Article: Salome Donkor
Ghana joins the international community and the rest of the African continent to observe World Malaria Day, today (April 25), on the theme: “Counting Malaria Out”
Commemorative activities to mark the day in the country include countrywide advocacy and educational programmes organised by the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), in collaboration with other stakeholders to intensify action aimed at minimising malaria infection, facilitate prompt treatment and prevent unnecessary deaths.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that malaria continues to haunt 40 per cent of the world's population and affects more than 500 million people a year, killing more than one million.
The burden of malaria is heaviest in sub-Saharan Africa but the disease also afflicts Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and even parts of Europe.
Malaria is a parasitic infection that can have a serious negative impact on pregnant women and young children in sub-Saharan Africa and other tropical areas. The WHO says the disease is also a major cause of maternal and child mortality and in pregnancy, it leads to low birth weight of babies, premature delivery, untreated low blood glucose and may cause brain damage in babies with low-birth weight.
A woman’s immunity to malaria may be compromised by HIV infection. The prevalence and intensity of malaria infection during pregnancy is higher among HIV-positive women and the risk to the woman and her new-born may be higher.
According to a statement by the Department of Social Affairs of the African Union, African children below five years of age and pregnant women are at highest risk of malaria. As they grow older, childhood malaria infection, including cerebral malaria, can have long-term effects such as delayed physical growth, impaired cognitive development, and persistent neurological damage on them. Malaria during pregnancy can be prevented, reduced and managed with appropriate, low-cost interventions.
Presentations made at a day’s media seminar in Accra to mark this year’s World Malaria Day, indicated that children experience between two and three episodes of malaria each year and the fever reduces their appetite and worsens their malnutrition, while recurrent episodes of malaria in children result in the loss of substantial amounts of time from school. The country records about 1,500 deaths from malaria among children under five years, while 60 pregnant women die every year from malaria.
Realising the devastating impact of the disease, African leaders declared April 25 of each year as Africa Malaria Day in all member states, at the Special Summit on Roll Back Malaria (RBM) held in April 2000 in Abuja Nigeria. Known as the Abuja Declaration on Roll Back Malaria in Africa, the initiative taken in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals, culminated in the celebration of Africa Malaria Day. The leaders committed themselves under the Abuja Declaration, to “halving malaria burden in Africa by 2010.”
During the 3rd Session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Health (Johannesburg, April 2007), the Chairperson of the AU Commission launched the “Malaria Elimination Campaign.”
During the same year, the World Health Assembly at its 60th Session, instituted the World Malaria Day as a day for recognising the global effort at providing effective control of malaria. It is also an opportunity for countries in the affected regions to learn from each other's experiences, support each other's efforts and encourage new donors to join a global partnership against malaria.
Furthermore, on September 25, 2008, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria convened the 2008 MDG Malaria Summit on the theme “World Leaders Unite”, at which the Global Action Plan on Malaria was adopted and over US$3 Billion were committed to the fight against the disease.
Delivering a paper on Ghana’s malaria situation and the way forward at an international conference on malaria at Steyning in England recently, the Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa Yankey, was reported to have stated that malaria had been very expensive for Ghana in terms of human and financial losses, explaining for instance that, the disease cost the nation over $760 million in 2006, which was about 10 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The minister also outlined possible measures to completely combat the disease, which would include the identification of all malaria endemic areas and mosquito breeding zones and destroying all mosquito lava.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has adopted a pronged approach to ease the burden of malaria on women and children in endemic areas and that includes intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for pregnant women, malaria illness management during pregnancy, and the use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) for the entire population living in malaria affected areas. The WHO approach to malaria prevention and treatment emphasises initiating preventive measures during antenatal care and effective case management for all clinical cases of malaria. As another routine part of focused antenatal care, women should be given information and counselling on the dangers that malaria poses to them and their babies, and the steps they can take to help protect themselves. These messages should address the importance of practices such as continuing antenatal care, receiving the next scheduled dose of IPT and iron/folate, sleeping under an ITN and covering their arms and legs in the evening.
In support of the national malaria prevention programmes, the United States Government announced in December 2006, that Ghana had been selected as one of the eight countries to benefit from an initiative to rapidly scale up malaria prevention and treatment interventions in countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease was most prevalent under a five-year, $1.2 billion project.
The most up-to-date information on nationwide coverage of key malaria prevention and control measures in Ghana comes from a Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, conducted from August to early October 2006, which indicates that approximately 30 per cent of households reportedly own at least one bed net (of any type) while almost 19 per cent reportedly own one or more insecticide-treated nets (ITN).
A survey conducted by Netmark indicated that the number of people aware of ITNs has increased from 91.1 per cent in 2004 to 99.1 percent in 2008. Also, the proportion of households owning one ITN increased from 10.7 percent in 2004 to 61.6 per cent for the urban communities and from 11.2 per cent in 2004 to 66 per cent in 2008 for the rural communities.
In order to extend the reach of malaria interventions to the community level, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) was instituted to reduce malaria mortality by 50 per cent in vulnerable groups; namely pregnant women, children under five years of age, and people living with HIV/AIDS.
This will be accomplished by achieving 85 per cent coverage of groups at risk with four key interventions which are the use of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) for malaria in pregnancy, use of ITNs, and indoor spraying with residual insecticides (IRS). Another goal of the PMI is to strengthen and improve the capacity of indigenous non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to undertake malaria prevention and control activities under the leadership of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).
It is evident that bringing malaria control to zero would boost socio-economic development of Africa. Because malaria-carrying mosquitoes bite from dusk to dawn, long-lasting insecticide mosquito nets provide the best known means of effective protection. There is growing scientific evidence to demonstrate that combining mosquito net distribution with follow-on "hang up" campaigns carried out by trained volunteers in communities significantly reduces incidences of malaria. Trained volunteers who live in the same community as the beneficiary population and speak the same local language are ideally placed to help families overcome any social or cultural barriers that could prevent the effective use of nets.
Malaria control, elimination and eventual eradication are everyone’s business. “All of us: Children, youth, adults, educated, uneducated, rich and poor, have a role to play because malaria is predictable, preventable and curable, says the AU Social Affairs Department.
The department is of the view that funding for malaria is no longer a major constraint for implementation of programmes. What Africans need now is the unwavering commitment of leadership at all levels to mobilise the whole society by providing an enabling environment at households, community, district, sector and institutional levels for the battle against malaria to be won. Africa could then move nearer to achieving the MDGs by 2015.
The continent has support from the UN Secretary-General, WHO, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Gates Foundation and the USA President’s Malaria Initiative and other partners to mobilise capacity, resources and harmonise all existing malaria initiatives in order to finally eliminate malaria from Africa.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Child prostitution- A threat to development
Article: Salome Donkor
The story narrated by an 11-year-old alleged child prostitute during interrogation at the Greater Accra Regional offices of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service was pathetic and sounded incredible. She described in chilling details how she serviced her clients and charged them various sums of money depending on the size of their male genital organ.
She also said she took alcoholic drinks laced with some drugs to enable her to sleep during the day, to psyche her up for her ‘night duties’
According to Chief Inspector Irene Oppong, Public Relations Officer of the Greater Accra DOVVSU, 13 children, aged between 11 and 15, were arrested by the police in some parts of Accra and brought to the unit for their alleged involvement in child prostitution.
She said they were sent to the Shelter for Abused Children at Osu, but one of the girls aged 11, attempted suicide, for what she termed as deplorable conditions at the shelter.
When the Ghana Police raided Soldier Bar, a brothel near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, in May 2008, 160 commercial sex workers were arrested, and out of this, 60 of them confessed to being under 16 years. This confirms the incidence of sex business among children.
It is not surprising that an unconfirmed online report from the Globalmarch website states that there are at least 125 brothels in and around Accra that employ children.
Chief Inspector Oppong said last month, the Nima Police arrested six children suspected to be engaged in prostitution and pointed out that some of the children also operated around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Agbogbloshie, Konkomba market and Tema Station, while others travelled from the Eastern and Central regions to and from Accra daily to engage in commercial sex trade.
She said some of the children, who started the practice from the Kumasi Race Course as apprentice, were later lured to Accra after they had been trafficked to the city by women traffickers who are difficult to trace.
She said in the case of those arrested at Agbogbloshie, the children trafficked from Kumasi know the woman who brought them to Accra only as auntie or sister, and that had made it very difficult for the police to trace her. That, she said was in spite of the fact that the woman uses the children to trade in sex and collects GH¢20 from each of them every three days.
Commercial sex trade among children is a form of forced labour whereby children aged below 18 are forced to have sex with adults and juveniles in return for money, part of which is paid to a third party who usually acts as the mediator. Most of the time the mediator tended out to be “madams” who were engaged in child trafficking.
Reports from parts of Accra indicate that the practice, which is a violation of the rights and dignity of victims and tends to have traumatic effects on them, involves children as young as 11 years, despite the health implications and other risks involved.
The United Nations declared 1979 as the International Year of the Child, which was referred to as the 1979 Declaration. The declaration called upon countries, local authorities, civil society organisations and parents to recognise and strive for the protection of the rights of children.
The declaration also influenced the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in November 1989 and Ghana responded positively to the initiatives of the United Nations in being the first country to ratify the convention.
The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 provides a clear statement prohibiting all forms of violence against children, reaffirming previous human rights instruments.
However, the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy asserts that millions of children throughout the world are victims of violence. They continue to be abused, exploited and trafficked under different categories of violence to children, from abuse in the family and institutions, to organised sexual abuse, including child prostitution, sex tourism and child pornography.
In 1998, Parliament passed the Children's Act (ACT 560) which provided a list of enforceable children's rights and obligations of parents towards their wards.
Writing on the topic ‘Child prostitution and the age of sexual responsibility’ Nana Oye Lithur, the Africa Regional Co-ordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives, pointed out that the laws of the country stipulated that children under age 16 may be willing to have sex, but they cannot legally have sex because they do not have the legal capacity to consent to have sex at that age. This is because a person becomes sexually responsible in Ghana at age 16. This means that any child in Ghana who is not 16 cannot give consent to sexual intercourse.
That is why any man or woman who has sex with a girl or boy who is below 16 years commits the offence of defilement. That child who is not yet 16 years cannot agree to have sex with the man or women because the child does not have that legal power or authority to give consent for sex when he or she is not 16 years.
The causes of this form of inhuman form of exploitation against children could be complex. Could it be due to severe poverty, low value attached to education, family dysfunction, a cultural obligation to help support the family or the need to earn money to simply survive that make children vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.
Social workers also say there are other non-economic factors that also push children into commercial sexual exploitation. Children who are at the greatest risk of becoming victims of the practice are those that have previously experienced physical or sexual abuse, a family environment of little protection, where caregivers are absent or where there is a high level of violence or alcohol or drug consumption, which induces boys and girls to run away from home making them highly susceptible to abuse.
Chief Inspector Oppong said although the practice was a criminal offence that warranted the prosecution of clients and the mediators since it amounted to defilement, indecent sexual assault and having unnatural carnal knowledge of a child, it was difficult for the police to arrest the perpetrators because they operated under cover.
The child involved is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object and it involves children in the urban poor, where the victims are most disadvantaged and in some cities in Ghana.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 classifies commercial sexual exploitation of children as one of the worst forms of child labour in the world. Child prostitution and child pornography are examples of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) was celebrated on the theme “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls”. The relevance of the theme cannot be overemphasised considering the fact that men and boys in particular, who patronise the services of these child prostitutes need to demonstrate that the practice, which constitutes exploitation against children, is not an acceptable behaviour and they need to speak against it, be role models to younger men and mentor them not to perpetrate domestic violence in any form.
Article 25 (1) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that “All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realisation of the right” 25 (1) (a) states that “basic education shall be free, compulsory and available to all”.
Sections of the Constitution also enjoins Parliament to enact such laws that are necessary to ensure that “parents undertake their natural right and obligation of care, maintenance and upbringing of their children in co-operation with such institutions as Parliament may, by law, prescribe in such manner that in all cases the interest of the children are paramount”.
Apart from these constitutional provisions, Ghana was the first country to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Children, while at the national level the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560) was promulgated to protect the welfare and interest of Ghanaian children.
It is however unfortunate that despite all these measures some children continue to suffer negative acts that constitute criminal practices that demean, degrade and threaten the physical and psychological integrity of children and subject them to emotional trauma.
The Executive Director of Challenging Heights, a child-related non-governmental organisation, Mr James Kofi Annan, called for the enforcement of the Children’s Act.
He said said it was necessary for the Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and related agencies to identify the location of homes and centres and shealters for children and ensure that they operate with the necessary permits to protect the rights of the child.
This protection, he explained, should include giving the children food, health facilities, shelter, and education to enhance their integration into society, adding that the peculiar need of the child could also be identified and the necessary counselling services offered to such victims when they are rescued.
Mr Annan urged the government to resource the Department of Social Welfare to enable it to establish more centres in the country to take care of abused children who are rescued.
It is important to understand that proper child care requires that children are taken care of by family members and the society at large to enable them to benefit from the love and warmth of their families.
Parents, governmental and non-governmental organisations and child-related organisations, need to be more responsible and provide the children with the needed care and protection.
The story narrated by an 11-year-old alleged child prostitute during interrogation at the Greater Accra Regional offices of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service was pathetic and sounded incredible. She described in chilling details how she serviced her clients and charged them various sums of money depending on the size of their male genital organ.
She also said she took alcoholic drinks laced with some drugs to enable her to sleep during the day, to psyche her up for her ‘night duties’
According to Chief Inspector Irene Oppong, Public Relations Officer of the Greater Accra DOVVSU, 13 children, aged between 11 and 15, were arrested by the police in some parts of Accra and brought to the unit for their alleged involvement in child prostitution.
She said they were sent to the Shelter for Abused Children at Osu, but one of the girls aged 11, attempted suicide, for what she termed as deplorable conditions at the shelter.
When the Ghana Police raided Soldier Bar, a brothel near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, in May 2008, 160 commercial sex workers were arrested, and out of this, 60 of them confessed to being under 16 years. This confirms the incidence of sex business among children.
It is not surprising that an unconfirmed online report from the Globalmarch website states that there are at least 125 brothels in and around Accra that employ children.
Chief Inspector Oppong said last month, the Nima Police arrested six children suspected to be engaged in prostitution and pointed out that some of the children also operated around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Agbogbloshie, Konkomba market and Tema Station, while others travelled from the Eastern and Central regions to and from Accra daily to engage in commercial sex trade.
She said some of the children, who started the practice from the Kumasi Race Course as apprentice, were later lured to Accra after they had been trafficked to the city by women traffickers who are difficult to trace.
She said in the case of those arrested at Agbogbloshie, the children trafficked from Kumasi know the woman who brought them to Accra only as auntie or sister, and that had made it very difficult for the police to trace her. That, she said was in spite of the fact that the woman uses the children to trade in sex and collects GH¢20 from each of them every three days.
Commercial sex trade among children is a form of forced labour whereby children aged below 18 are forced to have sex with adults and juveniles in return for money, part of which is paid to a third party who usually acts as the mediator. Most of the time the mediator tended out to be “madams” who were engaged in child trafficking.
Reports from parts of Accra indicate that the practice, which is a violation of the rights and dignity of victims and tends to have traumatic effects on them, involves children as young as 11 years, despite the health implications and other risks involved.
The United Nations declared 1979 as the International Year of the Child, which was referred to as the 1979 Declaration. The declaration called upon countries, local authorities, civil society organisations and parents to recognise and strive for the protection of the rights of children.
The declaration also influenced the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in November 1989 and Ghana responded positively to the initiatives of the United Nations in being the first country to ratify the convention.
The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 provides a clear statement prohibiting all forms of violence against children, reaffirming previous human rights instruments.
However, the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy asserts that millions of children throughout the world are victims of violence. They continue to be abused, exploited and trafficked under different categories of violence to children, from abuse in the family and institutions, to organised sexual abuse, including child prostitution, sex tourism and child pornography.
In 1998, Parliament passed the Children's Act (ACT 560) which provided a list of enforceable children's rights and obligations of parents towards their wards.
Writing on the topic ‘Child prostitution and the age of sexual responsibility’ Nana Oye Lithur, the Africa Regional Co-ordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives, pointed out that the laws of the country stipulated that children under age 16 may be willing to have sex, but they cannot legally have sex because they do not have the legal capacity to consent to have sex at that age. This is because a person becomes sexually responsible in Ghana at age 16. This means that any child in Ghana who is not 16 cannot give consent to sexual intercourse.
That is why any man or woman who has sex with a girl or boy who is below 16 years commits the offence of defilement. That child who is not yet 16 years cannot agree to have sex with the man or women because the child does not have that legal power or authority to give consent for sex when he or she is not 16 years.
The causes of this form of inhuman form of exploitation against children could be complex. Could it be due to severe poverty, low value attached to education, family dysfunction, a cultural obligation to help support the family or the need to earn money to simply survive that make children vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.
Social workers also say there are other non-economic factors that also push children into commercial sexual exploitation. Children who are at the greatest risk of becoming victims of the practice are those that have previously experienced physical or sexual abuse, a family environment of little protection, where caregivers are absent or where there is a high level of violence or alcohol or drug consumption, which induces boys and girls to run away from home making them highly susceptible to abuse.
Chief Inspector Oppong said although the practice was a criminal offence that warranted the prosecution of clients and the mediators since it amounted to defilement, indecent sexual assault and having unnatural carnal knowledge of a child, it was difficult for the police to arrest the perpetrators because they operated under cover.
The child involved is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object and it involves children in the urban poor, where the victims are most disadvantaged and in some cities in Ghana.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 classifies commercial sexual exploitation of children as one of the worst forms of child labour in the world. Child prostitution and child pornography are examples of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) was celebrated on the theme “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls”. The relevance of the theme cannot be overemphasised considering the fact that men and boys in particular, who patronise the services of these child prostitutes need to demonstrate that the practice, which constitutes exploitation against children, is not an acceptable behaviour and they need to speak against it, be role models to younger men and mentor them not to perpetrate domestic violence in any form.
Article 25 (1) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that “All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realisation of the right” 25 (1) (a) states that “basic education shall be free, compulsory and available to all”.
Sections of the Constitution also enjoins Parliament to enact such laws that are necessary to ensure that “parents undertake their natural right and obligation of care, maintenance and upbringing of their children in co-operation with such institutions as Parliament may, by law, prescribe in such manner that in all cases the interest of the children are paramount”.
Apart from these constitutional provisions, Ghana was the first country to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of Children, while at the national level the Children’s Act 1998 (Act 560) was promulgated to protect the welfare and interest of Ghanaian children.
It is however unfortunate that despite all these measures some children continue to suffer negative acts that constitute criminal practices that demean, degrade and threaten the physical and psychological integrity of children and subject them to emotional trauma.
The Executive Director of Challenging Heights, a child-related non-governmental organisation, Mr James Kofi Annan, called for the enforcement of the Children’s Act.
He said said it was necessary for the Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and related agencies to identify the location of homes and centres and shealters for children and ensure that they operate with the necessary permits to protect the rights of the child.
This protection, he explained, should include giving the children food, health facilities, shelter, and education to enhance their integration into society, adding that the peculiar need of the child could also be identified and the necessary counselling services offered to such victims when they are rescued.
Mr Annan urged the government to resource the Department of Social Welfare to enable it to establish more centres in the country to take care of abused children who are rescued.
It is important to understand that proper child care requires that children are taken care of by family members and the society at large to enable them to benefit from the love and warmth of their families.
Parents, governmental and non-governmental organisations and child-related organisations, need to be more responsible and provide the children with the needed care and protection.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Making pregnancy safer - Ghana’s initiatives (Daily Graphic, 04/04/09)
Article: Salome Donkor
Pregnancy and childbirth are generally times of happiness and much cherished by families due to the emotional and social joy that it brings to families.
In some cultural settings in the country, elaborate ceremonies are held to ‘outdoor’ new-born children and thank God for seeing the pregnant women through nine months of pregnancy.
Unfortunately, there are occasions that the period of pregnancy and childbirth pose great risk to the health and survival of women and new-borns and these result in maternal and neonatal mortality and mobidity.
When families lose their relations through maternal and neonatal mortality, the joy that motherhood brings to families and relatives turns into agony, suffering, pain and distress.
Pregnancy-related conditions, also known as obstetric complications, include post-partum haemorrhage, infections, eclampsia 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.
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.
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.
One of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015 and it is necessary to assess the progress towards the achievement of the goal.
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 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.
This year’s State of the World’s Children Report for 2009 prepared by the UNICEF, which was launched in Accra last Wednesday, 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.
Produced annually, the report is UNICEF’s flagship publication and closely examines a key issue affecting children. The 2009 edition of the report focuses on maternal and new-born health and identifies the intervention and actions that must be scaled up to save millions of lives.
It outlines the direct causes and underlying factors that undermine the health and survival of mothers and new-borns and mentions the causes of obstetric complications, which include post-partum haemorrhage, infections, eclampsia and prolonged or obstructed labour.
It also talks about complications of abortion, which account for most maternal deaths, and anaemia, exacerbated by malaria, HIV and other conditions which heighten the risk of maternal death from haemorrhage (bleeding).
It said for these reasons, around 1,500 women died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, adding that since 1990 the estimated annual number of maternal deaths world-wide had exceeded 500,000, amounting to almost 10 million maternal deaths during the past 19 years.
The launch of the report, attended by policy makers, health workers and members of civil society organisations, included an interactive panel discussion, during which members of the panel and the audience deliberated on the issue of maternal mortality in Ghana and the need for stakeholders to implement effective measures for reducing maternal mortality and improving neonatal survival.
The panellists were Dr Opoku Fofie, Gynaecologist at the Wa Hospital; Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and Dr Nelson Damali, Obstetric Gynaecologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The rest were,: Dr Gloria Quansah Asare, Head of Family Health, GHS and Nana Oye Lithur, Africa Regional Co-ordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
Dr Quansah Asare said Ghana, like other developing countries, does not have the full complement of health care at health facilities to tackle the problem effectively.
She said there was the need to make sure that equipment was available and steps needed to be taken to address the problem of delay in getting to the health facility, adding that the road map to efficient maternal and new-born care was to equip adolescents with knowledge about reproductive health care.
Dr Sory said socio-cultural difficulties encountered by expectant mothers, such as crossing a river to the health facility, and with some perceptions in some traditional setups where women who deliver their babies at the hospitals are laughed at, the problem will still persist.
He also said there was the need to train more midwives to offer comprehensive, emergency obstetric care at the various levels of service delivery.
Nana Oye, who is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, stressed the need for doctors and health service providers to counsel and explain issues to patients and expectant mothers, who must also be given the opportunity to ask questions to know more about pregnancy and the risks associated with it.
She said that was necessary to empower women with knowledge on maternal health and reproductive rights for them to make informed choices on their reproductive health needs.
Dr Fofie spoke about the constraint and challenges confronting health personnel in the rural areas and suggested an incentive package to boost the morale of staff in those areas, as well as encourage others to accept posting to those areas.
Dr Damali called for the provision of basic materials and equipment and the expansion of infrastructure to meet the demands on health facilities, the result of increased hospital attendance due to the provision of free, medical care for pregnant women. He also said non-governmental organisations and individuals and related agencies and organisations should help strengthen the health care system.
The Majority Leader and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli West, who identified poverty and education as major constraints to maternal health care, called on all stakeholders to come on board to invest in sectors that support essential maternity and basic health-care services to strengthen health systems and improve maternal and new-born care.
He said in addition to enhancing information systems, it was also imperative to expand human resource, foster social mobilisation, establish equitable financing and develop infrastructure, transportation and the referral process.
The UNICEF Ghana Representative, Dr Yasmin A. Haque, asserted that maternal mortality and neonatal deaths were not about statistics, since the loss of the life of one woman through maternal death was painful. For that reason, she said the launch of the report provided an opportunity to count and investigate every life lost as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.
In doing so, we will all recognise the roles we have to play to complement efforts of health professionals, who also need to put in their best including the right attitudes to offer quality care to mothers and enhance safe motherhood in Ghana.
Pregnancy and childbirth are generally times of happiness and much cherished by families due to the emotional and social joy that it brings to families.
In some cultural settings in the country, elaborate ceremonies are held to ‘outdoor’ new-born children and thank God for seeing the pregnant women through nine months of pregnancy.
Unfortunately, there are occasions that the period of pregnancy and childbirth pose great risk to the health and survival of women and new-borns and these result in maternal and neonatal mortality and mobidity.
When families lose their relations through maternal and neonatal mortality, the joy that motherhood brings to families and relatives turns into agony, suffering, pain and distress.
Pregnancy-related conditions, also known as obstetric complications, include post-partum haemorrhage, infections, eclampsia 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.
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.
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.
One of the Millennium Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015 and it is necessary to assess the progress towards the achievement of the goal.
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 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.
This year’s State of the World’s Children Report for 2009 prepared by the UNICEF, which was launched in Accra last Wednesday, 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.
Produced annually, the report is UNICEF’s flagship publication and closely examines a key issue affecting children. The 2009 edition of the report focuses on maternal and new-born health and identifies the intervention and actions that must be scaled up to save millions of lives.
It outlines the direct causes and underlying factors that undermine the health and survival of mothers and new-borns and mentions the causes of obstetric complications, which include post-partum haemorrhage, infections, eclampsia and prolonged or obstructed labour.
It also talks about complications of abortion, which account for most maternal deaths, and anaemia, exacerbated by malaria, HIV and other conditions which heighten the risk of maternal death from haemorrhage (bleeding).
It said for these reasons, around 1,500 women died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, adding that since 1990 the estimated annual number of maternal deaths world-wide had exceeded 500,000, amounting to almost 10 million maternal deaths during the past 19 years.
The launch of the report, attended by policy makers, health workers and members of civil society organisations, included an interactive panel discussion, during which members of the panel and the audience deliberated on the issue of maternal mortality in Ghana and the need for stakeholders to implement effective measures for reducing maternal mortality and improving neonatal survival.
The panellists were Dr Opoku Fofie, Gynaecologist at the Wa Hospital; Dr Elias Sory, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and Dr Nelson Damali, Obstetric Gynaecologist at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. The rest were,: Dr Gloria Quansah Asare, Head of Family Health, GHS and Nana Oye Lithur, Africa Regional Co-ordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
Dr Quansah Asare said Ghana, like other developing countries, does not have the full complement of health care at health facilities to tackle the problem effectively.
She said there was the need to make sure that equipment was available and steps needed to be taken to address the problem of delay in getting to the health facility, adding that the road map to efficient maternal and new-born care was to equip adolescents with knowledge about reproductive health care.
Dr Sory said socio-cultural difficulties encountered by expectant mothers, such as crossing a river to the health facility, and with some perceptions in some traditional setups where women who deliver their babies at the hospitals are laughed at, the problem will still persist.
He also said there was the need to train more midwives to offer comprehensive, emergency obstetric care at the various levels of service delivery.
Nana Oye, who is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, stressed the need for doctors and health service providers to counsel and explain issues to patients and expectant mothers, who must also be given the opportunity to ask questions to know more about pregnancy and the risks associated with it.
She said that was necessary to empower women with knowledge on maternal health and reproductive rights for them to make informed choices on their reproductive health needs.
Dr Fofie spoke about the constraint and challenges confronting health personnel in the rural areas and suggested an incentive package to boost the morale of staff in those areas, as well as encourage others to accept posting to those areas.
Dr Damali called for the provision of basic materials and equipment and the expansion of infrastructure to meet the demands on health facilities, the result of increased hospital attendance due to the provision of free, medical care for pregnant women. He also said non-governmental organisations and individuals and related agencies and organisations should help strengthen the health care system.
The Majority Leader and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nadowli West, who identified poverty and education as major constraints to maternal health care, called on all stakeholders to come on board to invest in sectors that support essential maternity and basic health-care services to strengthen health systems and improve maternal and new-born care.
He said in addition to enhancing information systems, it was also imperative to expand human resource, foster social mobilisation, establish equitable financing and develop infrastructure, transportation and the referral process.
The UNICEF Ghana Representative, Dr Yasmin A. Haque, asserted that maternal mortality and neonatal deaths were not about statistics, since the loss of the life of one woman through maternal death was painful. For that reason, she said the launch of the report provided an opportunity to count and investigate every life lost as a result of pregnancy and childbirth.
In doing so, we will all recognise the roles we have to play to complement efforts of health professionals, who also need to put in their best including the right attitudes to offer quality care to mothers and enhance safe motherhood in Ghana.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Woes of cancer patients - Reach for Recovery offers supoort
Article: Salome Donkor
Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and who require surgery to remove the affected breast (mastectomy) experience fear, anger, depression, anxiety and a sense of helplessness.
Most of the patients who find it difficult to bear the cost of surgery and treatment become stressed up and, therefore, need a lot of counselling and other support.
To raise awareness of the suffering caused by breast cancer and help survivors to access the best possible treatment and care, Reach for Recovery Ghana, a breast cancer support group working closely with nurses and doctors at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Trust Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital, visits women who have been diagnosed with the disease and those who had gone through mastectomy.
The organisation also solicits funds to help pay part of the treatment cost of some of the patients, which include physiotherapy and radiation to prevent the cancer from spreading to other organs of the body.
The support group ensures that the patients have seasoned speakers to talk to during their monthly meetings, during which they are provided with the opportunity to ask questions bothering them.
The survivors are encouraged to participate in stress-relieving trips and also take active roles in visiting one another.
The word ‘cancer’ conjures up deep fears of a silent killer that creeps up on a patient without warning. It evokes such desperation that it has become a metaphor for 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 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.
According to Dr Clegg Lamptey of the Surgical Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, roughly 70 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer had no identifiable risk factors for the disease.
But the family history risks are that if a first-degree relative (a parent, sibling or child) has had or has breast cancer, one’s risk of developing the disease approximately doubles. Having two first-degree relatives with the disease increases one’s risk even more.
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 Lamptey 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, in addition to the breast, are lung, stomach, skin, cervical and prostrate 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.
Doctors contend that irrespective of the type of cancer a patient develops, she or he may need one of the following processes — surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy — pointing out that usually patients who have prostrate and breast cancers go through hormonal therapy.
Dr Lamptey points out that cancer can be cured when it is detected early, stressing that cancers need multi-disciplinary treatment with various specialists. However, if left untreated, it may spread and destroy surrounding tissues. Sometimes, cells break away from the original cancer. They may spread to other organs in the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
Mrs Gladys Boateng, Director, Reach for Recovery, who was diagnosed with the disease in Accra in 1999 and got treated in South Africa, said she was scared when she got to know of her condition, but Dr Clegg-Lamptey explained the disease and mode of treatment to her and that raised her confidence level.
She said she also went to a pastor for prayers and went ahead for the surgery, which was successful.
She said Reach for Recovery currently had an active membership of over 100. The volunteers have visited over 1,000 women since 2003 and participated in free-screening programmes, educational and television programmes, adding that the support group had lifted the shroud of secrecy surrounding breast cancer diagnosis and having mastectomy.
Speaking at a breast cancer symposium in Accra, Mrs Boateng said while on admission in South Africa, she had a visit from a volunteer from Reach for Recovery, South Africa who had then survived for nine years after she had been diagnosed with the disease and she really gave her hope, which made her work towards the formation of the support group in Ghana, after her return from South Africa.
According to Mrs Boateng, it was initially difficult to get integrated with the medical team and also convince other women to be volunteers because some women didn't want others to know of their status because they might be stigmatised and others would gossip about them but later some volunteers offered to help and that strengthened the support group.
“We counselled them and gave them 'goody bags’,” she said.
She said the group was also working closely with the Department of Women, the Breast Clinic and other support groups to launch the National Breast Cancer Fund to aid women go through the expensive cost of treating the disease.
She said Ghanaian women diagnosed with breast cancer had a number of challenges, including stigmatisation and gossip about affected women and lack of silicone prosthesis, while the few available were unaffordable, adding that the cost of treatment was highly unaffordable to most patients and the support group was not able to raise enough funds to help affected women
Mrs Boateng also said some herbalists and religious leaders still confused some women that cancer could be cured spiritually and attributed the illness to the devil,
She said the reconstruction of the affected breast needed to be properly addressed, while husbands of affected women needed to offer support to their wives, stressing that survivors needed love, care and encouragement from family members and friends.
She also said there was the need to establish a hospice for terminally ill cancer patients for proper care and support and pointed out that the support group needed to be offered the maximum support to continue the good work.
Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer and who require surgery to remove the affected breast (mastectomy) experience fear, anger, depression, anxiety and a sense of helplessness.
Most of the patients who find it difficult to bear the cost of surgery and treatment become stressed up and, therefore, need a lot of counselling and other support.
To raise awareness of the suffering caused by breast cancer and help survivors to access the best possible treatment and care, Reach for Recovery Ghana, a breast cancer support group working closely with nurses and doctors at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the Trust Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital, visits women who have been diagnosed with the disease and those who had gone through mastectomy.
The organisation also solicits funds to help pay part of the treatment cost of some of the patients, which include physiotherapy and radiation to prevent the cancer from spreading to other organs of the body.
The support group ensures that the patients have seasoned speakers to talk to during their monthly meetings, during which they are provided with the opportunity to ask questions bothering them.
The survivors are encouraged to participate in stress-relieving trips and also take active roles in visiting one another.
The word ‘cancer’ conjures up deep fears of a silent killer that creeps up on a patient without warning. It evokes such desperation that it has become a metaphor for 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 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.
According to Dr Clegg Lamptey of the Surgical Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, roughly 70 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer had no identifiable risk factors for the disease.
But the family history risks are that if a first-degree relative (a parent, sibling or child) has had or has breast cancer, one’s risk of developing the disease approximately doubles. Having two first-degree relatives with the disease increases one’s risk even more.
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 Lamptey 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, in addition to the breast, are lung, stomach, skin, cervical and prostrate 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.
Doctors contend that irrespective of the type of cancer a patient develops, she or he may need one of the following processes — surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy — pointing out that usually patients who have prostrate and breast cancers go through hormonal therapy.
Dr Lamptey points out that cancer can be cured when it is detected early, stressing that cancers need multi-disciplinary treatment with various specialists. However, if left untreated, it may spread and destroy surrounding tissues. Sometimes, cells break away from the original cancer. They may spread to other organs in the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
Mrs Gladys Boateng, Director, Reach for Recovery, who was diagnosed with the disease in Accra in 1999 and got treated in South Africa, said she was scared when she got to know of her condition, but Dr Clegg-Lamptey explained the disease and mode of treatment to her and that raised her confidence level.
She said she also went to a pastor for prayers and went ahead for the surgery, which was successful.
She said Reach for Recovery currently had an active membership of over 100. The volunteers have visited over 1,000 women since 2003 and participated in free-screening programmes, educational and television programmes, adding that the support group had lifted the shroud of secrecy surrounding breast cancer diagnosis and having mastectomy.
Speaking at a breast cancer symposium in Accra, Mrs Boateng said while on admission in South Africa, she had a visit from a volunteer from Reach for Recovery, South Africa who had then survived for nine years after she had been diagnosed with the disease and she really gave her hope, which made her work towards the formation of the support group in Ghana, after her return from South Africa.
According to Mrs Boateng, it was initially difficult to get integrated with the medical team and also convince other women to be volunteers because some women didn't want others to know of their status because they might be stigmatised and others would gossip about them but later some volunteers offered to help and that strengthened the support group.
“We counselled them and gave them 'goody bags’,” she said.
She said the group was also working closely with the Department of Women, the Breast Clinic and other support groups to launch the National Breast Cancer Fund to aid women go through the expensive cost of treating the disease.
She said Ghanaian women diagnosed with breast cancer had a number of challenges, including stigmatisation and gossip about affected women and lack of silicone prosthesis, while the few available were unaffordable, adding that the cost of treatment was highly unaffordable to most patients and the support group was not able to raise enough funds to help affected women
Mrs Boateng also said some herbalists and religious leaders still confused some women that cancer could be cured spiritually and attributed the illness to the devil,
She said the reconstruction of the affected breast needed to be properly addressed, while husbands of affected women needed to offer support to their wives, stressing that survivors needed love, care and encouragement from family members and friends.
She also said there was the need to establish a hospice for terminally ill cancer patients for proper care and support and pointed out that the support group needed to be offered the maximum support to continue the good work.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Women’s empowerment needs commitment
Article: Salome Donkor
THE first world conference on the status of women was held in Mexico City to coincide with the 1975 International Women's Year, to remind the international community that discrimination against women continued to be a persistent problem in most parts of the world.
The conference led to the declaration of the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), proclaimed by the General Assembly which launched a new era in global efforts to promote the advancement of women by opening a world-wide dialogue on gender equality.
A process was set in motion to involve deliberation, negotiation, setting objectives, identifying obstacles and reviewing the progress made.
Despite these efforts, many women around the world continue to suffer discrimination and challenges posed by social attitudes and policies that continue to condone and perpetuate violence against women and girls.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides a framework for equality of all persons and outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender/sex. It promises to protect and promote all human rights and also prohibits all harmful customary practices.
However the Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for gender equity, which made an assessment on issues of concern to women in Africa in 2008, has established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevailed in Africa while increasing efforts are being made to address them.
Making a statement in Parliament to mark this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8, on the theme “Women and Men united to end violence against women and girls” the Member of Parliament (MP) for Twifo Ati Mokwa, Mrs Elizabeth Amoah-Tetteh, observed that women empowerment continued to be a central feature of the United Nation’s efforts to address socio-economic and political challenges confronting women across the world.
To add her voice to calls on the need to get more women involved in politics and decision-making, an American philanthropist, writer and gender activist, DR Swanee Hunt has urged Ghanaian women to be firm and resolute in the use of their imaginative, and visionary qualities to promote the interest of women and other vulnerable groups in the society.
She described Ghanaian women as energetic people with strong, imaginative and visionary qualities which could take them far if they received the neccessary support to develop their capabilities.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a meeting with 30 Ghanaian women, made up of parliamentarians, lawyers and representatives from non-governmental organisations, during a three-day visit to the country recently, she said Ghanaian women have made giant strides in national development, despite the challenges.
Dr Hunt, who is a Lecturer of Public Policy, is committed to the attainment of gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and other forms of human suffering.
She served as President Clinton's ambassador to Austria, from 1993 to 1997, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia, which focused on stabilising the neighbouring Balkan states. She had also worked extensively in Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and a little in South Africa and Liberia, and notably with the most strong women all over the world.
Ambassador Hunt was the Founding Director of the Women and Public Policy Programme at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she also teaches “Inclusive Security”, exploring why women are systematically excluded from peace processes and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. She has conducted research, training, and consultations with women leaders in some 60 countries.
She pointed out that as a gender advocate and women rights advocate, she decided to visit the country to learn more about the role of women in the country.
She described Rwandan women as strong women who played a crucial role during the ethnic genocide and pointed out that with the Hutsi, Tutsi conflict some key women in Rwanda, namely Inyumba Aloisia and Rose Kabuya, played crucial roles.
Dr Hunt said 14 years after the genocide, Rwanda's constitution adopted after a referendum held in 2003 guaranteed 30 per cent quota of the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, for women.
They also created women councils in villages where they run offices and they got themselves in the constitutional committee with 30 per cent set aside for women who only contested those seats.
That strategy, she said, worked fantastically and after the country’s 2008 elections, the country became the first nation in the world whose legislative assembly had the majority of women when the party of the ruling government headed by President Kagame endorsed 35 female candidates in an inter-party coalition, adding that “if you want to look for a mother for Africa, look from Rwanda”.
She said Ghana lagged behind in the representation of women in governance, explaining that in the US as of the 2008 elections, there are 74 women serving in the current House of Representatives while the Senate had 17 women in 2008.
On the perception that ‘politics is a dirty game’, she said it would continue to be so until women got actively involved and indicated that like other countries, women in the US would be prodded many times before they will decide about politics.
She said such women should believe in women’s rights and concerns.
She advised women not to think that they do not have the capabilities and were not qualified to contest elections and advised women to look at the EMILY's List that helped to elect progressive female candidates who were pro-choice to office.
EMILY's List, which is an acronym for "Early Money Is Like Yeast," is a political action committee (PAC) in the United States, founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1984. From the common political saying that, "Early money is like yeast, because it helps to raise the dough", the concept encourages women who want to enter into politics to start mobilising funds early.
Dr Hunt advised Ghanaian women, who want to contest in elections at both the district assembly and national level to take the decision now by starting to organise immediately, so that they can contest the elections and win.
In another interview, Mrs Gifty Klenam, the Member of Parliament for Lower West Akyem, who was at the meeting with Dr Hunt, described it as fruitful and said it provided a congenial atmosphere for deliberations on women in politics, trafficking and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSC Resolution 1325), relating to women, peace and security.
The Resolution, which tasks UN Systems and Member States to ensure that gender considerations are thoroughly integrated into all aspects of its security platform from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, was unanimously adopted by the Security Council in October 2000.
She said they deliberated on the negative effects of child trafficking in the country and the need to assess causes of child trafficking in order to come out with workable solutions to the problem.
She also said the meeting deliberated on the need for gender advocates to also contest in elections after doing their advocacy work to serve as an inspiration to women.
THE first world conference on the status of women was held in Mexico City to coincide with the 1975 International Women's Year, to remind the international community that discrimination against women continued to be a persistent problem in most parts of the world.
The conference led to the declaration of the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), proclaimed by the General Assembly which launched a new era in global efforts to promote the advancement of women by opening a world-wide dialogue on gender equality.
A process was set in motion to involve deliberation, negotiation, setting objectives, identifying obstacles and reviewing the progress made.
Despite these efforts, many women around the world continue to suffer discrimination and challenges posed by social attitudes and policies that continue to condone and perpetuate violence against women and girls.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides a framework for equality of all persons and outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender/sex. It promises to protect and promote all human rights and also prohibits all harmful customary practices.
However the Network of Women’s Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a coalition of organisations and individuals advocating for gender equity, which made an assessment on issues of concern to women in Africa in 2008, has established that discriminatory practices against women in the name of culture still prevailed in Africa while increasing efforts are being made to address them.
Making a statement in Parliament to mark this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8, on the theme “Women and Men united to end violence against women and girls” the Member of Parliament (MP) for Twifo Ati Mokwa, Mrs Elizabeth Amoah-Tetteh, observed that women empowerment continued to be a central feature of the United Nation’s efforts to address socio-economic and political challenges confronting women across the world.
To add her voice to calls on the need to get more women involved in politics and decision-making, an American philanthropist, writer and gender activist, DR Swanee Hunt has urged Ghanaian women to be firm and resolute in the use of their imaginative, and visionary qualities to promote the interest of women and other vulnerable groups in the society.
She described Ghanaian women as energetic people with strong, imaginative and visionary qualities which could take them far if they received the neccessary support to develop their capabilities.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after a meeting with 30 Ghanaian women, made up of parliamentarians, lawyers and representatives from non-governmental organisations, during a three-day visit to the country recently, she said Ghanaian women have made giant strides in national development, despite the challenges.
Dr Hunt, who is a Lecturer of Public Policy, is committed to the attainment of gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and other forms of human suffering.
She served as President Clinton's ambassador to Austria, from 1993 to 1997, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia, which focused on stabilising the neighbouring Balkan states. She had also worked extensively in Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and a little in South Africa and Liberia, and notably with the most strong women all over the world.
Ambassador Hunt was the Founding Director of the Women and Public Policy Programme at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she also teaches “Inclusive Security”, exploring why women are systematically excluded from peace processes and the policy steps needed to rectify the problem. She has conducted research, training, and consultations with women leaders in some 60 countries.
She pointed out that as a gender advocate and women rights advocate, she decided to visit the country to learn more about the role of women in the country.
She described Rwandan women as strong women who played a crucial role during the ethnic genocide and pointed out that with the Hutsi, Tutsi conflict some key women in Rwanda, namely Inyumba Aloisia and Rose Kabuya, played crucial roles.
Dr Hunt said 14 years after the genocide, Rwanda's constitution adopted after a referendum held in 2003 guaranteed 30 per cent quota of the 80 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, for women.
They also created women councils in villages where they run offices and they got themselves in the constitutional committee with 30 per cent set aside for women who only contested those seats.
That strategy, she said, worked fantastically and after the country’s 2008 elections, the country became the first nation in the world whose legislative assembly had the majority of women when the party of the ruling government headed by President Kagame endorsed 35 female candidates in an inter-party coalition, adding that “if you want to look for a mother for Africa, look from Rwanda”.
She said Ghana lagged behind in the representation of women in governance, explaining that in the US as of the 2008 elections, there are 74 women serving in the current House of Representatives while the Senate had 17 women in 2008.
On the perception that ‘politics is a dirty game’, she said it would continue to be so until women got actively involved and indicated that like other countries, women in the US would be prodded many times before they will decide about politics.
She said such women should believe in women’s rights and concerns.
She advised women not to think that they do not have the capabilities and were not qualified to contest elections and advised women to look at the EMILY's List that helped to elect progressive female candidates who were pro-choice to office.
EMILY's List, which is an acronym for "Early Money Is Like Yeast," is a political action committee (PAC) in the United States, founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1984. From the common political saying that, "Early money is like yeast, because it helps to raise the dough", the concept encourages women who want to enter into politics to start mobilising funds early.
Dr Hunt advised Ghanaian women, who want to contest in elections at both the district assembly and national level to take the decision now by starting to organise immediately, so that they can contest the elections and win.
In another interview, Mrs Gifty Klenam, the Member of Parliament for Lower West Akyem, who was at the meeting with Dr Hunt, described it as fruitful and said it provided a congenial atmosphere for deliberations on women in politics, trafficking and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSC Resolution 1325), relating to women, peace and security.
The Resolution, which tasks UN Systems and Member States to ensure that gender considerations are thoroughly integrated into all aspects of its security platform from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, was unanimously adopted by the Security Council in October 2000.
She said they deliberated on the negative effects of child trafficking in the country and the need to assess causes of child trafficking in order to come out with workable solutions to the problem.
She also said the meeting deliberated on the need for gender advocates to also contest in elections after doing their advocacy work to serve as an inspiration to women.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Childhood cancer - A growing problem
Article: Salome Donkor
Some parents of child cancer patients who recounted their traumatic experiences in a documentary compiled by the Children’s Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have pathetic stories to share.
I had the opportunity to watch the film after interviewing Dr Lorna Awo Renner, a paediatrician at Korle-Bu. One woman whose baby was diagnosed with cancer of the eye recounted how they supported the child to go through an expensive and painful treatment, which resulted in a surgery to remove the damaged eye in South Africa. The treatment, which involved the replacement of the damaged eye with an artificial one, also included chemotherapy at an expensive cost.
One man lost two children because he could not afford the cost of treatment for a bone marrow transplant that needed to be done in South Africa to save the lives of the children who were diagnosed with a kind of cancer that caused life-threatening blood disorders.
To raise awareness of the suffering caused by cancers in children and help them to get the best possible treatment and care, the Ghana Parents Association for Childhood Cancer (GHAPACC) was inaugurated in Accra to commemorate the International Childhood Cancer Day, which fell on February 15.
The mission of the association is to contribute to the health needs of children with cancer and other life-threatening blood disorders and their families.
It is also to provide support for children with cancer and make available to parents and families of newly diagnosed children information and logistics to organise support groups to assist children and their families to cope with the stress that accompanies diagnosis of childhood cancer and advocate for improved care for children with cancer and other life- threatening blood disorders.
The word ‘cancer’ conjures up deep fears of a silent killer that creeps up on a patient without warning. It evokes such desperation that it has become a metaphor for grief and pain, a scourge that strains intellectual, social and emotional resources.
However, when cancer affects a child, family members, friends and the patient are touched with such emotions and frustrations that cannot be described.
Cancers in childhood are supposedly rare events and, therefore, do not receive as much attention as other common diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia, among others. However, the extent of sickness and pain caused by these cancers places a high burden on individuals, families and their communities.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that there are over 20 million people living with cancer in the world today, with majority in the developing world.
The WHO estimates that each year, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer and 90,000 will eventually die of it.
Health experts maintain that childhood cancers can be cured, provided prompt and essential treatment is accessible. However, the most pathetic aspect of the problem is that 80 per cent of children with cancer live in developing countries where effective treatment is not available and, as a result, one in two children diagnosed with cancer will die.
According Dr Renner, who is working in collaboration with the GHAPACC, access to treatment for children with cancer in Ghana started in 1965 when the Burkitt’s Tumor project, which offered free diagnostic services and drugs treatment for children with the commonest type of cancer in Ghana (Burkitt’s lymphoma), got underway.
She said that offered real hope of cure for hundreds of children, mainly from deprived rural areas, many of whom are now adults and contributing their quota to society.
The paediatricians who were pioneers of the project were Procis Nkrumah and the late Dr (Mrs) Susanna de Graft Johnson, with Prof Janet Neequaye, Dr R. Biggar and Prof Jennifer Welbeck playing important roles.
Unfortunately, this project, which was implemented with an American grant, ended in 1994. Thereafter, the Canadian High Commission, using proceeds from the Terry Fox Run, continued sponsorship from 1995 to 2001 and since then it has been up to families themselves to fund their children’s treatment.
Dr Renner said in Ghana there was no comprehensive epidemiological data on the magnitude of childhood cancers but she said with the country’s population of about 20 million, they expected about 1,200 children below 15 to be affected yearly.
She said there were only two centres at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Accra and Korle-Bu in Accra that had paediatric cancer units and children were referred from all over the country, even as far as Bawku, to these centres and that such children invariably arrived at an advanced stage of the disease.
Although in highly developed countries over 70 per cent of children with cancer are cured and over 90 per cent cured for some specific cancers, Dr Renner said the outlook in Ghana was dismal.
She mentioned late presentation, as a result of ignorance of families and health workers, lack of trained health workers to manage cases, limited access to the two paediatric cancer units, limitations with diagnostic capacity, inductee supportive care and cost of chemotherapy as some of the reasons.
She said the approximate cost to treat fully and cure one of the commonest childhood cancers (Burkitt’s lymphoma) is GH¢500 per patient within a period of three months, while others such as leukaemia, which is more expensive to treat, costs about GH¢10,000.
She said the cost of treatment was not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme and parents of the patients lost hope as a result of lack of funds, leading to treatment abandonment.
She, therefore, asked philanthropic organisations, individuals and corporate bodies to join hands with the GHAPACC in order to provide financial, logistics, psycho-social support, among others, for children with cancer and life-threatening blood disorders.
“Using the slogan of the Paediatric Society of Ghana ‘Our children’s health is our nation’s wealth’, we have to show that we ‘genuinely care and support’ and contribute in whatever way possible to ensure that the children of Ghana have access to improved health care,” she said.
Chaired by Mr F.K. Aveh, the association advised parents to look out for the St Siluan (a Russian monk who died in 1938) warning signs for childhood cancer and seek medical help for persistent symptoms.
These are a white spot in the eye, new squint, blindness, a bulging eyeball, a lump in the abdomen and pelvic, head and neck, limbs, testes, glands, unexplained fever, loss of weight and appetite, fatigue, easy bruising or bleeding, aching bones, joints, back and easy fractures, as well as neurological change in behaviour, balance, gait, headache and enlarged head.
Some parents of child cancer patients who recounted their traumatic experiences in a documentary compiled by the Children’s Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have pathetic stories to share.
I had the opportunity to watch the film after interviewing Dr Lorna Awo Renner, a paediatrician at Korle-Bu. One woman whose baby was diagnosed with cancer of the eye recounted how they supported the child to go through an expensive and painful treatment, which resulted in a surgery to remove the damaged eye in South Africa. The treatment, which involved the replacement of the damaged eye with an artificial one, also included chemotherapy at an expensive cost.
One man lost two children because he could not afford the cost of treatment for a bone marrow transplant that needed to be done in South Africa to save the lives of the children who were diagnosed with a kind of cancer that caused life-threatening blood disorders.
To raise awareness of the suffering caused by cancers in children and help them to get the best possible treatment and care, the Ghana Parents Association for Childhood Cancer (GHAPACC) was inaugurated in Accra to commemorate the International Childhood Cancer Day, which fell on February 15.
The mission of the association is to contribute to the health needs of children with cancer and other life-threatening blood disorders and their families.
It is also to provide support for children with cancer and make available to parents and families of newly diagnosed children information and logistics to organise support groups to assist children and their families to cope with the stress that accompanies diagnosis of childhood cancer and advocate for improved care for children with cancer and other life- threatening blood disorders.
The word ‘cancer’ conjures up deep fears of a silent killer that creeps up on a patient without warning. It evokes such desperation that it has become a metaphor for grief and pain, a scourge that strains intellectual, social and emotional resources.
However, when cancer affects a child, family members, friends and the patient are touched with such emotions and frustrations that cannot be described.
Cancers in childhood are supposedly rare events and, therefore, do not receive as much attention as other common diseases like malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia, among others. However, the extent of sickness and pain caused by these cancers places a high burden on individuals, families and their communities.
Statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicate that there are over 20 million people living with cancer in the world today, with majority in the developing world.
The WHO estimates that each year, more than 160,000 children are diagnosed with cancer and 90,000 will eventually die of it.
Health experts maintain that childhood cancers can be cured, provided prompt and essential treatment is accessible. However, the most pathetic aspect of the problem is that 80 per cent of children with cancer live in developing countries where effective treatment is not available and, as a result, one in two children diagnosed with cancer will die.
According Dr Renner, who is working in collaboration with the GHAPACC, access to treatment for children with cancer in Ghana started in 1965 when the Burkitt’s Tumor project, which offered free diagnostic services and drugs treatment for children with the commonest type of cancer in Ghana (Burkitt’s lymphoma), got underway.
She said that offered real hope of cure for hundreds of children, mainly from deprived rural areas, many of whom are now adults and contributing their quota to society.
The paediatricians who were pioneers of the project were Procis Nkrumah and the late Dr (Mrs) Susanna de Graft Johnson, with Prof Janet Neequaye, Dr R. Biggar and Prof Jennifer Welbeck playing important roles.
Unfortunately, this project, which was implemented with an American grant, ended in 1994. Thereafter, the Canadian High Commission, using proceeds from the Terry Fox Run, continued sponsorship from 1995 to 2001 and since then it has been up to families themselves to fund their children’s treatment.
Dr Renner said in Ghana there was no comprehensive epidemiological data on the magnitude of childhood cancers but she said with the country’s population of about 20 million, they expected about 1,200 children below 15 to be affected yearly.
She said there were only two centres at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Accra and Korle-Bu in Accra that had paediatric cancer units and children were referred from all over the country, even as far as Bawku, to these centres and that such children invariably arrived at an advanced stage of the disease.
Although in highly developed countries over 70 per cent of children with cancer are cured and over 90 per cent cured for some specific cancers, Dr Renner said the outlook in Ghana was dismal.
She mentioned late presentation, as a result of ignorance of families and health workers, lack of trained health workers to manage cases, limited access to the two paediatric cancer units, limitations with diagnostic capacity, inductee supportive care and cost of chemotherapy as some of the reasons.
She said the approximate cost to treat fully and cure one of the commonest childhood cancers (Burkitt’s lymphoma) is GH¢500 per patient within a period of three months, while others such as leukaemia, which is more expensive to treat, costs about GH¢10,000.
She said the cost of treatment was not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme and parents of the patients lost hope as a result of lack of funds, leading to treatment abandonment.
She, therefore, asked philanthropic organisations, individuals and corporate bodies to join hands with the GHAPACC in order to provide financial, logistics, psycho-social support, among others, for children with cancer and life-threatening blood disorders.
“Using the slogan of the Paediatric Society of Ghana ‘Our children’s health is our nation’s wealth’, we have to show that we ‘genuinely care and support’ and contribute in whatever way possible to ensure that the children of Ghana have access to improved health care,” she said.
Chaired by Mr F.K. Aveh, the association advised parents to look out for the St Siluan (a Russian monk who died in 1938) warning signs for childhood cancer and seek medical help for persistent symptoms.
These are a white spot in the eye, new squint, blindness, a bulging eyeball, a lump in the abdomen and pelvic, head and neck, limbs, testes, glands, unexplained fever, loss of weight and appetite, fatigue, easy bruising or bleeding, aching bones, joints, back and easy fractures, as well as neurological change in behaviour, balance, gait, headache and enlarged head.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Hajia Dubie makes women proud
Article: Salome Donkor
One woman who has made people of the Sissala East Constituency proud is Hajia Rafatu Halutie Alhassan Dubie. Her success in politics mirrors the rise of women in politics and a positive step in bringing women in her constituency into the limelight.
Hajia Dubie, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sissala East, who unseated the incumbent People’s National Convention (PNC) MP, Mr Moses Dani Baah, to become the first female MP for the constituency, has also been vetted and approved by Parliament as a Minister of State at the Office of the President.
Until she became an MP, the 61-year-old First Deputy Regional Women’s Organiser of the NDC, who is one of the 20 women in the country’s 230-member legislature, served in various capacities at the Tumu Hospital in the Upper West Region, and retired as a Deputy Chief Medical Assistant of the hospital in 2007.
She was an appointed assembly member of the Sissala District Assembly from 1994 to 2000 and elected the Presiding Member of the same assembly between 2000 and 2001, after which she contested for the Sissala East seat on the ticket of the NDC and lost in the 2004 parliamentary elections.
Determined not to allow her performance in that election to stifle her efforts, Hajia Dubie put the past behind her and contested for the same seat in the 2008 election and defeated the incumbent MP.
On average women constitute only 17 per cent of representatives in parliaments across the world, and Rwanda is the first country in Africa to meet the 50 per cent quota as stipulated in the African Union (AU's) Protocol to the African Charter on Rights of Women in Africa.
Achieving an improvement in the representation of women in politics and decision-making had been one issue that had attracted the attention of gender advocates and women rights groups
During the 2008 elections the Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) Ghana consistently highlighted the need for the various political parties to work with their women’s wings and women’s rights groups to put in place affirmative action to address the abysmal performance of women in the parliamentary elections, under its “We Know Politics” project.
WiLDAF maintains that the country needs affirmative action to step up the exposure of women to the public political positions. That assertion challenges her with an awesome responsibility of making the voices of her constituents heard in parliament.
During the elections, there were specific activities and statements from women's groups to political parties to field more women in safe seats, as there were others to directly strengthen individual women's capacity to stand and win seats as parliamentary candidates.
The Women's Manifesto Coalition hosted by ABANTU for Development also initiated actions supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), ActionAid, Frederick Ebert Foundation FES and others in support of that goal.
One significant outcome of the 2008 elections is the appointment of the first female Speaker of Parliament, in the person of Mrs Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, to preside over the sittings of the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic. That action had been described by women rights advocates as historic and a plus in the country’s democratic process to inspire more women to serve in decision-making positions.
To demonstrate the NDC government’s commitment to gender equality, President Atta Mills stated in his maiden State of the Nation Address to Parliament: “We will revise, adapt and implement our Affirmative Action Policy for Women of 1998, making sure that we have incorporated the key demands of the 2004 ‘Women’s Manifesto for Ghana’ as well as those of other political parties consistent with our women’s empowerment agenda.
Furthermore, it is heart-warming to know that there are eight women out of 35 ministerial nominees, who have been vetted and approved by Parliament. They are Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs; Mrs Juliana Azuma-Mensah, Minister of Tourism and Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
The rest are Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry; Mrs Sabah Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Information and Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology; Hajia Rafatu Halutie Alhassan Dubie, Minister of State, Office of the President, with Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe as the Central Regional Minister.
The deputy ministerial appointments announced by the President on Monday included five women.
Ghana also boasts the first lady Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Woode, who was appointed in 2007 and the first lady Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. These could be described as positive steps to improve women’s participation in governance and decision-making.
Asked to comment on the challenges that confronted her while contesting for the 2004 and 2008 parliamentary elections, the soft-spoken Hajia Dubie said although it was not easy, she was able to win the seat in 2008 because she had served the people and became familiar with their needs. She said she was prepared to withstand the frustrations that confront her as a woman in the areas of financial constraint and gender discrimination and encouraged herself by urging the people to appreciate the need to respect the views of women, who constitute over 50 per cent of the nation’s population.
She said her position as an MP and a Minister of State entails two things, namely to serve her constituents and the nation at large, adding that she was determined to use her position to better the lot of women who suffer various forms of abuse and neglect.
She said she had organised a clean-up exercise in her constituency and also held meetings with various community groups and leaders to brief them on what could be done to advance the cause of development in the area, with their support.
She added that a lot could be done with her share of MPs Common Fund, the District Assemblies Common Fund, as well as working in co-operation with district assemblies.
She advised the people to keep their environment clean and organised regular clean-up exercises to curb the spread of disease.
The MP said one of her priorities was to identify young boys and girls who dropped out of school and encourage them to learn a trade so that they could go back to their various communities as responsible people.
She expressed her profound gratitude to the President and the people for the confidence reposed in her and resolved to work to justify the trust.
Hajia Dubie, whose maiden name was Rita N. Nandzo, was trained as a midwife and had pursued Women in Management Training, Town Community Interactive and Country Planning courses, as well as Integrated Management of Childhood Illness and Integrated Management of HIV and AIDS Anti-retroviral Therapy programmes in Tamale, Wa and Kumasi respectively.
She is also a member of the Sissala District Health Committee and a board member of the Tumu Teacher Training College. She had also served as a member of the Tumu Credit Union, Chairperson of Tumu Education Sub-Committee and as a member of the Mother and Child Care Committee.
Hajia Dubie is married with five children.
One woman who has made people of the Sissala East Constituency proud is Hajia Rafatu Halutie Alhassan Dubie. Her success in politics mirrors the rise of women in politics and a positive step in bringing women in her constituency into the limelight.
Hajia Dubie, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sissala East, who unseated the incumbent People’s National Convention (PNC) MP, Mr Moses Dani Baah, to become the first female MP for the constituency, has also been vetted and approved by Parliament as a Minister of State at the Office of the President.
Until she became an MP, the 61-year-old First Deputy Regional Women’s Organiser of the NDC, who is one of the 20 women in the country’s 230-member legislature, served in various capacities at the Tumu Hospital in the Upper West Region, and retired as a Deputy Chief Medical Assistant of the hospital in 2007.
She was an appointed assembly member of the Sissala District Assembly from 1994 to 2000 and elected the Presiding Member of the same assembly between 2000 and 2001, after which she contested for the Sissala East seat on the ticket of the NDC and lost in the 2004 parliamentary elections.
Determined not to allow her performance in that election to stifle her efforts, Hajia Dubie put the past behind her and contested for the same seat in the 2008 election and defeated the incumbent MP.
On average women constitute only 17 per cent of representatives in parliaments across the world, and Rwanda is the first country in Africa to meet the 50 per cent quota as stipulated in the African Union (AU's) Protocol to the African Charter on Rights of Women in Africa.
Achieving an improvement in the representation of women in politics and decision-making had been one issue that had attracted the attention of gender advocates and women rights groups
During the 2008 elections the Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF) Ghana consistently highlighted the need for the various political parties to work with their women’s wings and women’s rights groups to put in place affirmative action to address the abysmal performance of women in the parliamentary elections, under its “We Know Politics” project.
WiLDAF maintains that the country needs affirmative action to step up the exposure of women to the public political positions. That assertion challenges her with an awesome responsibility of making the voices of her constituents heard in parliament.
During the elections, there were specific activities and statements from women's groups to political parties to field more women in safe seats, as there were others to directly strengthen individual women's capacity to stand and win seats as parliamentary candidates.
The Women's Manifesto Coalition hosted by ABANTU for Development also initiated actions supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), ActionAid, Frederick Ebert Foundation FES and others in support of that goal.
One significant outcome of the 2008 elections is the appointment of the first female Speaker of Parliament, in the person of Mrs Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, to preside over the sittings of the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic. That action had been described by women rights advocates as historic and a plus in the country’s democratic process to inspire more women to serve in decision-making positions.
To demonstrate the NDC government’s commitment to gender equality, President Atta Mills stated in his maiden State of the Nation Address to Parliament: “We will revise, adapt and implement our Affirmative Action Policy for Women of 1998, making sure that we have incorporated the key demands of the 2004 ‘Women’s Manifesto for Ghana’ as well as those of other political parties consistent with our women’s empowerment agenda.
Furthermore, it is heart-warming to know that there are eight women out of 35 ministerial nominees, who have been vetted and approved by Parliament. They are Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs; Mrs Juliana Azuma-Mensah, Minister of Tourism and Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
The rest are Ms Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry; Mrs Sabah Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Information and Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology; Hajia Rafatu Halutie Alhassan Dubie, Minister of State, Office of the President, with Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe as the Central Regional Minister.
The deputy ministerial appointments announced by the President on Monday included five women.
Ghana also boasts the first lady Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Theodora Woode, who was appointed in 2007 and the first lady Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang. These could be described as positive steps to improve women’s participation in governance and decision-making.
Asked to comment on the challenges that confronted her while contesting for the 2004 and 2008 parliamentary elections, the soft-spoken Hajia Dubie said although it was not easy, she was able to win the seat in 2008 because she had served the people and became familiar with their needs. She said she was prepared to withstand the frustrations that confront her as a woman in the areas of financial constraint and gender discrimination and encouraged herself by urging the people to appreciate the need to respect the views of women, who constitute over 50 per cent of the nation’s population.
She said her position as an MP and a Minister of State entails two things, namely to serve her constituents and the nation at large, adding that she was determined to use her position to better the lot of women who suffer various forms of abuse and neglect.
She said she had organised a clean-up exercise in her constituency and also held meetings with various community groups and leaders to brief them on what could be done to advance the cause of development in the area, with their support.
She added that a lot could be done with her share of MPs Common Fund, the District Assemblies Common Fund, as well as working in co-operation with district assemblies.
She advised the people to keep their environment clean and organised regular clean-up exercises to curb the spread of disease.
The MP said one of her priorities was to identify young boys and girls who dropped out of school and encourage them to learn a trade so that they could go back to their various communities as responsible people.
She expressed her profound gratitude to the President and the people for the confidence reposed in her and resolved to work to justify the trust.
Hajia Dubie, whose maiden name was Rita N. Nandzo, was trained as a midwife and had pursued Women in Management Training, Town Community Interactive and Country Planning courses, as well as Integrated Management of Childhood Illness and Integrated Management of HIV and AIDS Anti-retroviral Therapy programmes in Tamale, Wa and Kumasi respectively.
She is also a member of the Sissala District Health Committee and a board member of the Tumu Teacher Training College. She had also served as a member of the Tumu Credit Union, Chairperson of Tumu Education Sub-Committee and as a member of the Mother and Child Care Committee.
Hajia Dubie is married with five children.
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