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Author Biography: Angela Johnston

Angela Johnston says that she loves getting to the “heart of a story by finding the everyday people involved,” which is precisely what she’ll be doing for the next six months interning at Citi FM in Accra, Ghana. Before arriving in Ghana, Johnston spent more than two years working for CBC in Saskatchewan as a reporter for radio and television. As a general assignment reporter, she covered a wide range of stories, including a piece about stalking victims pushing to change peace bond laws and a feature about 90-year-old farmers putting in another harvest for the year. Johnston’s previous international experience includes interning for the CBC’s London bureau and working for a Canadian media program in Malawi. She is a graduate of Carleton University’s journalism program and has a Masters in media and globalization.

Plans to “re-patriate” psychiatric patients in Accra facing long delays

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships, Media Internships, Uncategorized,
by Angela Johnston August 28, 2011

It’s a habit Raphael Armah just can’t quit. For the better part of the past decade, Armah has been in and out of Accra’s psychiatric hospital for smoking marijuana.  Although he believes the answer is institutional care—it does not mean Armah enjoys hospital life. “I don’t like staying here,” he says, “Because when I’m here, [...]

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Ghanaian national amputee soccer team kicks on

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships,
by Angela Johnston July 7, 2011

It’s an early-morning soccer practice on a beach in Ghana’s capital city, Accra.  With the shriek of a whistle, players leap into action, dribbling the ball with careful precision. It may be a typical soccer practice, but it’s not your typical team—this is Ghana’s national amputee soccer team, the Black Challenge. Waves from the Atlantic [...]

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Bringing green to the screen at Accra’s environmental film festival

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships,
by Angela Johnston July 6, 2011
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By Angela Johnston First up is a sci-fi flick from Kenya, set in a future without water. A female scientist desperately attempts to grow a plant.  Next is a music video about sanitation, featuring Ghanaian hiplife artists urging Africans to “keep it clean and tidy.” Very different films, but both share a green message—one that [...]

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Autism in Ghana part II: Battling stigma and education youth

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships,
by Angela Johnston June 20, 2011
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A group of students gather in a circle around a blackboard in a small Accra classroom. Eight-year-old Seletay Pi-Bansa holds a piece of chalk. He begins to sketch letters on the board and his classmates clap in a rhythmic beat to encourage him. “Let’s hear for Seletay,” the teacher says at the Autism Awareness, Care [...]

Tagged as: autism, Ghana, mental health

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A word from Ghana’s oldest jhr university chapter

In Ghana, IYIP Educational Officer,
by Angela Johnston June 20, 2011
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Text by Jenny Vaughan, audio by Angela Johnston Jhr and Ghana go a long way back. We started working in the West African country in 2003 when our first training program was established. Today, the country is the source of scores of jhr’s success stories. One such success is the growth of the jhr chapter [...]

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Life in the time of cholera

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships,
by Angela Johnston April 29, 2011

It was a close call for Hannah Anum. She says she arrived at Accra’s Korle Bu hospital unconscious. Now, she rests motionless on a bench with her head nested in her elbow. She and her two daughters got cholera from rice and stew she cooked herself. “I was very weak and dizzy,” she says in [...]

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Dry taps and lost hope: Water politics in Accra

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships,
by Angela Johnston March 22, 2011

My heart sinks as I turn the kitchen tap at my home in Accra. It shrieks and nothing comes out.  It’s empty. For two weeks, my housemates and I have been living without water. We survive on buckets our landlady brings us, and I mentally calculate the amount of water needed for simple tasks. Shower: [...]

Tagged as: Ghana, Water

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A long journey home

In Uncategorized,
by Angela Johnston March 9, 2011
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At the Accra Psychiatric Hospital in Ghana’s capital city, ten former patients are waiting for a bus near the hospital gates. Some sit silently. Some sing. Some pray. They have medicine in their pockets, and a few dollars’ worth of Ghanaian cedis for the ride. Some have stayed here for more than a decade. Now, [...]

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Railway dwellers near the end of the line in Accra

In Ghana, IYIP Rights Media Internships,
by Angela Johnston February 11, 2011
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In Ghana’s capital city, Accra, a commotion stirs along the train tracks near the central railway station. Dozens gather to hear the news—that soon, their homes and workplaces will be razed for a new rail system. “Last year we came to warn you to leave the railway lands. Last week we came again. And today, [...]

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