It was all a great day I spent at another event now not in
Accra but in Aburi, I would always appreciate and admire people or groups who
do things to initiate changes we want in our society. ABAN, an acronym for A
Ban Against Neglect is an NGO that has stand tall among other NGOs in Ghana. Despite
we see some problems never going to have a solution for, they were there to initiate
an initiative to make impossible things look possible. They are into recruiting
young hawkers in Accra streets and turn them into presentable human resources. I
met the country director, Mr. Emmanuel Quarmyne at a forum between the Ghana
Federation of Labour and Plan Nederland where his submissions to reducing youth
unemployment in the country were very laudable. Do you want to be part of the
change he and his team here in Ghana are doing? They pick convince and pick
young women who migrated to the south from the north to look for greener
pastures but find solace on the streets and are exposed to environmental hazards
such as trafficking, sexual abuse and a lot they bear testimonies to. They are
then recruited into the ABAN home in Aburi where they are trained in the areas
they want to be, be it dressmaking, hairdressing and others. I do that was why I
made it to their second graduation ceremony for the girls they picked from the
streets and transformed them into great young women.
Today is second graduation for about 8 students who just completed
their 2 years training with the foundation in subjects of English, Business,
lifestyle and a choice of vocations that each chose. We had a poetry recital
from the project coordinator; Rose Teiko entitled the alphabets of happiness. There
was a solidarity messages from some individuals such as their USA partners
Rebecca Brandt and Callie Brauel which they coined from Nelson Mandela,s 1994 inaugural
speech and also added loads of advice individually to the graduates. Past beneficiaries
Danicia Kassim and Gifty Nyamekye also were given the opportunity to speak. Danicia
speech was focused on the experiences she remembered sharing with the graduates
in the house and this tells you how friendly they were even coming from all
parts of the country. Some were described as wives to the baby boys in the
house and in laws to their mothers. Gifty was just that we needed as she was
that comic figure we needed to crack our ribs down.
Guest speaker was Mr. Razak Yakubu, the president and
co-founder of Youth Movement for African Unity. The organisation is focused on
projects such as HIV AIDS, trafficking and youth empowerment. He made it known
that it is not all about our political figures that need to do something to
bring that unity we want but other things such as our cultural values and the
little peace we keep in our environments.
To be continued.
Akpah Prince
akpahprince@ymail.com
akpahprince.wordpress.com