formally at the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Dr J.E Taylor, once remarked that, “when a woman is pregnant, one of her legs is in the grave and depending on the care and treatment she receives, both legs can enter the grave or the other leg would come out of the grave”.
That is why the MDGs give a central place to maternal health and gender equality. MGD 5, improving maternal health, is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because if it fails, the other goals will also fail.
Evidence from 20 years of research and pilot interventions has identified five primary causes of deaths of pregnant women. Pregnancy-related conditions, also known as obstetric complications, include post-partum haemorrhage, (bleeding), eclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy), sepsis (infection), and prolonged or obstructed labour, as well as complications of abortion, and these are the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries.
Maternal mortality is a global issue and the concern for reducing maternal mortality stems from the fact that at least 583,000 women die each year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The alarming situation is that, almost 90 per cent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
An online report by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF, 1999) estimates that there are 585,000 maternal deaths globally each year, resulting from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The situation in Ghana is equally gloomy with institutional maternal mortality rate of 250 per 100,000 live births.
In 2008, the then Minister of Health, the late Major Courage Quashigah (rtd) revealed that the country was not winning the war against maternal deaths (Daily Graphic, April 5, 2008). That statement might have touched the hearts of many people, including women in the reproductive age, as well as the relatives of people who have lost their dear ones through maternal and neonatal deaths.
Recently, a couple, Mr Thomas Vaah and his wife Mrs Elizabeth Vaah, came out into the open to complain about the mistreatment Mrs Vaah endured when she was admitted at the Lister Hospital for delivery (Daily Graphic, Saturday, April 10, 2010).
The essence of their story was that Mrs Vaah was admitted at the Lister Hospital for delivery. However, the hospital authorities did not approach their work with diligence and dedication leading to the unfortunate but avoidable death of the baby boy.
The traumatised couple has set up a foundation called “Vaah Junior Foundation for Better Maternal and Child Health” to serve as : A mouthpiece platform for families affected by such negligence, Create awareness on the prevalence of professional negligence in maternal and child health care delivery in Ghana, help provide legal backing for families affected by negligent and incompetent maternal and child health care service delivery, as well as institute an award scheme to reward and recognise exemplary service by maternal and child health personnel and service providers.
Barely two weeks after that incident, another pathetic story had been reported involving the death of the wife of a Deputy Minister of Energy, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Mrs Fuseini, at the Police Hospital on April 21, during child birth at the Police Hospital in Accra (Daily Graphic, April 23, 2010).
A report quoted the Director-General of Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Timothy Ashiley as saying that the news came as a surprise, especially, when a research published recently indicated that the Police Hospital had the best maternal health standards in the country.
In an article written by Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, titled “Solidarity with the Vaahs”, published in the April 15, 2010 edition of the Daily Graphic, the author who said he had been a victim of the negligence of medical staff at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, said he had been paying for that since December, 1999.
He explained that his daughter who has a permanent brain impairment, could not speak and has problems with speech, and had since 2000 been on medication, which is usually imported specially for her.
It is obvious that husbands who have lost either their wives or children or both through child birth, due to various reasons, have stories to share, but most of such incidents or reports are not reported to draw public’s attention. They include stories involving expectant mothers who are carried in hammock to hospitals that are miles away, due to bad roads and lack of transport and health facilities that do not have the requisite drugs and equipment to make the process of child delivery smooth.
There are also cases of institutional delays at the health facility and the attitude of health professionals that contribute to maternal and neonatal deaths.
In 1987, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other United Nations agencies like UNICEF launched the Safe Motherhood Initiative (SMI). Since then, efforts have been made to raise awareness about safe motherhood, set goals an priorities for the global Safe Motherhood Initiative and also support national safe motherhood programmes through the stimulation of research, mobilisation of resources, provision of technical assistance, and sharing of information to make childbirth and pregnancy safer.
These efforts have rallied interest and commitment from donors, programme planners, researchers and practitioners to reduce the maternal mortality rate, the indicator with the greatest disparity between developed and developing countries. Ghana adopted the SMI and that led to the initiation and implementation of Safe Motherhood programmes in the country.
In 1998, the government introduced free antenatal care for all pregnant women and in September 2003, a policy of exempting all users from delivery fees in health facilities was introduced.
The exemption policy was given a further boost in 2008 when the British government provided the Ghana Government with £42.5 million to provide free medical care for pregnant women under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
These were done to remove financial barriers to using antenatal and delivery care in public and private health facilities, in order to complement the role of dedicated and skilful health professionals to achieve a reduction in the maternal mortality rate.
In October 2007, the 62nd general Assembly of the United Nations approved a new target on universal access to reproductive health. The indicators of measuring progress towards the target included providing access to family planning to reduce unintended pregnancies of adolescents; and providing antenatal care to address health risks to mothers and children.
Reproductive health problems remain the leading cause of ill health and death for women of childbearing age world-wide. The impact of reproductive health intiatives is to make motherhood safer by; improving access to family planning in order to reduce unintended pregnancy and achieve preferred spacing between intended pregnancies; achieving skilled care for all births; and providing timely obstetric care for all women who develop complications during childbirth.
The 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) said almost all Ghanaian women (95 per cent) received some antenatal care from a skilled provider, most commonly from a nurse or midwife (63 per cent) and a doctor (24 per cent), adding that more than three-quarters of women had the recommended four or more antenatal visits, and 55 per cent of women had an antenatal care visit by their fourth month of pregnancy, as recommended.
Accessing antenatal and postnatal care enabled more women to take iron tablets or syrup and intestinal parasite drugs during their last pregnancy before the survey. Women who received antenatal care during their most recent births were informed of the signs of the complications of pregnancy, and were also protected against neonatal tetanus.
This year’s State of the World’s Children Report for 2009 prepared by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called on political leaders, governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to generate action at all levels to address the problem of maternal and neonatal deaths.
A woman’s health is critical to the well-being of her family and to the economy of her community and her country. The health of a pregnant woman is even more special because she needs access to essential health services to save her life from death resulting from obstetric complications that cannot be predicted and are difficult to prevent.
The voices of persons whose lives have been lost due to maternal and neonatal deaths, such as Mrs Fuseini, Vaah Jnr and many others that are not known, are criying for immediate action at all levels to address the problem of maternal, neonatal and infant deaths, and the time to act is now.
When families lose their relations through maternal and neonatal death, the joy that motherhood brings to families and relatives turn into agony, suffering, pain and distress.
Stories of causes of maternal mortality and neonatal (new-born) mortality in Ghana and other developing countries with high rates of maternal mortality, paint a gloomy picture and portray a state of despair as a result of the slow progress being made in saving women’s lives quickly.
This is in view of the fact that the Ghana Demographic Health Survey, 1993 puts the maternal mortality rate in Ghana at 214 per 100,000 live births with a life time risk of one in 35, and health experts say the situation may not change by 2015 if no drastic measures are taken to reverse the situation.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 2006, while women in northern Europe have a one in 4000 likelihood of dying from pregnancy-related causes, for those in sub-Saharan Africa, the chance is one in 16.
Available evidence shows that 75 per cent of these deaths are preventable and that the timely provision of blood transfusion, caesarian section, oxytocin and antibiotic therapy, and the timely management of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia are sufficient to reduce maternal mortality rates by 50 per 100,000 without the need for advanced technology and safe support mechanisms.
The problems cause more anxiety and uneasiness considering the fact that the factors that jeopardise maternal and new-born survival are preventable or treatable with essential services, and the most effective, affordable public health interventions.
Maternal mortality is defined by health experts as the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination. According to the experts, an obstetric emergency is not a situation where the expectant mother involved could be asked to come back the next day, since that can result in her death.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed to by world leaders in September 2000, included a specific target of reducing the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth by three-quarters by 2015 but health experts say the situation may not change by 2015 if no drastic measures are taken to reverse the situation.
An obstetric gynaecologist, formally at the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Dr J.E Taylor, once remarked that, “when a woman is pregnant, one of her legs is in the grave and depending on the care and treatment she receives, both legs can enter the grave or the other leg would come out of the grave”.
That is why the MDGs give a central place to maternal health and gender equality. MGD 5, improving maternal health, is often called “the heart of the MDGs” because if it fails, the other goals will also fail.
Evidence from 20 years of research and pilot interventions has identified five primary causes of deaths of pregnant women. Pregnancy-related conditions, also known as obstetric complications, include post-partum haemorrhage, (bleeding), eclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy), sepsis (infection), and prolonged or obstructed labour, as well as complications of abortion, and these are the leading causes of death among women of reproductive age in many developing countries.
Maternal mortality is a global issue and the concern for reducing maternal mortality stems from the fact that at least 583,000 women die each year from the complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The alarming situation is that, almost 90 per cent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
An online report by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF, 1999) estimates that there are 585,000 maternal deaths globally each year, resulting from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. The situation in Ghana is equally gloomy with institutional maternal mortality rate of 250 per 100,000 live births.
In 2008, the then Minister of Health, the late Major Courage Quashigah (rtd) revealed that the country was not winning the war against maternal deaths (Daily Graphic, April 5, 2008). That statement might have touched the hearts of many people, including women in the reproductive age, as well as the relatives of people who have lost their dear ones through maternal and neonatal deaths.
Recently, a couple, Mr Thomas Vaah and his wife Mrs Elizabeth Vaah, came out into the open to complain about the mistreatment Mrs Vaah endured when she was admitted at the Lister Hospital for delivery (Daily Graphic, Saturday, April 10, 2010).
The essence of their story was that Mrs Vaah was admitted at the Lister Hospital for delivery. However, the hospital authorities did not approach their work with diligence and dedication leading to the unfortunate but avoidable death of the baby boy.
The traumatised couple has set up a foundation called “Vaah Junior Foundation for Better Maternal and Child Health” to serve as : A mouthpiece platform for families affected by such negligence, Create awareness on the prevalence of professional negligence in maternal and child health care delivery in Ghana, help provide legal backing for families affected by negligent and incompetent maternal and child health care service delivery, as well as institute an award scheme to reward and recognise exemplary service by maternal and child health personnel and service providers.
Barely two weeks after that incident, another pathetic story had been reported involving the death of the wife of a Deputy Minister of Energy, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Mrs Fuseini, at the Police Hospital on April 21, during child birth at the Police Hospital in Accra (Daily Graphic, April 23, 2010).
A report quoted the Director-General of Police Intelligence and Professional Standards Bureau (PIPS), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Timothy Ashiley as saying that the news came as a surprise, especially, when a research published recently indicated that the Police Hospital had the best maternal health standards in the country.
In an article written by Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, titled “Solidarity with the Vaahs”, published in the April 15, 2010 edition of the Daily Graphic, the author who said he had been a victim of the negligence of medical staff at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, said he had been paying for that since December, 1999.
He explained that his daughter who has a permanent brain impairment, could not speak and has problems with speech, and had since 2000 been on medication, which is usually imported specially for her.
It is obvious that husbands who have lost either their wives or children or both through child birth, due to various reasons, have stories to share, but most of such incidents or reports are not reported to draw public’s attention. They include stories involving expectant mothers who are carried in hammock to hospitals that are miles away, due to bad roads and lack of transport and health facilities that do not have the requisite drugs and equipment to make the process of child delivery smooth.
There are also cases of institutional delays at the health facility and the attitude of health professionals that contribute to maternal and neonatal deaths.
In 1987, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other United Nations agencies like UNICEF launched the Safe Motherhood Initiative (SMI). Since then, efforts have been made to raise awareness about safe motherhood, set goals an priorities for the global Safe Motherhood Initiative and also support national safe motherhood programmes through the stimulation of research, mobilisation of resources, provision of technical assistance, and sharing of information to make childbirth and pregnancy safer.
These efforts have rallied interest and commitment from donors, programme planners, researchers and practitioners to reduce the maternal mortality rate, the indicator with the greatest disparity between developed and developing countries. Ghana adopted the SMI and that led to the initiation and implementation of Safe Motherhood programmes in the country.
In 1998, the government introduced free antenatal care for all pregnant women and in September 2003, a policy of exempting all users from delivery fees in health facilities was introduced.
The exemption policy was given a further boost in 2008 when the British government provided the Ghana Government with £42.5 million to provide free medical care for pregnant women under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
These were done to remove financial barriers to using antenatal and delivery care in public and private health facilities, in order to complement the role of dedicated and skilful health professionals to achieve a reduction in the maternal mortality rate.
In October 2007, the 62nd general Assembly of the United Nations approved a new target on universal access to reproductive health. The indicators of measuring progress towards the target included providing access to family planning to reduce unintended pregnancies of adolescents; and providing antenatal care to address health risks to mothers and children.
Reproductive health problems remain the leading cause of ill health and death for women of childbearing age world-wide. The impact of reproductive health intiatives is to make motherhood safer by; improving access to family planning in order to reduce unintended pregnancy and achieve preferred spacing between intended pregnancies; achieving skilled care for all births; and providing timely obstetric care for all women who develop complications during childbirth.
The 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) said almost all Ghanaian women (95 per cent) received some antenatal care from a skilled provider, most commonly from a nurse or midwife (63 per cent) and a doctor (24 per cent), adding that more than three-quarters of women had the recommended four or more antenatal visits, and 55 per cent of women had an antenatal care visit by their fourth month of pregnancy, as recommended.
Accessing antenatal and postnatal care enabled more women to take iron tablets or syrup and intestinal parasite drugs during their last pregnancy before the survey. Women who received antenatal care during their most recent births were informed of the signs of the complications of pregnancy, and were also protected against neonatal tetanus.
This year’s State of the World’s Children Report for 2009 prepared by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), called on political leaders, governmental and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to generate action at all levels to address the problem of maternal and neonatal deaths.
A woman’s health is critical to the well-being of her family and to the economy of her community and her country. The health of a pregnant woman is even more special because she needs access to essential health services to save her life from death resulting from obstetric complications that cannot be predicted and are difficult to prevent.
The voices of persons whose lives have been lost due to maternal and neonatal deaths, such as Mrs Fuseini, Vaah Jnr and many others that are not known, are criying for immediate action at all levels to address the problem of maternal, neonatal and infant deaths, and the time to act is now.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Best wishes to our mothers and children
Story: Salome Donkor
The common theme running through the messages of all those who have the interest of Ghanaian women and children at heart during this festive season, and the years ahead is the desire to see the end of problems militating against the development of women and children.
A gender activist and a columnist of the Daily Graphic, Nana Oye Luther, wrote in her column in the Tuesday, December 22 issue that her Christmas wish for women in Ghana “is for the better economically endowed Ghanaian woman to reach out of her comfort zone and give a Christmas present to a rural disadvantaged woman. Give her a package to help educate her children”.
The report of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children on the 2010 annual budget estimates of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), presented to Parliament recently by the Chairman of the committee, Mr Sampson Ahi, urged the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) to re-prioritise its activities in order to provide skills training for women’s groups under the ministry’s budget allocation for 2010.
The committee stated that in reviewing the performance of MOWAC in 2009, it realised that no skills training and economic support was provided for women’s groups, adding that providing skills training and economic support for women’s groups was a means of empowering women financially and thereby accelerating the socio-economic development of the country.
In her Christmas message, the Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, called on the citizenry to reflect on the various problems militating against the development of women and children in Ghana, such as parental irresponsibility, child neglect, child abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence and rape, among others.
She said in spite of the many interventions put in place by the government to make education accessible to all, such as the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and the provision of free uniforms and exercise books to pupils in all public basic schools, some irresponsible parents failed to enrol their children in school, adding “ these children end up on the streets with some growing to become social miscreants engaging in armed robbery, drug abuse and prostitution, among others”.
“Women and children face rape and physical abuse daily. These experiences lead to psychological trauma, depression, the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), including HIV and AIDS, physical disabilities and sometimes, even death”, the minister lamented.
She, therefore urged all to use the Yuletide to reflect on the problems and also work out ways in which all Ghanaians could assist to end “these social cankers”.
She said it was the responsibility of every Ghanaian to report perpetrators of rape and other abuse on women and children to the police and security agencies, stressing that “parents should take the education, welfare and protection of their children seriously to ensure that they grow up to become responsible adults”.
Ms Dansua indicated that the government for its part would continue to put in place the necessary interventions to address women and children’s issues and ensure that women and children in the society would be able to develop their full potential without any social, cultural or economic impediments and also offer maximum protection to enable them to grow up to become productive citizens.
“As we celebrate Christmas and also prepare for the New Year, I wish, on behalf of the ministry and on my own behalf, to extend our gratitude and best wishes to all Ghanaians, especially our stakeholders, who have supported us this year to advance the cause of women and children in Ghana” she said.
A message from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service urged parents and guardians to remain committed to the upbringing of their children.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Public Affairs Officer of DOVVSU, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Freeman Tettey, said Christmas was a period of showing love, understanding and giving, and advised parents who had neglected their parental responsibilities to honour their duties to God and humanity and ensure that their children were provided with food, clothing and shelter, the basic necessities of life.
He said records of cases received by DOVVSU indicated that child non-maintenance was on the ascendancy and pointed out that the issue had a correlation with the crime rate, since children who were neglected and left on the streets tended to engage in all kinds of anti-social vices.
According to him, child non-maintenance cases constituted 458 out of the total of 12,456 cases reported to the unit between January and December this year, and described the situation as a serious threat to the foundation of society.
Mr Tettey, therefore advised parents to be very responsible and also remain vigilant during the festive period so that their children would not fall victim to perpetrators of rape, defilement and other violent crimes against women and children.
He appealed to the public to co-operate with the police to fight violence against women and children by reporting people who commit such crime to the police.
The common theme running through the messages of all those who have the interest of Ghanaian women and children at heart during this festive season, and the years ahead is the desire to see the end of problems militating against the development of women and children.
A gender activist and a columnist of the Daily Graphic, Nana Oye Luther, wrote in her column in the Tuesday, December 22 issue that her Christmas wish for women in Ghana “is for the better economically endowed Ghanaian woman to reach out of her comfort zone and give a Christmas present to a rural disadvantaged woman. Give her a package to help educate her children”.
The report of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children on the 2010 annual budget estimates of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC), presented to Parliament recently by the Chairman of the committee, Mr Sampson Ahi, urged the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) to re-prioritise its activities in order to provide skills training for women’s groups under the ministry’s budget allocation for 2010.
The committee stated that in reviewing the performance of MOWAC in 2009, it realised that no skills training and economic support was provided for women’s groups, adding that providing skills training and economic support for women’s groups was a means of empowering women financially and thereby accelerating the socio-economic development of the country.
In her Christmas message, the Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, called on the citizenry to reflect on the various problems militating against the development of women and children in Ghana, such as parental irresponsibility, child neglect, child abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence and rape, among others.
She said in spite of the many interventions put in place by the government to make education accessible to all, such as the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme and the provision of free uniforms and exercise books to pupils in all public basic schools, some irresponsible parents failed to enrol their children in school, adding “ these children end up on the streets with some growing to become social miscreants engaging in armed robbery, drug abuse and prostitution, among others”.
“Women and children face rape and physical abuse daily. These experiences lead to psychological trauma, depression, the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), including HIV and AIDS, physical disabilities and sometimes, even death”, the minister lamented.
She, therefore urged all to use the Yuletide to reflect on the problems and also work out ways in which all Ghanaians could assist to end “these social cankers”.
She said it was the responsibility of every Ghanaian to report perpetrators of rape and other abuse on women and children to the police and security agencies, stressing that “parents should take the education, welfare and protection of their children seriously to ensure that they grow up to become responsible adults”.
Ms Dansua indicated that the government for its part would continue to put in place the necessary interventions to address women and children’s issues and ensure that women and children in the society would be able to develop their full potential without any social, cultural or economic impediments and also offer maximum protection to enable them to grow up to become productive citizens.
“As we celebrate Christmas and also prepare for the New Year, I wish, on behalf of the ministry and on my own behalf, to extend our gratitude and best wishes to all Ghanaians, especially our stakeholders, who have supported us this year to advance the cause of women and children in Ghana” she said.
A message from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service urged parents and guardians to remain committed to the upbringing of their children.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Public Affairs Officer of DOVVSU, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Freeman Tettey, said Christmas was a period of showing love, understanding and giving, and advised parents who had neglected their parental responsibilities to honour their duties to God and humanity and ensure that their children were provided with food, clothing and shelter, the basic necessities of life.
He said records of cases received by DOVVSU indicated that child non-maintenance was on the ascendancy and pointed out that the issue had a correlation with the crime rate, since children who were neglected and left on the streets tended to engage in all kinds of anti-social vices.
According to him, child non-maintenance cases constituted 458 out of the total of 12,456 cases reported to the unit between January and December this year, and described the situation as a serious threat to the foundation of society.
Mr Tettey, therefore advised parents to be very responsible and also remain vigilant during the festive period so that their children would not fall victim to perpetrators of rape, defilement and other violent crimes against women and children.
He appealed to the public to co-operate with the police to fight violence against women and children by reporting people who commit such crime to the police.
Darlings Foundation expands programmes
Story: Salome Donkor
SINCE its establishment in 1998, the Darlings Human Development Foundation (DHDF), a charitable non-governmental organisation, has worked consistently to render quality service to women and children in need, the marginalised and the vulnerable groups in society.
The organisation is dedicated to helping women, children and beneficiary communities to reach their full potential by empowering rural women to develop themselves and to improve their financial position through micro-economic ventures, farming, vocational training, among others.
The programmes of the organisation, which operates in 24 communities in the Agona East District of the Central Region, are geared towards reducing family burden, cutting down on rural-urban drift, child delinquency and teenage pregnancy, and to also sensitise rural dwellers to the importance of education, especially for the girl-child.
The DHDF also aims at providing access to quality education and vocational training in the rural communities and organising educational programmes on sexual reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS and enhancing good parenting.
The organisation’s annual report for 2009 indicates that the DHDF believes that by such strategies, the inequalities between the urban and the rural dwellers could be bridged.
The report also indicates that the DHDF has developed in-depth understanding of how to tackle the underlying causes of poverty and, therefore, works with communities to help them find their own solutions, come up with sustainable ways to make a living and take part in changing balance of power, which is often tipped against them.
Since the construction of the multi-purpose Akokoasa District Assembly Primary School, the organisation had been providing educational support, such as allowances for teachers, uniforms for needy pupils, textbooks and sporting kits.
To improve academic standard of the pupils and to attract and retain teachers, the organisation purchased a set of generator for the school to be used in the night for both academic and domestic purposes.
The organisation has also set up a vocational centre at Amanfro No.11 and provides staff of the centre with allowances, educational materials, daily lunch for students and scholarship packages to orphans and the needy.
Through interventions of the organisation, 78 widows have been supported with clothing, cash and other relief items, while the DHDF support services to homes and orphanages have benefited the Osu Children’s Home, Village of Hope, and Christ Foster Home.
The report said in the ensuing year, the organisation hopes to put up a three-unit classroom and a KG/Nursery block for children at Otabilkwaa in the Agona East District of the Central Region, raise funds to provide bursaries for about 20 needy girls in the Darlings Vocational Training Centre and construct the first phase of the Darlings Villa in the Yilo Krobo District.
The report expressed the organisation’s appreciation to all those who supported its operations, and appealed to philanthropic individuals, organisations and corporate bodies for further assistance.
SINCE its establishment in 1998, the Darlings Human Development Foundation (DHDF), a charitable non-governmental organisation, has worked consistently to render quality service to women and children in need, the marginalised and the vulnerable groups in society.
The organisation is dedicated to helping women, children and beneficiary communities to reach their full potential by empowering rural women to develop themselves and to improve their financial position through micro-economic ventures, farming, vocational training, among others.
The programmes of the organisation, which operates in 24 communities in the Agona East District of the Central Region, are geared towards reducing family burden, cutting down on rural-urban drift, child delinquency and teenage pregnancy, and to also sensitise rural dwellers to the importance of education, especially for the girl-child.
The DHDF also aims at providing access to quality education and vocational training in the rural communities and organising educational programmes on sexual reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and AIDS and enhancing good parenting.
The organisation’s annual report for 2009 indicates that the DHDF believes that by such strategies, the inequalities between the urban and the rural dwellers could be bridged.
The report also indicates that the DHDF has developed in-depth understanding of how to tackle the underlying causes of poverty and, therefore, works with communities to help them find their own solutions, come up with sustainable ways to make a living and take part in changing balance of power, which is often tipped against them.
Since the construction of the multi-purpose Akokoasa District Assembly Primary School, the organisation had been providing educational support, such as allowances for teachers, uniforms for needy pupils, textbooks and sporting kits.
To improve academic standard of the pupils and to attract and retain teachers, the organisation purchased a set of generator for the school to be used in the night for both academic and domestic purposes.
The organisation has also set up a vocational centre at Amanfro No.11 and provides staff of the centre with allowances, educational materials, daily lunch for students and scholarship packages to orphans and the needy.
Through interventions of the organisation, 78 widows have been supported with clothing, cash and other relief items, while the DHDF support services to homes and orphanages have benefited the Osu Children’s Home, Village of Hope, and Christ Foster Home.
The report said in the ensuing year, the organisation hopes to put up a three-unit classroom and a KG/Nursery block for children at Otabilkwaa in the Agona East District of the Central Region, raise funds to provide bursaries for about 20 needy girls in the Darlings Vocational Training Centre and construct the first phase of the Darlings Villa in the Yilo Krobo District.
The report expressed the organisation’s appreciation to all those who supported its operations, and appealed to philanthropic individuals, organisations and corporate bodies for further assistance.
Challenging Heights faces death threats
Story: Salome Donkor
THE Executive Director of Challenging Heights, Mr James Kofi Annan, has stated that members of the child-related non-governmental organisation in Winneba and related organisations have been receiving death threats from some people for working on child trafficking cases in the area.
He said that began after his organisation, with support from the West Africa Regional Co-ordinator of Free the Slaves, Mr Emmanuel Otoo, and other organisations co-operated with the police to arrest child traffickers in the Winneba area following community sensitisation programmes organised on child trafficking.
Their efforts led to the arrest, trial and conviction of a woman who trafficked two children from the Central Region to Yeji for fishing on the Volta Lake.
The woman, Comfort Sam, alias Simpa Aba, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Agona Swedru Circuit Court presided over by Justice N.K.E. Osam, on January 8, 2010, after she had been found guilty on three counts of conspiracy, human trafficking and the use of trafficked persons.
Comfort's husband, Kofi Sammy, who is alleged to be part of a network engaged in child trafficking, is also facing trial and will appear before the court on Thursday, January 21. He is currently being held in police custody.
Also accused is the mother of the two boys, Efua Grace, who is currently on police bail.
According to the police, the victims, who are brothers, were both sold for GH¢115 by their mother three years ago when they were six and eight.
Mr Annan described the threats on their lives as serious and indicated that the matter had been reported to the relevant security agencies for further action.
He said human trafficking was a gross abuse of fundamental human rights and criminal offence under the Children's Act 1998, Act 560, adding that Ghana prohibited all forms of trafficking through its 2005 Human Trafficking Act which prescribes a minimum penalty of five years imprisonment for all forms of trafficking.
Throwing more light on the case, Mr Annan said with information from community members, the organisation initiated efforts to search and rescue the children in August 2009.
He said the rescue team met with the traffickers three times at Makango on the Yeji side of the Volta Lake and warned them and other fishermen also holding children in slavery to return them to their parents and never to use children any longer because it was illegal.
He said efforts by the rescue team to have the children released proved futile and the case was subsequently reported to the Winneba Police, who assisted Challenging Heights in contacting the Yeji Police for further assistance.
Mr Annan said child trafficking persisted in Ghana, despite the Human Trafficking Act passed by Parliament five years ago, and recalled that in July last year a court in Accra sentenced three Chinese to 41 years in imprisonment for human trafficking.
He said his organisation would not relent in its efforts to support the security agencies to curb the menace of child trafficking and asked members of communities to assist in dealing with the problem.
He said the police had assured it of full protection and warned the public that threats against individuals were very serious offences punishable by law, adding that the relevant units within the police had expressed their commitment to the fullest use of the law to protect human rights activists.
THE Executive Director of Challenging Heights, Mr James Kofi Annan, has stated that members of the child-related non-governmental organisation in Winneba and related organisations have been receiving death threats from some people for working on child trafficking cases in the area.
He said that began after his organisation, with support from the West Africa Regional Co-ordinator of Free the Slaves, Mr Emmanuel Otoo, and other organisations co-operated with the police to arrest child traffickers in the Winneba area following community sensitisation programmes organised on child trafficking.
Their efforts led to the arrest, trial and conviction of a woman who trafficked two children from the Central Region to Yeji for fishing on the Volta Lake.
The woman, Comfort Sam, alias Simpa Aba, was sentenced to three years in prison by an Agona Swedru Circuit Court presided over by Justice N.K.E. Osam, on January 8, 2010, after she had been found guilty on three counts of conspiracy, human trafficking and the use of trafficked persons.
Comfort's husband, Kofi Sammy, who is alleged to be part of a network engaged in child trafficking, is also facing trial and will appear before the court on Thursday, January 21. He is currently being held in police custody.
Also accused is the mother of the two boys, Efua Grace, who is currently on police bail.
According to the police, the victims, who are brothers, were both sold for GH¢115 by their mother three years ago when they were six and eight.
Mr Annan described the threats on their lives as serious and indicated that the matter had been reported to the relevant security agencies for further action.
He said human trafficking was a gross abuse of fundamental human rights and criminal offence under the Children's Act 1998, Act 560, adding that Ghana prohibited all forms of trafficking through its 2005 Human Trafficking Act which prescribes a minimum penalty of five years imprisonment for all forms of trafficking.
Throwing more light on the case, Mr Annan said with information from community members, the organisation initiated efforts to search and rescue the children in August 2009.
He said the rescue team met with the traffickers three times at Makango on the Yeji side of the Volta Lake and warned them and other fishermen also holding children in slavery to return them to their parents and never to use children any longer because it was illegal.
He said efforts by the rescue team to have the children released proved futile and the case was subsequently reported to the Winneba Police, who assisted Challenging Heights in contacting the Yeji Police for further assistance.
Mr Annan said child trafficking persisted in Ghana, despite the Human Trafficking Act passed by Parliament five years ago, and recalled that in July last year a court in Accra sentenced three Chinese to 41 years in imprisonment for human trafficking.
He said his organisation would not relent in its efforts to support the security agencies to curb the menace of child trafficking and asked members of communities to assist in dealing with the problem.
He said the police had assured it of full protection and warned the public that threats against individuals were very serious offences punishable by law, adding that the relevant units within the police had expressed their commitment to the fullest use of the law to protect human rights activists.
Increase in sexual assault is worrying
Article: Salome Donkor
The shocking account of the ordeal of a 10-year-old class five pupil who was allegedly defiled by a man at Achimota who escaped after the act, was horrifying. The girl bled profusely and defecated on the floor as a result of the sexual assault on her.
The victim (name withheld), narrated her ordeal, during the Metro TV evening news on Monday January 25, speaking fluent English and vividly explaining what happened to her on the day in question.
She said she was sent to buy something and on her way back home, she met the suspect who said he was looking for somebody.
The innocent girl told him that she did not know the person in question but advised the man to get in touch with her parents who may be of help to him.
The stranger walked together with the girl for a while and on their way, he branched to a nearby house where nobody was around and called the girl to come and look at something.
When the girl got there, he drew a knife and told her that he was going to rape her and warned her that he would kill her if she resisted. He, therefore, covered the innocent girl’s mouth, tied her hands and pinned her down and defiled her.
A content analysis of some newspapers show an increasing spate of reported cases of defilement in parts of the country. No day goes by in this country without any defilement or rape case either being reported in the media, at the law courts or police service.
Statistics from the Greater Accra office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that sexual offence cases recorded by the unit in the region, increased from 4,904 in 2008 to 5,709 last year.
The breakdown is 552 cases of defilement, 161 cases of rape, 59 cases of indecent assault and 15 cases of incest recorded in 2008. In 2009, the unit recorded 492 cases of defilement, 170 cases of rape, 64 cases of indecent assault and 14 cases of incest and most of these offences were committed by strangers, tenants, neighbours and close relations of the victims.
Some of the cases are so pathetic that one wonders whether the future of women to-be, will be worth what is being fought for now. Some of the suspects and perpetrators are above 60 years while some victims are minors less than one year old.
Can one imagine these stories, all published in the Friday January 22 issue of the Ghanaian Times. One story said “a 25-year-old shoemaker has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a Kumasi Circuit Court for raping a porter”, another said “a 20-year-old carpenter at the Sokoban Wood Village has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a Circuit Court in Kumasi for defiling an eight-year-old girl”.
Another story stated that “three persons, an adult and two juveniles, who allegedly gang-raped a 14-year-old girl, were on Tuesday put before a circuit court in Cape Coast on charges of defilement”, while another said “ the Juaso Circuit Court has remanded a 20-year-old photographer in prison custody for defiling a six-year-old girl”.
The Greater Accra Regional Public Relations Officer of DOVVSU, Chief Inspector Irene Oppong, defines defilement as the act of having sexual intercourse with a child below the age of 16.
Many are the children who are defiled each day but do not have the courage to disclose their plight. Majority of such victims are children who live in compound houses and newly created suburbs or vicinities, where only few people have put up buildings.
Other groups of victims are children who seem to have no parental or guardian control. Most men who abuse these minors sexually have often been successful in deceiving their victims with threats of death, should they disclose to anybody, while others give their victims confectioneries or meagre sums to prevent them from disclosing their ordeal to anybody.
These acts leave the victims with serious physical injuries, disabilities, emotional and mental problems and sometimes lead to death.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) adopted 20 years ago and Ghana’s Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560) stresses that the dignity and rights of every child are to be respected in every circumstance. The Act has served as a working tool for Ghana and has been translated into six major local languages.
So many of the cases are tried in courts and the culprits convicted when they are found guilty but the increasing spate of reported cases of rape and defilement, is outrageous and there is still more to be done to deal with the situation.
A Ghana News Agency health news on May 5, 2009 said Dr Peter Baffoe, a gynaecologist at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, has expressed concern at the spate of rape and defilement cases in the country and said if pragmatic measures were not taken to deal with the problem immediately it would become worse.
The doctor explained that there were several and serious health implications for victims of rape and defilement. He mentioned HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases that could be transmitted to the victims of rape and noted that some girls who were raped or defiled sometimes refused to take male partners for marriage due to the trauma they underwent as victims in their earlier life.
The doctor said rape and defilement in some instances could lead to infertility in women and called for the enforcement of the law to deal drastically with anybody who indulged in rape, to serve as a deterrent. He indicated that there were a lot of instances where rape and defilement cases were not given serious attention by the courts and said this often discouraged people from reporting their cases to the police.
Chief Inspector Oppong called for maximum co-operation, in terms of reporting, between the public and the police. She said most sexual offences need witnesses and it is difficult for justice to be done when there are no witnesses.
The PRO, who gave some security tips to parents, children and the general public, advised girls and women not to walk alone in the night or even during the day in secluded areas, not to follow people to secluded area or attend to strangers.
She also advised them not to accept gifts from men, desist from watching television in people’s rooms and avoid sitting on the beds of people they visit and also wear tight trousers when going out.
She said parents should also give their daughters security tips constantly and ensure that an elderly person always accompanies drivers who pick their children from school and also avoid leaving their daughters in the care of houseboys, male friends, neighbours and associates.
She said family members, family heads or clans of victims of sexual assault should consider the hazards the victims were likely to undergo in the future and desist from settling such cases out of court.
Much as the police and the courts are expected to see to speedily facilitate the processes in dealing with rape and defilement cases, parents also need to take proper care of their children, refrain from sending their children during odd times and report defilement and rape cases to the Unit.
The problem needs the support of all to battle it out though it is expected demands must be put on the police to deliver to expectation, it is also expected that parents and guardians, the media and the general public as a whole must play their role in the process.
The shocking account of the ordeal of a 10-year-old class five pupil who was allegedly defiled by a man at Achimota who escaped after the act, was horrifying. The girl bled profusely and defecated on the floor as a result of the sexual assault on her.
The victim (name withheld), narrated her ordeal, during the Metro TV evening news on Monday January 25, speaking fluent English and vividly explaining what happened to her on the day in question.
She said she was sent to buy something and on her way back home, she met the suspect who said he was looking for somebody.
The innocent girl told him that she did not know the person in question but advised the man to get in touch with her parents who may be of help to him.
The stranger walked together with the girl for a while and on their way, he branched to a nearby house where nobody was around and called the girl to come and look at something.
When the girl got there, he drew a knife and told her that he was going to rape her and warned her that he would kill her if she resisted. He, therefore, covered the innocent girl’s mouth, tied her hands and pinned her down and defiled her.
A content analysis of some newspapers show an increasing spate of reported cases of defilement in parts of the country. No day goes by in this country without any defilement or rape case either being reported in the media, at the law courts or police service.
Statistics from the Greater Accra office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service indicate that sexual offence cases recorded by the unit in the region, increased from 4,904 in 2008 to 5,709 last year.
The breakdown is 552 cases of defilement, 161 cases of rape, 59 cases of indecent assault and 15 cases of incest recorded in 2008. In 2009, the unit recorded 492 cases of defilement, 170 cases of rape, 64 cases of indecent assault and 14 cases of incest and most of these offences were committed by strangers, tenants, neighbours and close relations of the victims.
Some of the cases are so pathetic that one wonders whether the future of women to-be, will be worth what is being fought for now. Some of the suspects and perpetrators are above 60 years while some victims are minors less than one year old.
Can one imagine these stories, all published in the Friday January 22 issue of the Ghanaian Times. One story said “a 25-year-old shoemaker has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a Kumasi Circuit Court for raping a porter”, another said “a 20-year-old carpenter at the Sokoban Wood Village has been sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment by a Circuit Court in Kumasi for defiling an eight-year-old girl”.
Another story stated that “three persons, an adult and two juveniles, who allegedly gang-raped a 14-year-old girl, were on Tuesday put before a circuit court in Cape Coast on charges of defilement”, while another said “ the Juaso Circuit Court has remanded a 20-year-old photographer in prison custody for defiling a six-year-old girl”.
The Greater Accra Regional Public Relations Officer of DOVVSU, Chief Inspector Irene Oppong, defines defilement as the act of having sexual intercourse with a child below the age of 16.
Many are the children who are defiled each day but do not have the courage to disclose their plight. Majority of such victims are children who live in compound houses and newly created suburbs or vicinities, where only few people have put up buildings.
Other groups of victims are children who seem to have no parental or guardian control. Most men who abuse these minors sexually have often been successful in deceiving their victims with threats of death, should they disclose to anybody, while others give their victims confectioneries or meagre sums to prevent them from disclosing their ordeal to anybody.
These acts leave the victims with serious physical injuries, disabilities, emotional and mental problems and sometimes lead to death.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC) adopted 20 years ago and Ghana’s Children's Act, 1998 (Act 560) stresses that the dignity and rights of every child are to be respected in every circumstance. The Act has served as a working tool for Ghana and has been translated into six major local languages.
So many of the cases are tried in courts and the culprits convicted when they are found guilty but the increasing spate of reported cases of rape and defilement, is outrageous and there is still more to be done to deal with the situation.
A Ghana News Agency health news on May 5, 2009 said Dr Peter Baffoe, a gynaecologist at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, has expressed concern at the spate of rape and defilement cases in the country and said if pragmatic measures were not taken to deal with the problem immediately it would become worse.
The doctor explained that there were several and serious health implications for victims of rape and defilement. He mentioned HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases that could be transmitted to the victims of rape and noted that some girls who were raped or defiled sometimes refused to take male partners for marriage due to the trauma they underwent as victims in their earlier life.
The doctor said rape and defilement in some instances could lead to infertility in women and called for the enforcement of the law to deal drastically with anybody who indulged in rape, to serve as a deterrent. He indicated that there were a lot of instances where rape and defilement cases were not given serious attention by the courts and said this often discouraged people from reporting their cases to the police.
Chief Inspector Oppong called for maximum co-operation, in terms of reporting, between the public and the police. She said most sexual offences need witnesses and it is difficult for justice to be done when there are no witnesses.
The PRO, who gave some security tips to parents, children and the general public, advised girls and women not to walk alone in the night or even during the day in secluded areas, not to follow people to secluded area or attend to strangers.
She also advised them not to accept gifts from men, desist from watching television in people’s rooms and avoid sitting on the beds of people they visit and also wear tight trousers when going out.
She said parents should also give their daughters security tips constantly and ensure that an elderly person always accompanies drivers who pick their children from school and also avoid leaving their daughters in the care of houseboys, male friends, neighbours and associates.
She said family members, family heads or clans of victims of sexual assault should consider the hazards the victims were likely to undergo in the future and desist from settling such cases out of court.
Much as the police and the courts are expected to see to speedily facilitate the processes in dealing with rape and defilement cases, parents also need to take proper care of their children, refrain from sending their children during odd times and report defilement and rape cases to the Unit.
The problem needs the support of all to battle it out though it is expected demands must be put on the police to deliver to expectation, it is also expected that parents and guardians, the media and the general public as a whole must play their role in the process.
Zero tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation
Article: Salome Donkor
Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. The occasion is a UN-sponsored awareness day that takes place on February 6 each year, as part of efforts to make the world aware of female genital cutting and to promote its eradication.
The late Mrs Stella Obasanjo, the then First Lady of Nigeria, made the official declaration on "Zero Tolerance for FGM" in Africa during a conference organised by the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) on February 6, 2003. Then the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights adopted this day as an international awareness day.
The term "female genital mutilation" (also called "female genital cutting" and "female genital mutilation/cutting") refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organ for non-medical reasons. Female genital mutilation has no known health benefits. On the contrary, it is known to be harmful to girls and women in many ways.
An estimated 100 million to 140 million girls and women world-wide have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and more than three million girls are at risk of being cutting each year on the African continent alone.
Sources from the Population Reference Bureau on the prevalence of FGM/C among younger and older women indicate that in Somalia 99 per cent of women aged 35-39 and 97 per cent of women aged from 15-19, have gone through the practice, in Gambia, 80 per cent of women aged 35-39 and 88 per cent of women aged 15-19 have gone through the practice, while in Kenya 40 per cent of women aged between 35-39 and 20 per cent of women aged from 15-19 have gone through the practice. In Ghana, as of 2006 3.8 per cent of women aged from 15-49, 1.4 per cent aged 15-19 and 5.7 per cent aged 35-39, have gone through FGM/C.
FGM or cutting is practised in at least 28 countries in Africa and a few others in Asia and the Middle East. Among the countries where the practice is most prevalent is Guinea , where FGM/C has been inflicted on 99 per cent of women there. There are also reports from Europe, North America and Australia, indicating that the practice takes place among immigrant communities.
It is generally performed on girls between ages four and 12, although it is practised in some cultures as early as a few days after birth or as late as just prior to marriage. Typically, traditional excisors have carried out the procedure, but recently a discouraging trend has emerged in some countries where medical professionals are increasingly performing the procedure.
FGM or cutting of the female genitalia is practised at all educational levels and in all social classes and occurs among many religious groups, although no religion mandates it. Prevalence rates vary significantly from country to country (from nearly 98 per cent in Somalia to less than 1 per cent in Uganda).
Since the early 1990s, FGM/C has gained recognition as a health and human rights issue among African governments, the international community, women’s organisations, and professional associations. Global and national efforts to end FGM/C have supported legislation targeting excisors, medical professionals, and families who perpetuate the practice, but political will and implementation remain an issue.
The practice poses serious physical and mental health risks for women and young girls, especially for women who have undergone extreme forms of the procedure.
Forced excision inflicts pain and trauma – which is far worse when there is no anaesthesia. Lack of blade sterilisation can cause exposure to HIV/AIDS or long-term health complications.
According to a 2006 World Health Organisation (WHO) study, FGM/C can be linked to increased complications in childbirth and even maternal deaths. Other side effects include severe pain, haemorrhage, tetanus, infection, infertility, cysts and abscesses, urinary incontinence, and psychological and sexual problems.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is working closely with its partners around the world in the campaign for the abandonment of FGM/C everywhere within a generation. The organisation does this by raising awareness and enhancing capacities at various levels of society and in the government.
UNICEF’s approach recognises that all children are entitled to protection – as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF draws attention to the duties of governments, families, communities and individuals to respect those rights and supports them in doing so. In addition, children and adolescents themselves can play an active role in their own protection and as advocates for the protection of others.
The organisation identifies eight key aspects of a proactive environment against the practice, namely: Attitudes, traditions, customs, behaviour and practices, governmental commitment to fulfil and protect girls’’ rights, open discussion and engagement with child protection issues, protective legislation and enforcement, the capacity to protect and develop children’s life skills, knowledge and participation, monitoring and reporting of child protection issues, and services for recovery and reintegration.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa explicitly recognize that practices harmful to women such as FGM are violations of human rights.
Many governments in Africa and elsewhere have taken steps to eliminate the practice of FGM in their countries. These steps include laws criminalizing FGM, education and outreach programs, and the use of civil remedies and administrative regulations to prevent the practice. Eighteen countries— Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Togo—have enacted laws criminalizing FGM. The penalties range from a minimum of three months to a maximum of life in prison. Several countries also impose monetary fines.
In Ghana, actions towards ending FGM are in accordance with Article 5 of the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and on the Rights of Women in Africa. In this vein, some women were arrested and prosecuted at the law courts for violating a ban against the traditional practice of cutting the genitals of young girls, which had been described as an ''outmoded custom.''
FGM is a violation of the rights of women and girls and the medical, social, psycho-sexual and economic consequences of the practice should make all to resolve not to allow it to continue under the guise of tradition or religion.
The WHO is committed to the elimination of female genital mutilation within a generation and is focussing on advocacy, research and guidance for health professionals and health systems. This is a call to all states, international and national organisations, civil society and communities to uphold the rights of girls and women.
It also calls on those bodies and communities to develop, strengthen and support specific and concrete actions directed towards ending female genital mutilation. Without any one of these elements, children are more vulnerable to abuse, violence, discrimination and violation of their rights.
Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. The occasion is a UN-sponsored awareness day that takes place on February 6 each year, as part of efforts to make the world aware of female genital cutting and to promote its eradication.
The late Mrs Stella Obasanjo, the then First Lady of Nigeria, made the official declaration on "Zero Tolerance for FGM" in Africa during a conference organised by the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) on February 6, 2003. Then the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights adopted this day as an international awareness day.
The term "female genital mutilation" (also called "female genital cutting" and "female genital mutilation/cutting") refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organ for non-medical reasons. Female genital mutilation has no known health benefits. On the contrary, it is known to be harmful to girls and women in many ways.
An estimated 100 million to 140 million girls and women world-wide have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and more than three million girls are at risk of being cutting each year on the African continent alone.
Sources from the Population Reference Bureau on the prevalence of FGM/C among younger and older women indicate that in Somalia 99 per cent of women aged 35-39 and 97 per cent of women aged from 15-19, have gone through the practice, in Gambia, 80 per cent of women aged 35-39 and 88 per cent of women aged 15-19 have gone through the practice, while in Kenya 40 per cent of women aged between 35-39 and 20 per cent of women aged from 15-19 have gone through the practice. In Ghana, as of 2006 3.8 per cent of women aged from 15-49, 1.4 per cent aged 15-19 and 5.7 per cent aged 35-39, have gone through FGM/C.
FGM or cutting is practised in at least 28 countries in Africa and a few others in Asia and the Middle East. Among the countries where the practice is most prevalent is Guinea , where FGM/C has been inflicted on 99 per cent of women there. There are also reports from Europe, North America and Australia, indicating that the practice takes place among immigrant communities.
It is generally performed on girls between ages four and 12, although it is practised in some cultures as early as a few days after birth or as late as just prior to marriage. Typically, traditional excisors have carried out the procedure, but recently a discouraging trend has emerged in some countries where medical professionals are increasingly performing the procedure.
FGM or cutting of the female genitalia is practised at all educational levels and in all social classes and occurs among many religious groups, although no religion mandates it. Prevalence rates vary significantly from country to country (from nearly 98 per cent in Somalia to less than 1 per cent in Uganda).
Since the early 1990s, FGM/C has gained recognition as a health and human rights issue among African governments, the international community, women’s organisations, and professional associations. Global and national efforts to end FGM/C have supported legislation targeting excisors, medical professionals, and families who perpetuate the practice, but political will and implementation remain an issue.
The practice poses serious physical and mental health risks for women and young girls, especially for women who have undergone extreme forms of the procedure.
Forced excision inflicts pain and trauma – which is far worse when there is no anaesthesia. Lack of blade sterilisation can cause exposure to HIV/AIDS or long-term health complications.
According to a 2006 World Health Organisation (WHO) study, FGM/C can be linked to increased complications in childbirth and even maternal deaths. Other side effects include severe pain, haemorrhage, tetanus, infection, infertility, cysts and abscesses, urinary incontinence, and psychological and sexual problems.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is working closely with its partners around the world in the campaign for the abandonment of FGM/C everywhere within a generation. The organisation does this by raising awareness and enhancing capacities at various levels of society and in the government.
UNICEF’s approach recognises that all children are entitled to protection – as laid out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF draws attention to the duties of governments, families, communities and individuals to respect those rights and supports them in doing so. In addition, children and adolescents themselves can play an active role in their own protection and as advocates for the protection of others.
The organisation identifies eight key aspects of a proactive environment against the practice, namely: Attitudes, traditions, customs, behaviour and practices, governmental commitment to fulfil and protect girls’’ rights, open discussion and engagement with child protection issues, protective legislation and enforcement, the capacity to protect and develop children’s life skills, knowledge and participation, monitoring and reporting of child protection issues, and services for recovery and reintegration.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa explicitly recognize that practices harmful to women such as FGM are violations of human rights.
Many governments in Africa and elsewhere have taken steps to eliminate the practice of FGM in their countries. These steps include laws criminalizing FGM, education and outreach programs, and the use of civil remedies and administrative regulations to prevent the practice. Eighteen countries— Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Togo—have enacted laws criminalizing FGM. The penalties range from a minimum of three months to a maximum of life in prison. Several countries also impose monetary fines.
In Ghana, actions towards ending FGM are in accordance with Article 5 of the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and on the Rights of Women in Africa. In this vein, some women were arrested and prosecuted at the law courts for violating a ban against the traditional practice of cutting the genitals of young girls, which had been described as an ''outmoded custom.''
FGM is a violation of the rights of women and girls and the medical, social, psycho-sexual and economic consequences of the practice should make all to resolve not to allow it to continue under the guise of tradition or religion.
The WHO is committed to the elimination of female genital mutilation within a generation and is focussing on advocacy, research and guidance for health professionals and health systems. This is a call to all states, international and national organisations, civil society and communities to uphold the rights of girls and women.
It also calls on those bodies and communities to develop, strengthen and support specific and concrete actions directed towards ending female genital mutilation. Without any one of these elements, children are more vulnerable to abuse, violence, discrimination and violation of their rights.
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