Elsie Appau-Klu receives African Achievers Awards
The Regional Representative of Acreaty Management Plc, a human resource firm in Ghana, Mrs Elsie Appau-Klu has been honoured at the 8th edition of the African Achievers awards.
The event which took place in the House of Commons last Thursday in London was hosted by Rt. Diane Abbott, Shadow Home Secretary.
This year’s event was under the theme “Girls Child Right to Education: A case for Africa“.
In her speech, Mrs Appau-Klu underscored the importance of girl child education and women empowerment.
According to her, educating and empowering girls and women respectively will lead to the socio-economic development of the family, community and the nation at large.
She recalled how she had to face many challenges in a male-dominated field in Ghana.
"As a young girl, and coming from Africa, I often receive comments and impressions like: “you cannot make it here”, “how dare you a little girl talk in the presence of men”,“this is a male-dominated field and you cannot come here and control us”, Just to mention but a few. However, I was determined to make it just to prove to them that indeed, women are equal to the task as men are"
"Right after my Second Cycle education, there was a genuine sense of urgency about the effort to bridge the gap between men and women in all spheres of life, not just education. I became more self-motivated to ‘take the bull by the horn’ by taking up responsibility for my own success and that of other women.
"All my life, I have had one big dream. A dream that is scary enough to give me sleepless nights. A dream I hope to live for and achieve. But most importantly, it is a dream for which for which I would want to be remembered for-Empowering women through education"
Touching on some of her initiatives to promote women empowerment in Ghana, Mrs Appau- Klu said as Regional Representative for Acreaty Management PLC, she has led her team to develop a programme dubbed “Beyond Academics” where young people are trained on employable skills to prepare them adequately for the job market.
Africa Achievers Awards
The African Achievers Awards has consistently honoured great African achievers from African Leaders, Young Achievers, and Community Builders to Captains of Industries across the continent.
The awards ceremony has fast become established as one of the biggest gatherings of influential and global African Achievers on the continent.
Other recipients of the Africa Achievers Award includes HE Senator Howard Taylor- Vice President of Liberia, Mr Ibrahim Mahama of Ghana, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila - Leader of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Mo Abudu TV Mogul, Linsey Oliver - Co-Founder of Al- Jazeera among others.
Profile
Mrs Elsie Appau -Klu is a Lawyer, Policy Analyst and Water Governance specialist.
She has over 14 years of work experience as a policy analyst, project management expert and social development specialist with particular expertise in water governance, gender and public financial management issues.
She has good working experience with governmental organizations, private-sector, civil society and grassroots organizations to alleviate poverty for sustainable economic development.
She has advised and worked on various projects which look at project management, good governance with the World Bank, African Development Bank, the UN system and the Netherlands Foreign affairs Ministry.
She advocated for the passage of the Domestic Violence Act and worked as Gender Advisor with the Netherlands Embassy who funded the implementation of the National Plan of action between 2009-2012.
Mrs Appau- Klu also worked on promoting gender equity by supporting initiatives in the campaign against early and forced marriages. The interventions were funded by the Netherlands and Canadian Governments in five regions of Ghana.
Elsie Appau- Klu has touched many life’s in the sectors of Gender, governance, water &Sanitation as well us Human Resources.
She serves/d on many Boards including the Dominion University Council, FEED Africa (USA Based NGO), Ministerial Advisory Board for Youth and Sports(2010- 2011), West African Sexual and Reproductive Rights Committee amongst others.