Summer 2017 brought two amazing interns Leah Singleton and Taegan Dennis both of whom are undergraduate students at the Florida State University (FSU). They served as project coordinators for Patriots Ghana’s Child labor and trafficking prevention project in three fishing communities in the Central region of Ghana (Senya, Fetteh, and Nyanyano).

As part of their internship with Patriots Ghana, they conducted a study into the Implications of Family Planning on Child Labor. They presented their research at the National Collegiate Research Conference (NCRC) which was held on January 18^th-20^th at Harvard University. The NCRC aims to build an interdisciplinary research community among undergraduate students and promote undergraduate research. Their project explored how stakeholders in Senya-Beraku understand the role of family planning in reducing poverty and child labor within their community. Patriots Ghana offered community volunteers who acted as translators in the target community, Senya-Beraku, Ghana.

Background of Senya

Senya Breku is one of one of the villages located in Awutu-Senya in the Central Region of Ghana. Like most of the coastal communities, Senya too is based primarily on fish and fishing. Senya, in particular, relies almost entirely on fishing. As a result, they have to find other ways to make money but none are available. Families are forced to send their children to work at the shore untangling nets, selling fish and working on the boats. The men fish while the women sell the catch in the markets in Kasoa or Accra.

Methodology

Recruited local elites from the Senya Beraku fishing community through snowball sampling and conducted 22 mid-length interviews (30-45 minutes). The interviewees include religious leaders, the stool elder of Senya, an assemblyman, local health workers, our National Coordinator and staff of our partner organization, Cheerful Hearts Foundation. Transcribed and inductively coded the language used by interviewees to describe family planning and child labor as well as relevant background information. Compared Codes between demographic factors such as gender and community role. SAS Software was used to portray the descriptive statistics and analyzed differences.

Findings

75% of respondents believe contraception is highly accessible in Senya-Beraku

• 64% of respondents mentioned stigma against contraception
• 90% of respondents mentioned potential side effects as a barrier to contraception use
• 30% of respondents mentioned fear of infidelity as limiting contraception use
• Mean number of children for interview respondents was 2.68 children, compared to mean ideal number of children as being 3.3
• 85% respondents cited considering finances when deciding if children will work or go to school
• 81% of respondents identified a relationship between large family and prevalence of child labor

Significance

Theoretical

• Clearer understanding of barriers towards contraception use: while contraception is considered to be widely available, social factors impair community willingness to publicly purchase contraceptives or discuss family planning.

Practical

• Need for economic development: respondents’ emphasis on finances’ influence in family decisions implies a greater problem of economic hardship
• Need for increased outreach resources: 87% of respondents cited education as a potential community solution.

Their study has provided Patriots Ghana an insight into some of the root causes of child labor and trafficking in the Senya-Bereku community in relation to gender roles and perspectives, religion, economic and social structures that need to be considered in addressing the problem.

Aside from working on their research study, they played key roles in various activities on the project. They assisted in coordinating community meetings and child rights advocacy & awareness campaigns in schools, one-on-one tutoring for rescued child laborers, and assisted in organizing the 2017 Worlds Day Against Child labor.

Recognizing the need for women empowerment in the three fishing communities, Leah and Taegan collaborate with Patriots Ghana, fundraising to expand our Women Entrepreneurial and Leadership Development (WELD) – A project that trains 72 girls per year (24 each quarter) in entrepreneurship and leadership. –https://www.omprakash.org/global/patriots-ghana/crowdfund/women-entrepreneurial-and-leadership-development–weld-

We are proud of our interns and impressed with their exceptional dedication to their research and rural community development.

Citations

(1) Ghana Statistical Service. Ghana Living Standards Survey Round 6 (GLSS 6): Child Labor Report. 2013. ix.http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/glss6/GLSS6_Child%20Labour%20Report.pdf

(2) Laird, Siobhan. “The 1998 Children’s Act: Problems of Enforcement in Ghana.” The British Journal of SocialWork 32, no. 7 (2002): 893-905. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2371656.

(3) Thakurata, Indrajit & Errol D’Souza. “Child Labour and Human Capital in Developing Countries—A multi-period stochastic model.” Economic Modeling (2007) EBSCO. DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2017.09.006

(4) Singleton, Leah & Dennis, Taegan. “Implications of Family Planning on Child Labor: A Ghanaian Case Study”. NCRC Poster. 2018.

(5) Dennis, Taegan. Omprakash Blog: Contrasting Voices on Family Planning.2017. https://www.omprakash.org/blog/contrasting-voices-on-family-planning

Photos Credits: Singleton, Leah & Dennis, Taegan.

Source:Emmanuel Yamoah (National Projects Manager).

In line with celebrating Founders Day and the National Volunteers Day, Patriots Ghana organized the Patriots Youth Leadership Seminar, the first of its kind. The theme of the seminar was, Empowering the Next Generation of Patriotic Leaders. The event held at the Cheerful Hearts Foundation Youth Development Centre (FieldHouse) was participated by One hundred and twenty seven students from the Nyanyano fishing community.The seminar began with the National Projects Manager of Patriots Ghana, Mr. Emmanuel Yamoah welcoming the students, explaining the purpose of the gathering and beginning a discussion around the question; “Do you love Ghana?”

He enlightened the young participants about how as young people they have varying talents and abilities and as such made them very powerful. He also briefly spoke to them about Ghana’s history and founding fathers and the importance of patriotism for national development. He further explained to the youth, the objectives of the sessions they were about to engage in and how they can clean-up them.

The first session was led by Zainabu Mamley Adams, the founder of our University of Ghana campus chapter. She discussed with the participants the importance of personal development as young people. She spoke to them about constantly trying to grow in every aspect of your life. She further enlightened them about building their self-esteem and confidence as it would be vital playing a leadership role in Ghana’s development. She said branding yourself affects how people address or treat you. The students then discussed improving their identity, potential, and talents for enhancing their employability and standard of living. The final part of her session focused on helping the young people develop personal strategies that they can use , .

The next session was facilitated by Mr. Bright Fiatsi, an accountant and the co-founder of the Cheerful Hearts Foundation. His session was identifying your competencies for community development. He began his session by helping the participants to understand what was meant by competences and community development. He explained different abilities learned from experiences in school, at home or our communities’ exceptionally guided or equipped young people to do things well.

He stressed the importance of a unified body of community members bringing together their varying competencies to develop their community. He emphasized various ways young people can start various initiative starting from their homes and neighborhoods geared towards community development. He discussed with them the importance of not waiting for the government to take action on issues that affect them but have a mindset of love for their community and as such take the right steps to contribute to its development. He told them to always stand for what is right and get together with other like-minded young people to help develop Ghana starting from where they are and doing anything regardless of how small it may seem.

The final session was led by Mr. Freeman Ahegbebu, Community Solutions Program Alumni, and YALI alumni. This session was a group discussion and activities. The participants were grouped into five groups and they led their fellow students to discuss the following the topics:

• What is less desirable about the current Ghana?

• What do you want the future of Ghana to be like?
• What can you do as a young person to help develop Ghana?

Other discussions were on;

• Patronizing made in Ghana goods and services
• Duties of a patriotic leader.

Mr. Freeman afterward led the students to gain an in-depth understanding of the various topics discussed.

After the event, the students were given snacks and spent some time engaging with the facilitators and the patriots Ghana team. The seminar is one many strategic initiatives of Patriots Ghana under the Youth Empowerment Project of the organization. In the past, Patriots Ghana through its campus chapters and national body has organized various event on National Volunteers Day. Volunteers have embarked on clean up exercises, donations to orphanages and clinics, reading clinics, educational talks and outreaches, etc.

Patriots Ghana as a registered non-profit non-governmental organization is committed to the mission of uniting all passionate and patriotic Ghanaian citizens and organizations, and empowering them to undertake meaningful projects in areas of: Health, Education, Human Rights, Research and Advocacy and Economic development, in order to improve the lives of the less privileged Ghanaian citizens and deprived communities.

Source: Emmanuel Yamoah

National Projects Manager.

Are you interested in investing in women empowerment with $15 or more?

Patriots Ghana in collaboration with Cheerful Hearts Foundation is fundraising to expand our successful girl’s skills training program to the Senya fishing community.

In 2014, Patriots in collaboration with the Cheerful Hearts Foundation launched a pilot women empowerment project in the fishing village of Nyanyano. This project, known as the fieldhouse project, consisted of building a small facility from which to launch girls vocational training. This project was a great success: the first class of 26 girls graduated proudly in bead making, sewing, creative art and Decoration with a breadth of life-changing entrepreneurial, leadership, and vocational knowledge. Now, Patriots is ready to expand this initiative into the Senya-Beraku fishing community. Similar to the conditions in Nyanyano, child labor is rampant in Senya-Beraku; unlike Nyanyano, child trafficking is also prevalent in Senya-Beraku. The expansion into Senya-Beraku is necessary and will equip girls with tools to provide for themselves financially through business as an alternative of child labor or trafficking.

Please, would you consider to donate and share with 3 friends today? Any little donation counts! Many thanks!

Click here to read more details on the donation page.

For the last Face to Face for the month,the #WeParticipate campaign was hosted at three schools in the Awutu Senya East District on Friday, 30th September. The schools were Atlantic Wesleyan College, Datus SHS and Africana SHS.

Similar to the other campaigns, the Campaign Ambassadors educated the students on the importance of voting and also standing for peace before during and after the elections in December. The introduction was done by Emmanuel Yamoah, to explain the purpose of the visit and introduce the project to the school. Afterwards, Oppong Nyantakyi engaged the students in an interactive session on the importance of voting. A good number of the students admitted that they would not be voting come December 7th due to various reasons. Some of reasons were the stressful nature of the electoral process, proximity of polling centres, indifference on the political party to vote for, among others.

At Atlantic Wesleyan College there were students from other African countries such as Liberia, Togo, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. They also shared their views on electoral processes in their countries. At Africana SHS, Emmanuel Yamoah and Sylvester Adjapong facilitated a role playing scenario with the students as initiated by Mamley Adams last week. Students voted for a leader of the class and the leader took an immediate decision for all to stand during the session. Staff, CA’s and the all the students obeyed the decision

Some of the students did not vote, others voted just because the candidates were their friends, and others wanted to vote twice. The ambassadors used the scenario to explain to the students how it’s important for every eligible voter to vote as decisions of the elected leader affects all. Ambassadors also illustrated the importance of voting for candidates that are capable and obeying electoral rules. Raymond Taku afterwards spoke to the students about the importance of peace and ensuring that every Ghanaian enjoys the peace in the country and tolerate each other.

Two students volunteered to be ambassadors at Datus SHS, and two at Atlantic Wesleyan College. In all  27 students were reached at Atlantic Wesleyan College, 17 at Datus SHS and 12 students at SHS . Therefore, in total, we reached 56 youths this week. All the student ambassadors were also presented with a lacoste and introduced to their roles.

Ambassadors Present

1. Victor Adjei Mframah (YALI RLC Alumni and CEO CATE GHANA)
2. Juliet Adobea Awotwi (YALI RLC Alumni and Non-formal Education Coordinator, GES)
3. Adams Mamley Zainabu (Social Worker and Assist. Project manager of Cheerful Hearts Foundation)
4. Yaa Yeboaa Adu (Social Worker and Public Health Coordinator, Cheerful Hearts Foundation)
5. Raymond Taaku Ebaamombu (Student and Patriots Ghana UG Alumni)
6. Henrietta Frimpomaa Asafo-Adjei(Student and Patriots Ghana UG Alumni)
7. Emmanuel Yamoah (Social Entrepreneur and CEO, Africa Online Volunteering Service)
8. Bright Fiatsi (Social Worker and Co-Founder, Cheerful Hearts Foundation)
9. Douglas Opoku Agyeman (Patriots Ghana Alumni and Graduate student UG)
10. Sylvester Adjapong (YALI RLC Alumni and GIS Specialist)
11. Vivian Amissah (Patriots Ghana Alumni and Social Worker)
12. Oppong Nyantakyi (Patriots Ghana Alumni and Volunteer Coordinator, Cheerful Hearts Foundation)

Wherever you are, join the #WeParticipate campaign! Pledge to Vote! Pledge for Peace! Take a minute to sign the petition here: www.patriotsghana.org/petitionpledge/

Last Friday, 23rd September the second face-to-face was held at Pank SHS and Andam SHS. The staff and students were eager to hear from the Campaign Ambassadors at both schools. At Pank the introduction was done by Bright Fiatsi, to explain the purpose of the visit and introduce the project to the school. This was followed by a discussion led by Emmanuel Yamoah on the purpose of voting. He highlighted that it was the responsibility of every eligible voter to vote as that shows your love for Ghana and desire to see Ghana develop. He also enlightened them on some electoral offenses such as impersonation, bribery, treating or undue influence related to vote buying sections 32, 33, 34 or 35 of the law (PNDC 284).

Emmanuel introduced the students to Douglas, who talked on having a peaceful election. Douglas made mention of some key words such as tolerance, resistance, and letting go of offences done to us, as this will help in ensuring progressive peace building. He encouraged the students to be generational thinkers- that is to say that, they should have a picture of the future and not only consider the present but also look ahead. He made mention of these as a way in ensuring peace in the upcoming election. Bright Fiasti concluded by saying, “God will do His part but we also have a part to play”.

At Andam, Mamley Adams used an interactive role playing scenario, where by students had to vote for leaders of the class and the leaders had to make immediate decisions about the class. Some of the students did not vote, others voted just because the candidates were their friends, and others wanted to vote twice. She used the scenario to explain to the students how it’s important for every eligible voter to vote as decisions taken by the elected leader affect all. She also illustrated the importance of voting for candidates that are capable and obeying electoral rules. Raymond Taku afterwards spoke to the students about the importance of peace and ensuring that every Ghanaian enjoys the peace in the country and tolerate each other.

Four students volunteered to be ambassadors at Pank SHS and two at Andam SHS.  All the student ambassadors were also presented with a lacoste and introduced to their roles.

Ambassadors Present

1. Tawiah Evans (YALI RLC Alumni & Convener for Coalition for Ghana’s Independence Now)
2. Victor Adjei Mframah (YALI RLC Alumni and CEO CATE GHANA)
3. Juliet Adobea Awotwi (YALI RLC Alumni and Non-formal Education Coordinator, GES)
4. Adams Mamley Zainabu (Social Worker and Assist. Project manager of Cheerful Hearts Foundation)
5. Yaa Yeboaa Adu (Social Worker and Public Health Coordinator, Cheerful Hearts Foundation)
6. Raymond Taaku Ebaamombu (Student and Patriots Ghana UG Alumni)
7. Henrietta Frimpomaa Asafo-Adjei (Student and Patriots Ghana UG Alumni)
8. Emmanuel Yamoah (Social Entrepreneur and CEO, Africa Online Volunteering Service)
9. Zakiyu Iddris (Zongo youth activist, YALI RLC Alumni and CEO ZIT Media)
10. Bright Fiatsi (Social Worker and Co-Founder, Cheerful Hearts Foundation)
11. Douglas Opoku Agyeman (Patriots Ghana Alumni and Graduate student UG)
12. Sylvester Adjapong (YALI RLC Alumni and GIS Specialist)

Wherever you are, join the #WeParticipate campaign! Pledge to Vote! Pledge for Peace! Take a minute to sign the petition here: www.patriotsghana.org/petitionpledge/

Its official! The #WeParticipate project was launched yesterday, at the American Corner, Leciad, University of Ghana, by the project leader, Eric Opoku Agyemang and  the 20 campaign ambassadors. Special guests present were representatives from Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) RLC and National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), the Awutu Senya West District Director (NCCE), the National Deputy Director of programs of the NCCE, Gladys M Osman, and Daniel Fennel, Counsellor, Head of Public Affairs, United States Embassy Ghana.

Eric Opoku Agyemang, introduced the project to all present, detailing the objective of the project which is to promote a peaceful election and increase voter turnout especially among the youth. He also talked about the target areas (Awutu Senya East and West District), and the methodology of the project , which would be carried out by the campaign ambassadors.

Gladys M Osman, enlightened all present about the mandate of the NCCE as cited in the constitution and explained various key and sensitive aspects of the electoral process in Ghana. She talked about voting being a civic right and responsibility and cautioned all about the implications of not participating in the process. She also asked the campaign ambassadors to be vigilant in identifying politicians that seek to  buy their vote, thus conscience of citizens. She stressed that it was an offense and if citizens have the right evidence can sue such culprits and also informed all that the doors of the NCCE are always open to the general public.

Daniel Fennell, also talked about the young African leaders making impact in various communities. Using practical examples and making reference to the impact made through the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), he entreated all to make a difference regardless of how small it may seem. He also entreated the campaign ambassadors to take initiative, be patriotic and have a strong desire to make a difference.In the end Daniel Fennel, Head of Public Affairs, United States Embassy Ghana did the honors of officially launching the We Participate project.

The 20 campaign ambassadors in the next two months would be going to at least 10 senior high schools and 4 tertiary institutions to educate youth of voting age. The project has a target of reaching  an estimated direct population reach of 4000 youth. The 4000 direct reach would be sensitized to serve as peace agents to further reach at least 5 youth within their social networks, especially outside of school. Therefore, there is an estimated indirect reach of over 20,000 youth through our school outreach program.

The project has also setup a Social Media Campaign, #WeParticipate which is targeting students studying in districts in other parts of the country not reached through the face-to-face campaigns in the schools. The social media campaign is reaching 35,000 total youth within the Awutu Senya East and West Districts and the neighboring communities.

Wherever you are, join the #WeParticipate campaign! Pledge to Vote! Pledge for Peace! Take a minute to sign the petition here: www.patriotsghana.org/petitionpledge/