Give attention to issues affecting women, children - Media practitioners told
The Executive Director of the Ghana Developing Community Agency (GDCA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Alhaji Osman Abdul Rahaman, has implored journalists and media practitioners to give more attention to issues relating to the welfare of women and children, especially the girl-child.
He said media practitioners must dedicate much of their airtime and space to promote child protection policies and women empowerment programmes and policies.
He observed that the media had not actively provided much prominence to issues that affected women, especially those in rural areas, making it difficult for their voices to be heard, hence the need for a discussion on the way forward.
Mr Rahaman was speaking at a media review organised by the GDCA, under the Empowerment for Life (E4L) programme, for journalists and media practitioners in Tamale, last Wednesday, which attracted participants from both the print and electronic media.
The programme
The E4L is being implemented by the GDCA and Youth Empowerment for Life (YEFL), in collaboration with the Ghana Friendship Group in Denmark and sponsored by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).
The programme, which started in 2010, is in its third phase. It originally commenced in 51 districts in the Northern Region, but is currently operating actively in six districts, namely Karaga, Saboba, Kumbungu, Mion, Savelugu and East Gonja.
According to the Programme Advocacy and Communication Officer of GDCA, Madam Rosemond Kumah, “The programme seeks to help the beneficiary groups to acquire technical skills that will enable them to solve their economic and social problems,” adding:
“It also seeks to link the beneficiary groups to organisations that will empower them on advocacy issues to enable them to find solutions to such issues at the district level.”
About 15,000 people in the region, including women, farmers and the youth, are expected to benefit from the programme, which focuses on helping to strengthen the beneficiary groups in the various districts to withstand problems that affect them economically and socially.
Activities and challenges
Some of the District Co-ordinators, who made presentations at the meeting, highlighted the activities of the various groups and identified the challenges they encountered with the implementation of the programme.
The District Co-ordinator of the programme at Saboba, Madam Mariam Rahaman, said her outfit had produced large quantities of soya beans and honey, but due to the poor road network and low patronage of the product in the area, “We find it very difficult in moving it to the marketing centres for sale.”
Other activities being undertaken by the groups are shea butter production and gari processing in the Kumbungu and East Gonja districts respectively.
In their contributions, some of the journalists admitted the difficulty they faced in their efforts to give space and airtime to issues affecting women and children, and agreed to find solutions to these problems, to improve upon the situation.