By Ethel Mensah
(ethelmensah2015@gmail.com)
Madam Otiko Afisa Djabah, National Women’s Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in collaboration with the Managing Director of Oman FM, Stella Agyapong, have donated assorted food items, toiletries and clothing for both sexes to the women’s wing of the party in Accra.
The items were eight bags of perfumed rice, 32 cans tinned tomatoes, one box of Mackerel and six boxes of cooking oil. The rest were 10 boxes of soap, 10 boxes of hand sanitiser, two bags of men’s clothing, 12 bags of ladies clothes, and two bales of mosquito net.
The donation forms part of a town hall meeting by the NPP women wings to commemorate this year’s International Women Day celebration, and to discuss the state of women in Ghana and how to improve on their status.
According to the Women Organiser, the donation is to put a smile on the face of the vulnerable in the society. Among the women wings were the disabled, widows, Kayayeis (female head porters), human right activists and many others.
Issues raised during the meeting were how to put an end to all forms of discrimination against all women and girls in society, and also eliminate all forms of violence against girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking, sexual and other types of exploitation.
Again, they also touched on how to put an end to harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriages, and female genital mutilation. Madam Otiko, in an interview with this paper, revealed that the celebration is the time to reflect on progress made, call for a change, and celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of the country.
She lamented over how women die due to lack of access to free maternal healthcare, saying “Most Ghanaian women who are to work and move the country forward, are rather dying in labour, because they do not have access to free maternal healthcare delivery, and malfunctioning of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), which should be the fundamental right of every woman in Ghana.
“For all the women who are dying in labour, we must ensure that we bring back the free maternal healthcare and the NHIS in full force,” adding, “that is not about numbers, but rather access to quality healthcare delivery, so that the women and her children will have safe healthcare delivery to be productive to Mother Ghana, and increase growth,” she noted
She called on Ghanaian women to rise up for change, adding that the state of Ghanaian women is not the best, though we have come far, is not enough. She, however, congratulated former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, Yaa Asantewaa, Hawa Yakubu, Theresa Tagoe, Susana Alhassan, and all women across the divide, for the great works they did in raising the pride in women.
Madam Afisa Djabah lamented over how some women misuse their positions when they find themselves in a better position: “If God gives you the opportunity of leadership as a woman, you must understand that you are not there for yourself, but rather there for those marginalised women who cannot come and talk themselves, but you talking for them, and you must be above reproach …”
She reiterated: “Women must be above reproach, be trail blazers, and thus work hard; a woman in leadership must work hard ten times as hard as the man, because our world accepts men in leadership not women, so for us to succeed and bring other women along, we must be more disciplined.
“We must raise the flag, and must determine the difference between Ghana becoming a middle income state and being HIPC middle income state, because that is our position currently. “We must fight our own fight for Mother Ghana,” she advised.
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