Borstal homes are my priority - Gender Minister-nominee Cynthia Morrison

Cynthia Morrison, who has been nominated as a Gender and Social Protection Minister has said she is eager to work with her predecessors.

Reacting to her nomination as the one to take over from Ms Otiko Afisa Djaba, who is heading to Italy as Ghana's Ambassador, she said:"Cynthia Morrison is just a submarine person, I'm a politician, I'm the Regional Women's Organiser for NPP, I'm the Parliamentary candidate for Agona West and a lot of people say, we never hear of you, but anything we hear is big", she said in radio interview with Accra based Joy FM, when she was reached via telephone. 

She said the ministerial portfolio she has been nominated for is a big one and so "humbling" and it has not "settled in...but I must tell you that this Gender thing is my field."

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She said she was beside herself with joy although the reality of the appointment was yet to sink in. “The gender thing is so much on my heart because every year I have a date with the physically challenged, the less privileged and adopted children."

“But this is a big one and I am looking forward to working with everyone; both men and women. Anyone who has knowledge of the field will be invited to contribute,” she said.

She explained that in politics she "decides to do everything submarine, but at the end of the day, I make sure that I get the good results."

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The Central Regional NPP Women’s Organizer said she was sure that she was going to do the work with other women and even men and looked forward to working with Nana Oye Lithur and Otiko Afisa Djaba on adoptions, less privileged persons and the elderly.

“I have been thinking ever since I was informed and I am excited to work with people I already like and do so much for," she said.

She said she will immediately get to work on the borstal institutes which have been closed down.

According to her, she is worried that juveniles and adults are kept in the same prisons which ends up not helping the juveniles.

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“I have been thinking about how to give a new lease of life to these children who so much need a second chance at bettering their lives.

“Children make mistakes when growing up like all of us and their lives should not be defined with that. It was God’s grace that some of us came out and did not end up in cells because we were all stubborn as children,” she said.

She promised to talk to the president for a lasting solution to get the juveniles their own cells.

Mrs Morrsion said she would also focus on improving the lives of the incarcerated juveniles by training and reforming them.