Tag Archives: Ghana

New Hope for Accra’s Most Notorious Slum

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jhr-led Magazine Sets Agenda for a Brighter Future in Ghana’s Old Fadama

On June 4th, 2011, jhr (Journalists for Human Rights) collaborated with students from the African University College of Communications (AUCC) to launch Faces of Old Fadama, a magazine created to put a human face on the largest “slum” in Ghana. Attended by officials responsible for the welfare of those living in the slums and covered by all major media in Accra, the launch put the issue of citizens’ rights in illegal slums squarely in the faces of those responsible, as well as on Ghana’s public agenda. Follow-up media coverage kept it there for weeks.

Cont’d after the slideshow…

The photos are taken by the students of the AUCC (African University College of Communications

Cont’d…

Old Fadama, with an estimated population of 79,000, is considered an illegal settlement by local authorities, and residents are often threatened with eviction. Residents are seen as illegitimate citizens. They have next to no access to health, education and other basic services. However, during elections politicians in Accra often campaign in Old Fadama for votes, without either resolving the legal status of the residents, or agreeing to deliver public services once the election campaign is over.

In April forty jhr-trained Ghanaian students from the African University College of Communications (AUCC) and Laura Bain, jhr intern and Editor-in-chief of the magazine, embarked on a reporting assignment to Old Fadama. They discovered that the community had built their own schools and health clinics, organized garbage clean-ups, started businesses, organized HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, installed accessible water sources and even gathered their own census information.

The magazine showcased these stories and called on the government to recognize the legitimacy of the settlement. In so doing, it drew attention the numerous human rights abuses the residents face and offered the Government alternative solutions to forced eviction.

The launch was attended by residents of Old Fadama, the Canadian High Commissioner, an official from the Accra Metropolitan Authority and Freddy Blay, the former Deputy Speaker of Parliament and now publisher of the Daily Guide newspaper. Launch organizers, including jhr’s Overseas Program Coordinator Jenny Vaughan, also secured a strong media presence from multiple local radio stations, newspapers and all three of the city’s TV networks helping to ensure the issue remains a priority for local authorities.

The media in Ghana has typically covered Old Fadama as a dirty, scary and chaotic place – supporting the idea of the residents’ eviction. Since its release, all three major TV networks, prominent newspapers and several radio stations produced stories from “Faces of Old Fadama” – spawning a new, more open and informed coverage of the settlement.

The Daily Guide newspaper, a primary sponsor of the magazine, has also expressed interest in furthering its partnership with jhr and exploring ways to continue highlighting human rights issues through the media.

Improving health care in Ghana, one human rights story at a time

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By Martin Aseidu Dartey & Shawn Hayward, Citi FM, Ghana

For two years, the clinic in Dzogadze, Ghana, had not had a nurse on staff. The closest hospital is eight miles away on a dirt road that is impassable when it rains.

Martin Aseidu Dartey and Shawn Hayward


When jhr intern Shawn Hayward heard about this, he knew it was a story that needed to be covered—access to basic health care is a fundamental human right, and precisely the kind of work jhr is committed to doing in their overseas placements. He returned to his newsroom and produced the story with Citi FM reporter Martin Aseidu Dartey.

What happened next was a welcome surprise.

Having heard the story on Citi FM, Ghana Health Service posted two nurses at the Dzogadze clinic. For the first time in two years, residents can now receive health care in their very own community.

“Martin is happy that his work has had a positive impact in people’s lives. I feel the same way,” said Hayward. “It feels really good to know that my work is having an effect on journalists here.”

Listen to a short 2 minute clip of Martin’s feedback about the story here.

jhr’s IYIP interns in Ghana and Malawi: A journey in rights media

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by Pia Bahile

Getting There
“By the time you get on the plane, you’ve worried yourself out,” says Jessica McDiarmid. “You’re just like, ‘Whatever happens, happens.”

That’s how McDiarmid recalls July 8, the day that she left Canada for Ghana with nine other young journalists. The ten young people were on their way to media houses in Ghana and Malawi for six-month rights media internships under the auspices of jhr and the government of Canada’s International Youth Internship Program (IYIP).

In the past five months, the interns have been able to alert the world to their larger triumphs and missteps on the Toronto Star’s Africa Files blog and on jhr’s Field Notes blog, but they’ve also witnessed smaller successes that have made as lasting of an impact – in both the professional and the personal sense – for the interns and for their local colleagues.

In editorial meetings, jhr interns provide input and encourage debates about human rights issues.

Malawi
As Rights Media Education Officers at MIJ, Heather MacDonald and Amy LeBlanc sit in on daily editorial meetings at MIJ FM, facilitate weekly human rights debates and encourage reporters to inject human rights angles into story pitches.

In their first month at MIJ, LeBlanc and MacDonald undertook the project of reviving the Weekend Express, the dormant online student publication, with a focus on human rights articles. They held an information session attended by excited MIJ students eager to tackle the project.

LeBlanc is working with Winston, MIJ’s web editor, and MIJ student and editor-in-chief Gracious Mulinga to relaunch the Weekend Express website, with plans for a blog, various sections and an archive.

“It was just about harnessing that energy so that [the MIJ students] have something to show future employers and about getting them excited to have something of their own,” says LeBlanc.

On Sept. 1, MacDonald and LeBlanc were proud to oversee the official launch of the jhr student chapter at MIJ, which saw 19 students campaigning keenly for nine executive positions. The chapter went on a field trip in October to raise awareness about jhr and fundraise.

“When I first started chapter, they said they really wanted to go out to the rural villages and report on the human rights issues there,” says MacDonald. “I feel that would be a huge accomplishment.”

Ghana
Jessica McDiarmid remembers spending some of her early days at the Daily Guide in Accra sitting in the newsroom for hours wondering, “What should I do now?”

McDiarmid had been forewarned by Jenny Vaughan, jhr’s Overseas Program Coordinator, about the slower pace of affairs in Ghana. Vaughan told McDiarmid that what took a day to get done in Canada would likely take a week in Ghana and she’s found that to be true, often waiting upwards of three hours for an interviewee to show up to a pre-arranged meeting. But things both in and out of the newsroom slowly got better.

“To me, my great coup was when my editor introduced me to a group of people as ‘Jessica McDiarmid, from jhr, which is, like, a human rights journalist thing,’” says McDiarmid.

jhr interns collaborate with local journalists to cover news stories.

Another coup for McDiarmid was when she traveled to the Volta region of Ghana in August with Daily Guide journalist Sylvanus Nana Kumi to report on a leprosarium where leprosy sufferers were allegedly left to starve. Sensing a story there, McDiarmid asked Kumi to go with her to Volta, in Ghana’s east, but he was reluctant to go because he was not used to covering human rights issues. Kumi told McDiarmid that he had no money for transportation, but unperturbed, McDiarmid went to the Daily Guide’s business manager and was given funds to make the trip to Volta. They packed themselves into a tro-tro, the ubiquitous minivans that are at the heart of Ghana’s transportation system, and made their way to the leper colony, spending several days tracking down and interviewing everyone from a priest to a doctor to several residents suffering from leprosy living in terrible conditions.

Once they got back to Accra, McDiarmid reminded Kumi that he had to present both sides of the story, so he had to go and find out the government’s take on what was occurring at the leper colony. It took six hours and nine officers to get a few minutes with a government authority, but Kumi got the quotes that he needed and wrote two feature-length articles on the leprosarium.

“She helped me feel comfortable about writing from a human rights angle,” says Kumi, who wasn’t accustomed to writing features or human rights articles for the tabloid style Daily Guide.

“I think jhr’s work is quite important here,” says Kumi. “It takes time but now I’m a convert.”

After Kumi’s success writing about the leprosarium, McDiarmid collaborated with the Daily Guide’s publisher to start a tradition of running a human rights feature in the paper every Saturday.

Leaving Africa
In less than a month Amy, Andrea, Antoinette, Heather, Jessica, Michelle, Philippa, Scott, Sarah-Jane and Shawn will finish their internships in Ghana and Malawi, all hoping to have reached their main objective – bolstering and supporting the dissemination of rights media in both countries.

“My main goal is the same leaving as it was coming here,” says LeBlanc. “I wanted to see students publish an article that was properly researched, well balanced, addressed human right issues and grabbed attention. Several students have already done this, so my goal has already been accomplished.”

As their time as rights media interns comes to an end, several of the interns have decided to prolong their stay in Africa. Philippa Croome, Michelle Dobrovolny, Shawn Hayward, Jessica McDiarmid, and Antoinette Sarpong are all extending their journey for at least a few more weeks.

In Ghana are McDiarmid, Sarah-Jane Steele, Shawn Hayward, Scott Gill and Antoinette Sarpong.
In Malawi are Michelle Dobrovolny, Amy LeBlanc, Heather MacDonald, Andrea Lynett and Philippa Croome. Information on the IYIP interns can be found at the Toronto Star’s Africa Files blog.

Media pushes for investigations against police in multiple shootings

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On April 21, 2006, four people were shot dead in a police chase to catch alleged robbers in another car. Apparently, the local police shot the victims of the crime rather than the perpetrators. One month later another boy was shot in front of his home by police in yet another pursuit to catch robbers. The boy was also said to be innocent and “just in the wrong place and the wrong time.”

Despite these cases, local police said that they would conduct their own investigations and would not allow independent inspections. After major media coverage, the Minister of the Interior finally established an investigative committee which included lawyers, former judges, retired policemen and other members of the community.

Because of jhr-trained journalists putting pressure on the local police, the family members and friends of each victim were rest assured that their cases were being treated with a neutral outlook.

Read the original editorial article below

Dansoman Shootings – Tragedy Upon Tragedy

By Sarah Meehan, with files from Kofi Owusu

The Ghana Police Service has asked us to regard their investigations into the Dansoman shootings as a test of their credibility. But with the firing of their guns, the police have blown open yet another gaping hole in the public’s confidence, myriad unanswered questions still ringing in the air. We’ve been repeatedly assured that the investigations will be thorough, that calls for an independent inquiry are futile, that the police have everything to lose and nothing to gain by concealing any potentially image-damaging facts relating to the tragedy that transpired in the pre-dawn hours of April 21st. We are urged to take them at their word while we are left with no tool by which to measure the truth of their findings. The mothers of the women shot dead – and the country that grieves with them – are asked to trust the very body that tore life so brutally from the innocent.

Joy FM office in Accra, Ghana

It is, of course, possible that the findings of the investigation will mirror the truth of what happened on April 21st. After all, the police are supposedly being watched not only by the media but also by a heavy political presence. The President has pledged his government’s support in discerning the facts, the out-going Minister of the Interior promising that “no one will be shielded” in the course of the inquiry. So let us suppose that the truth is indeed uncovered and justice is served – what then? What mechanisms will be set in place to ensure that this heartbreak is prevented from recurring?

It is almost as brutal a tragedy that no framework exists to see that the Ghana Police Service learns from its mistakes. The past five years have been peppered with incidents in which police abuse of power has led to citizen casualties – and nothing has changed. An independent inquiry into the Dansoman shootings would not only soften the cries of the outraged, it could also serve to delineate a list of recommendations that might lead to real – and desperately needed – change within the service. We really don’t need to wait for the results of the investigations to recognize that the police should not have shot and killed four people. Clearly, at the very least, the rules of engagement must be tightened, enforced, and not left up to the “discretion” of officers arriving at a scene. But until an objective, external body is created to examine these deplorable occurrences and compose guidelines that will change problematic police procedure, we can trust that our police service will remain accountable to no one but itself.

Boy receives assistance from Children’s Aid after losing his family’s donkey

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In July of 2007, a young boy, who lived two hours from Radio Justice in Tamale, was chased out of his family’s home because he lost the family’s donkey. When he tried to return home, his uncle refused him saying that he may only go back if he finds the lost donkey.

The boy decided to travel the two hours to Radio Justice in hopes of coverage and some assistance. After his story aired, Children’s Aid took the boy into their care and are providing him with education. Sam Mednick, a jhr-trainer also stated, “The story helped bring this issue to the forefront of the community, putting pressure on local police.”

The original article which aired at Justice FM is currently unavailable.

Click on link below to listen to an interview, which aired on the Canadian show The Good Life. The Good Life Show discusses the young boy’s story with Sam Mednick, jhr-trainer, and Ramadan Abdul Razak, Ghanaian journalist for Justice FM in Accra.

Reporting from Tamale on The Good Life Show

Man flees from life as a fetish priest in Ghana

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In July 2007, a Ghanaian Telecom manager was chosen to be a new fetish priest. These traditional leaders worship and serve gods within traditional shrines. Some shrines are known to commit human rights atrocities; in observing this, the Telecom manager rejected the position – as a violation of his Christian belief and human rights – and fled into hiding.

Benjamin Tetteh and jhr-trainer, Darrell Harvey aired this story on Joy FM. Many other stations picked up the story which caused the traditional leaders in Tema to call emergency meetings. The leaders criticized the man’s supportive family for allowing him to speak candidly to the media about his situation.

In turn, the man felt relieved that his story was made public because it encouraged discussion on freedom of choice. He also stated that “no one should have to choose between his career and his culture,” as he was being asked to do.

Listen to original interview by Benjamin Tetteh below

Man flees fetish priesthood

Interview by Benjamin Tetteh for Joy FM in Accra, Ghana

Gay rights activist spreads his message in Ghana

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A local journalist, through jhr training, prompted the first ever discussion on gay rights in Ghana on Joy’s Super Radio Show, a daily news program that reaches a quarter of Ghana’s population. The newscasts included interviews with a gay rights activist, human rights lawyer and an official from Ghana’s AIDS Commission, touching on topics such as gay marriage and health care restrictions. The controversial human rights discussion set-off a slew of emails, the debate spilling over into other media such as GhanaWeb and The Chronicle, generating public debate.

Read the original article below

Focus on Ghana’s Gay Population

By Evans Mensah and Colleen Ross, Joy FM, Accra, Ghana

This is an account of how a seemingly innocuous interview on a controversial human rights subject has the power to generate public debate.

Homosexuality is a hot-button issue in Ghana—so much so, it is rarely spoken of, much less debated. It would seem most Ghanaians prefer to think it doesn’t exist at all. So it was after some searching that Evans Mensah and Colleen Ross located a gay activist in Accra and sat down with him for an interview. It covered everything from what it was like to live as a gay man in a country where homosexuality is considered illegal…to how restricted gays feel getting access to health care. The activist says if you want to get treated at a clinic for a sexually-transmitted disease, you must bring in your partner as well. He says gay men are loath to bring in their male partner because of negative attitudes, so they don’t return for proper treatment, seeking it instead from less credible sources. He also mentioned that he was in love with his partner and they were intent on marrying (outside the country).

A 15-minute version of the interview was played on Joy’s Super Morning Show, an award-winning daily news program with approx. five million listeners (a quarter of Ghana’s population). A shorter version of the interview was then played on the midday news, which has an even greater listenership. It was accompanied by an interview with a human rights lawyer. For the evening news, Evans did a report including clips from the interview and the lawyer. It was followed by a substantial interview with an official from the Ghana AIDS Commission. Throughout the newscast, emails responding to the interviews poured in and were read out. Many spoke against the rights of gays to be together, let alone marry. Some, though, were in favour of granting them more open access to healthcare.

To continue the momentum, the next day, Evans went onto the streets to gauge people’s reaction to homosexuality in Ghana and filed a report. The day after, the host of the Super Morning Show interviewed both a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist. The debate on gays’ rights spilled over into other media such as GhanaWeb and The Chronicle. All this because of a little initiative to pursue an issue many find offensive, but nonethless necessary to debate. The issue of gay rights is, after all, a human rights issue.

Listen to original interviews below

These interviews ran back to back.

Part 1: Interview with gay rights activist

Part 2: Interview with human rights lawyer

A jhr-trained journalist is one of very few Ghanaian reporters to visit a witch camp

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In 2005, Ramana Shareef, a jhr-trained journalist at Metro TV, reported a story on the Gambaga Witches Camp in an attempt to personalize the elderly women that had all been banished from their villages. Because of the stigma that surrounds witchcraft in Ghana, many journalists refuse, in fear, to report on the topic. Shareef claims she was the first Ghanaian reporter to set foot in a “witch camp”.

Hawa Mahama, an 81-year-old woman who was exiled from her village after being accused of witchcraft, returned home two months after Shareef’s story was published. Because of Shareef’s story, Mahama was rescued by the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs and was given money to assist her in a reintegration program.

After Shareef’s second visit to the Gambaga Witch Camp, she stated, “In Ghana, we always explain things by saying ‘it’s tradition’ or ‘it’s our culture,’ but for these women, it’s not a matter of tradition or culture, it’s a matter of human rights.” Although it is seemingly safer for the women to live in the “witch camps” than in their own homes, their stories often went unnoticed by the local media. With the encouragement of jhr, Shareef helped to change that.

Read the original article below

Inside the Witch Camp

By Bonnie Allen and Ramana Shareef, Metro TV, Ghana

Ramana Shareef interviews a woman who was accused of using witchcraft in her home village

Hawa Mahama is old and weak. She has no one to help her and no where to seek comfort. The 81-year-old woman was banished from her village. That is the fate of many poor, elderly women in Ghana. They are accused of witchcraft, then ostracised, beaten, or even murdered.

“People abuse their mothers and their grandmothers. It’s the poor old women,” explains Ebenezer Adjetey-Sorsey, executive director of HelpAge Ghana, a non-governmental organisation in Accra that fights for the rights of the elderly.

A 13-hour drive north of Accra, in the village of Gumbaga, there is proof that elderly women, often widows, are vulnerable to human rights violations.

The so-called “Gumbaga Witchcamp” is one of four outcast homes in northern Ghana, and houses about 150 women. Hawa Mahama sought refuge here after being accused of killing and eating a child in her village. Other women were blamed for illnesses, accidents, crop failures, financial misfortunes, and even impotence.

The camp itself has been controversial, likened to a slave camp or prison for witches. But a 1997 investigation by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) concluded women are not subjected to any maltreatment, and in fact, the camp protects women from possible death in their village.

Adjetey-Sorsey considers the camp a “lesser evil” and says the real crime is committed by people in villages who take the law into their own hands.

“Yes, believe in witchcraft. That is fine. But people are using witchcraft to disinherit older women, or to abandon them so as to avoid supporting them.”

It is a constitutional right in Ghana for citizens to practice religion, and believe in witchcraft, but the constitution clearly stipulates such a right does not empower anyone to violate the rights of others.
And while the women at Gumbaga have escaped physical harm, they still suffer.

Sadness. Loneliness. Helplessness.

Rose gets her life back

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Rose with her students before the attack (video still)

Inspired by jhr training, a local journalist from TV and radio media outlet Skyy Power in Ghana produced a documentary about twenty-six year old Rose Amina Abdulai who had her right arm and the fingers on her left hand cut off by her boyfriend. As her story was profiled throughout Ghana, empathy for Rose’s plight resulted in local women’s organizations fundraising to pay for her prosthetics and recovery. Through popular national media Rose became a role model in helping other women in abused relationships across Ghana realize
their rights and seek support. Today Rose is once again teaching school children, no longer confined to life at home.

Read the original article below

Rose

by John Gaudi, with Kweku Temeng, Skyy TV, Takoradi, Ghana

Rose shows her hand (video still)

It is afternoon by the time we arrive. The sun blazes high above a sandy road that leads into the fishing village of Bonyere. Kweku and I had received a text message saying, “Hi – here’s the number” from a contact. But nothing was firmed up. We find Rose at her brother’s house. She is wearing a purple jacket. Her dark eyes are bold, determined. A cross dangles from her neck. She agrees to speak with us.

“Last year, the story of a young woman brutally attacked with a machete hit the media, bringing about a national outcry. The First Lady personally paid the victim, Rose Amina Abdulai, a visit at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital…” Kweku and I write these words. We’re making a television documentary about the aftermath of Rose’s ordeal.

“And like every twenty six year old, Rose was looking forward to a bright future,” Kweku narrates.

There was a lot for Rose’s parents to be proud of. She had just started teaching at a district school. In a school photo, Rose sits on a bench with her students at Tikobo Number One DC Primary. They are clad in brown uniforms and she’s very much looking the part: a teacher-in-charge. Her hands are clasped, resting calmly in her lap.

It started at about two o’clock, Rose recalls. She looks directly at the camera. Her brow furrows as she remembers.

It was June 2005. She was residing at the teacher’s quarters. There was a knock at the door to her room and she recognized the voice outside. It was her boyfriend Clement Antwi Arkah, whose baby she was carrying. “He posed me some questions” Rose says, “Why did I involve myself in loving somebody else?”

Arkah accused Rose of being in a relationship with Innocent Kobiri, a man doing his national service at the school. Rose said Innocent was simply teaching her computer skills.

“He held my shirt.”
Arkah had a machete. Rose tried to get away.
“He started butchering me.”
A female colleague rushed in. Rose, unconscious and bleeding profusely, was rushed to a hospital in Half Assini, and was later transferred to the regional hospital.

Kweku asks, “Can you point out the cuts that you had?” Rose takes her jacket off. She shows her left hand. Her fingers and thumb are missing. Her right arm ends in a stump at the elbow. She has scars above her eye, on her cheek and at the top of her head.

Kweku interviews Rose (video still)

Arkah attacked Rose. Then, he went after Innocent. Innocent did not survive.

Teachers and friends mobilized to help Rose. The First Lady, Theresa Kufuor, visited her in hospital. The Jomoro District Assembly set up an emergency fund. Rose moved back home to Bonyere. From now on, without the use of her limbs, she would need constant support. Her teaching career was over and she felt confined to the house. She had lost her baby. Rose’s father, Abdulai Mohammed, sputters, “I was entirely shocked.”

“Whenever I want to do something, and I can’t do it, I have to shed tears,” Rose confides. “I want my limbs to be fixed for me…for me to be in the teaching field again.”

Rose shows us how she makes do on her own. She struggles to open a Discman. A CD falls onto the floor. She bends over to pick it up, balancing it on what remains of her hand. “I want you to help me. But, I have to do it myself,” she says. “I’m doing all these things, but I’m not happy.” The footage speaks for itself.

The documentary is aired on AGOO, the morning show at Skyy Television. Kweku says that viewers who called in were deeply moved. Outrage. Tears. Calls for Arkah to face the death penalty. Rose is struggling for a good quality of life. “I want to see things bright and good for me,” she says. “I don’t want to be this way at all.”

Kweku and I had brought Rose’s story back into the public eye.

Dr. Sampson Peprah, Rose’s doctor, felt she could get back into the classroom with help.

Today, Rose is teaching at a school in Jomoro District. She’s been fitted with prosthetics, thanks to the support of womens’ organizations. She is no longer confined to life at home. Rose tells Kweku it’s as if her life has been given back to her.

A Sekondi High Court found Clement Antwi Arkah guilty.

He was sentenced to death.

*Kweku Temeng, a journalist at Skyy Television, Takoradi, Ghana
*John Gaudi, JHR trainer (2006)