Tag: AWDF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is the pleasure of African Women’s Development Fund to announce that they are now accepting proposals for grants concerning HIV/AIDS. Below is a link to the proposal document which applicants may download.

Please remember to fill in the Guidelines AS WELL AS the Financial Management Assessment Document, both downloadable from here:

CALL FOR PROPOSAL – HRR & ACS Thematic Areas

Grant Application Guidelines

Financial Management Assessment Guidelines AWDF

Applicants can also send a request to AWDF at grants@africlub.net/awdf titled “HRR AND ACS Call for Proposals” to be emailed the guideline documents, if for any reason, they are unable to download it from the website.

It is the pleasure of African Women’s Development Fund to announce that they are now accepting proposals for grants concerning HIV/AIDS. Below is a link to the proposal document which applicants may download.

Please remember to fill in the Guidelines AS WELL AS the Financial Management Assessment Document, both downloadable from here:

CALL FOR PROPOSALS – HIV&AIDS Thematic Area

Grant Application Guidelines

Financial Management Assessment Guidelines AWDF Grant Applications 2012

Applicants can also send a request to AWDF at grants@africlub.net/awdf titled “HIV/AIDS Grants” to be emailed the guideline documents, if for any reason, they are unable to download it from the website.

In April this year, Mawusi Nudekor Awity, Founder and Executive Director of AWDF Grantee Network for Women in Growth (NEWIG) won a scholarship to pursue a short course in Canada. She visited us at AWDF House, here in Accra to share the good news and spend a few moments with us before starting her trip. Here, we share the warm conversation with you:

 

Golda Addo (AWDF Communications Associate): Mawusi, could you please give us a brief history of your relationship with AWDF?

Mawusi Awity (Founder): Yes. NEWIG has been in partnership with AWDF since 2005. It was our first grant from an international donor to organise a 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence activity. The grant was $1,000. The program was very successful and we were very grateful because before then, since 2002, we had never received any external funding. The next year, 2006, we were supported with $5,000 to run entrepreneurial training for young unemployed university graduates. From then, the support has been continual. To date, we have received grants four times, with the recent being a $20,000 to organise an “Integrated Services to Improve Maternal Health Care” Project.

G.A.: Tell us about yourself.

M.A.: I am a mother of three and the wife of a very supportive Army Officer. I always refer to him as such because he spends much of his time and resources on my NGO. He says that is where my passion is, and all he can do is to throw his weight behind. God bless him.

Anyway, I am a Women’s Rights Activist, Micro & Small Business Development Expert working for women, with a Theatre Arts background (Master of Fine Arts Degree). To develop this new career, I did courses in Advanced Entrepreneurship and Human Resource Management at University of Ghana School of Business. Other courses include Gender Analysis and Community Work Practice, Leadership Capacity Building, NGOs Management and many others. Passion for rural women drove me into social work, which is very challenging because I travel a lot throughout the country, especially to remote parts to execute my work. I work as a full time volunteer for NEWIG. Any money I make personally, I plough back into the coffers of the organization.

G.A.: Tell us about NEWIG.

M.A.: NEWIG was founded on 8^th January 2002 as a skills development and gender employment non government, non-profit organisation with the objective of contributing its quota to fighting economic, social and political poverty among Ghanaian women. It does so by creating the needed platform for them to have access to vocations (economic empowerment), good health and sustainable life style as well as political leverage in society. The NGO has trained over five thousand women both young and old, nation-wide and formed three vibrant women’s groups with the fourth one just being formed. Our areas of operation are entrepreneurial trainings, gender trainings and political trainings in addition to health-related programmes.

G.A.: Do you feel a relationship exists with AWDF on both the organizational and personal level, or is it mostly one? And if so, which of the two is it?

M.A.: The relationship that exists with AWDF on both organisational and personal level is like a “Mother and Child” relationship. NEWIG is like a child of AWDF. AWDF is our second main source of financial support. The success of NEWIG can never be mentioned without highlighting the role AWDF has played in our very existence. When nobody came to our aid to help push us into the space we are now occupying, AWDF did. On a personal level, I am like staff. I go there and I feel so comfortable. Any help I need from them comes stress-free; from the CEO to the security personnel. I have learnt a lot from our relationship which I also practice at my work place.

G.A.: How has AWDF’s funding helped you?

M.A.: AWDF funding has helped NEWIG to continue to be a good and reliable player in the “Support for the Poor” Team. AWDF funding helps us achieve our goals, reaching out to many women to help them establish their own business, which is so fulfilling for us.

G.A.: We heard that you recently won a scholarship to study outside Ghana. Could you share the details of this achievement with us? Also, share with us your plans after this scholarship, and how the course fits into your immediate, short and long-term plans for NEWIG?

M.A.: Through the initiative of Canadian Crossroads International, I had a scholarship from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to pursue a two weeks’ certificate course in Livelihoods and Markets at Coady International Institute, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia in Canada. The course is to put me in a better and clearer picture of how to conduct sub-sector and value chain analysis in the shea butter industry. Being a producer and trainer for the rural women in shea butter products, I would become knowledgeable in how to apply the tools to address key constraints for the rural shea butter producers (who are mainly women) as well as NEWIG, since we are also into production. The constraints I would work on are market access as well as product development to suit the international buyers. In addition to the scholarship, I was among a group of women who received an international honorary award “Leading Women Innovators Award” from Global Women Innovators and Inventors Network, an organisation with its headquarters in United Kingdom.

G.A.: Congratulations, Mawusi! Now, what is it like, being active in the political arena of Ghana, not just as a politician of your status, but also as a female?

M.A.: It is not that easy. I see the political arena as a whole jungle and it is like survival of the fittest. There is no mercy and you must play the game like “them”. If “they” hop, you hop, or even more than “them”. They will not give you the space, so you create a big one and operate in there with all the linkages. I am actually referring to our male counterparts. But I am quite fortunate; my husband has been my backbone. His support is enormous. He was there for me when I contested in the 2008 parliamentary primaries in South Tongu District, which I lost. I was later nominated a Member of NPP Presidential National Campaign Team in 2008 and then again as a Member of The 7-member NPP National Organisation Committee in 2010 to serve a four year term.

G.A.: Have you always had political interests, and did any institution, person, or event in particular prompt the last few steps into active politics?

M.A.: That is an interesting question. I never had any political interest. My last few steps into active politics was as a result of my association with the late Hawa Yakubu, a strong big feminist giant in the political space. We met in 2003. She liked me so much, and would often ask me to represent her at several functions. She said I had the drive and energy for active politics. Eventually I got convinced when in 2008 some of Constituency Executives and Elders of the South Tongu NPP persuaded me to contest as a parliamentary candidate. That was how my journey started and it’s been moving fast. Unfortunately, my mentor died before I got into active politics. To keep her memories alive, the Vocational Skills Training Shed at our Women Empowerment Centre bears the name “HAWA EMPOWERMENT SHED”. May HER SOUL REST IN PERFECT PEACE.

G.A.: Any extra message you’d like to share with us or our readers and partners?

M.A.: It is good to reach out to the reach-less. There is nothing more fulfilling than that. Strive hard to go an extra mile and the joy that comes with it is immeasurable. Let us all put our strength and resources together to support the poor to stand on their own to make the world a better place to live. To AWDF partners, God bless you for your good work. Continue it in that direction so women, irrespective of their stand in society, can all walk out with their chests out.

END

To Mawusi Awity and NEWIG, we wish all the very best, and look forward to more years of this warm, wonderful relationship. We are proud of you.

June 2012.

It is our pleasure to announce that African Women’s Development Fund is now accepting proposals for grants towards the commemoration of World AIDS Day 2012.

Please remember to fill in the Guidelines AS WELL AS the Financial Management Assessment Document, both downloadable from here:

Call for Proposals for 2012 World AIDS Day

Financial Management Assessment Guidelines AWDF Grant Applications 2012

The first eligible 20 applications to be received will win grants.

Applicants can also send a request to AWDF at grants@africlub.net/awdf titled “Guidelines for World AIDS Day” to be emailed the guideline documents, if for any reason, they are unable to download it from the website.

It is our pleasure to announce that African Women’s Development Fund is now accepting proposals for grants towards the commemoration of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence 2012.

Please remember to fill in the Guidelines AS WELL AS the Financial Management Assessment Document, both downloadable from here:

Call for Proposals for 2012 16 days of Activism Against Gender Violence

Financial Management Assessment Guidelines AWDF Grant Applications 2012

The first eligible 20 applications to be received will win grants.

Applicants can also send a request to AWDF at grants@africlub.net/awdf titled “Guidelines for 16 Days” to be emailed the guideline documents, if for any reason, they are unable to download it from the website.

In recent months, AWDF has noticed with deep concern, a rise in the frequency of violence-related deaths and injuries, and domestic violence cases being reported by the various Ghanaian mediahouses. Not only does it seem that violence has increased, it also seems that it comes in a wider variety of instances, some increasingly brutal and others startlingly fatal.

 

In reaction to this, three of our staff put together this personal blog piece on a call to action against violence against women very recently. Barely two weeks after, the Ghanaian celebrity representative to the popular South Africa-based Big Brother Africa, a very visible and internationally broadcasted reality show, slapped a fellow female housemate in a shocking act of violence which had them both expelled from the show, and left the entire continent debating. Our Communications Officer, Nana Sekyiamah issued an emphatic disapproval of this action of violence by a male against a female, and this was captured on leading radio stations and by Big Brother’s website.

 

These events have prompted us on the need to always ensure the availability of educative and preventive materials for victims and potential victims as well as perpetrators, on Domestic Violence and Violence Against Women. Hence, this resource paper on what defines Domestic Violence and places to go to for safety, counselling, protection and violence-related support in several countries all over the continent of Africa.

 

Violence rates are rising everywhere, for a variety of reasons, and as Mr. Freeman Tettey, DOVVSU (Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit) Public Relations Officer said in an interview with The Times newspaper in Accra in March this year, there were 15, 495 reported cases of violence against women last year in Ghana, and 2,474 cases of woman-to-man violence cases in the same period. It is about time we increase public awareness and education of this negative situation in our societies.

For the Resource Paper on Violence Against Women (What to do, Where to go), please click the link below:

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

END

 

About the African Women’s Development Fund

Over the past ten years, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has blazed a trail for women’s rights and philanthropy across the African continent. AWDF is an African, not for profit, grantmaking organisation. Since the start of operations in 2001, AWDF has provided US$19 million in grants to 800 women’s organisations in 42 African countries.

AWDF’s grant making processes are uniquely designed to meet the needs of African women and activities include the provision of small and larger grants to African women’s organisations, capacity building support and a strong focus on advocacy and movement building.

 

[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]In May this year, one of our longterm grantee organisations – PWN – was awarded the position of Civil Society Partner for AIDS 2014 and 2016 by the International Aids Society. From 2004 till date, with a grant amounts totalling US$230,000, AWDF has worked with PWN to improve the lives and rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, and we have seen how much of a difference she has made in their lives. We send hearty congratulations to Prudence Mabele and her team at PWN!

 

ANNOUNCEMENT

New Civil Society Partner for AIDS 2014 and AIDS 2016

– Positive Women’s Network, South Africa –

On behalf of the International AIDS Conference permanent partners, the International AIDS

Society (IAS) would like to welcome Positive Women’s Network, South Africa to be the new civil

society partner for AIDS 2014 and AIDS 2016. The Positive Women’s Network will replace the

existing partner, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC), who has held the

position for AIDS 2010 and AIDS 2012. Other civil society partners for AIDS 2014 are the Global

Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), International Community of Women living with

HIV/AIDS (ICW), the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) and

Sidaction.

 

Positive Women’s Network, South Africa, established in 1996, is a non-government organization

committed to create an environment in which people living with HIV/AIDS are free from

stigmatization and discrimination because of their HIV status. The network recognizes that

people living with and/or affected by HIV/AIDS should share the lead and the responsibility in

responding to the pandemic, while encouraging the society to create the space for them to play

this crucial role. The organization works to set up and manage care and support programmes,

harness and build resources, build capacity, support and monitor developmental initiatives to

improve the quality of life of women and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS throughout

Africa. The network won a Red Ribbon Award in Vienna (AIDS 2010) for its work. The

organization has nominated Ms. Prudence Mabele to represent them on the Conference

Coordinating Committees (CCCs). Ms. Mabele is the founder of the network in South Africa and

is a founding member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), as well as the National

Association of People Living with HIV and AIDS of South Africa (NAPWA) and the South African

National AIDS Council. She has been living positively with HIV for 22 years and has been a

prominent South African activist and an expert in the field of HIV and AIDS since 1992.

 

Positive Women’s Network, South Africa will fill a rotating seat on the CCCs which is occupied

by a civil society organization based in a resource-limited country that is working in several

countries or on a whole continent with HIV and AIDS as a major activity.

 

The call for interested organizations was distributed widely with eleven applications received.

The selection committee, made up of representatives of all the international permanent partners

of the International AIDS Conference, gave consideration to the regional, issue-based, and

constituency representation within the civil society members of the CCC. The set of criteria

included consideration of the organization’s proven commitment to:

• the Greater and Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA/MIPA);
• the full realization of human rights, including those related to the most marginalized
• populations and PLHIV, in particular to the principle of non-discrimination;
• gender equity, the empowerment of women and the protection and promotion of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, including their sexual and reproductive rights;
• evidence-based policies, programmes and interventions that support good practices

and are not contrary to scientific evidence of effective HIV/AIDS interventions; including those that are based on cultural/religious beliefs and/or violate basic human rights principles.

The committee also considered the number of years’ experience working on HIV/AIDS issues,

the organization’s commitment to encourage and support enhanced community participation in

the conference, particularly of those representing and/or working with the most marginalized

and vulnerable and the organization’s ability and commitment to represent and promote the

International AIDS Conference publicly.

 

The partners would like to heartily thank Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) for

their work and commitment during their representation on the conference organizing structures.

Contact details

Positive Women’s Network, South Africa

Heerengcht Building

87 De Korte Street, 3rd floor 305

Braamfontein, 2017

South Africa

pmabele@pwn.org.za

+ 27 11 339 7679 or +27 78 383 9529[/tp]

[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”fr”]En mai de cette année, l’un de nos organismes bénéficiaires à long terme – – PWN a reçu le poste d’associé de la société civile pour le sida entre 2014 et 2016 par la Société internationale sur le sida. De 2004 à ce jour, avec un montant des subventions totalisant $ 230,000, AWDF a travaillé avec PWN à améliorer la vie et les droits des personnes vivant avec le VIH / sida, et nous avons vu comment beaucoup de différences ont été faites dans leur vie. Nous envoyons nos félicitations aux Prudence Mabele et son équipe de PWN!

 

ANNONCE

Partenaire Nouvelle Société Civile pour le SIDA 2014 et le sida 2016

Positive Women’s Network, Afrique du Sud – –

Au nom des partenaires permanents de la Conférence internationale sur le sida, l’internationale sur le sida

Society (IAS) aimerait accueillir Positive Women’s Network, Afrique du Sud pour être le nouveau

partenaire de la société civile pour le SIDA 2014 et le sida 2016. Positive Women’s Network remplacera le

partenaire existant, les Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC), qui a occupé le

poste pour SIDA 2010 et le SIDA 2012. Les autres partenaires de la société civile pour le sida 2014 sont le

Réseau mondial de personnes vivant avec le VIH / sida (GNP +), La communauté internationale des femmes vivant avec le

VIH / sida (ICW), le Conseil international des ONG de lutte contre le sida (ICASO) et

Sidaction.

 

Positive Women’s Network, Afrique du Sud, créé en 1996, est une organisation non-gouvernementale

engagée à créer un environnement dans lequel les personnes vivant avec le VIH / SIDA sont libres de

la stigmatisation et la discrimination en raison de leur séropositivité. Le réseau reconnaît que

les personnes vivant avec et / ou affectées par le VIH / SIDA devraient partager le plomb et la responsabilité

face à la pandémie, tout en encourageant la société à créer l’espace pour eux de jouer

ce rôle crucial. L’organisation travaille à mettre en place et gérer des programmes de soins et de soutien,

les ressources de harnais et de construire, renforcer les capacités, l’appui et le suivi des initiatives de développement à

améliorer la qualité de vie des femmes et des enfants infectés et affectés par le VIH / SIDA à travers l’Afrique.

Le réseau a remporté un Prix Ruban Rouge à Vienne (AIDS 2010) pour son travail. L’organisation a nommé

Mme Prudence Mabele pour les représenter sur la Conférence des Comités de coordination (CCC).

Mme Mabele est la fondatrice du réseau en Afrique du Sud et

est un membre fondateur de la Treatment Action Campaign (TAC de), ainsi que le National

Association des personnes vivant avec le VIH et le sida en Afrique du Sud (NAPWA) et le Conseil national

Sud-Africain du sida. Elle a été obligée de vivre positivement avec le VIH depuis 22 ans et a été un

militant sud-africain de premier plan et un expert dans le domaine du VIH et du SIDA depuis 1992.

 

Le réseau de femmes séropositives, l’Afrique du Sud va combler un siège tournant sur les CCC qui est occupés

par une organisation de la société civile basée dans un pays aux ressources limitées qui travaille dans plusieurs

pays ou sur tout un continent avec le VIH et le SIDA comme une activité majeure.

 

L’appel d’organisations intéressées a été largement distribué avec onze demandes reçues.

Le comité de sélection, composé de représentants de tous les partenaires internationaux permanents

de la Conférence internationale sur le sida, a étudié à l’échelle régionale, les enjeux, les et

la représentation des circonscriptions au sein des membres de la société civile de la CCC. La série de critères

inclus l’examen de l’engagement démontré de l’organisation à:

• la participation accrue et significative des personnes vivant avec le VIH et le SIDA (GIPA / MIPA);
• la pleine réalisation des droits de l’homme, y compris ceux liés à la plus marginalisés
• les populations et les PVVIH, en particulier le principe de non-discrimination;
• l’égalité des sexes, l’autonomisation des femmes et la protection et la promotion de leurs droits de l’homme et des libertés fondamentales, y compris leurs droits sexuels et reproductifs;
• Les politiques fondées sur des données probantes, des programmes et des interventions qui soutiennent les bonnes pratiques
  et ne sont pas contraires à la preuve scientifique des interventions efficaces contre le VIH / SIDA; y compris celles qui sont fondées sur des croyances culturelles / religieuses et / ou viole les principes fondamentaux des droits de l’homme.

Le comité a également examiné le nombre d’années d’expérience de travail sur les questions de VIH / SIDA,

l’engagement de l’organisation à encourager et à soutenir la participation communautaire accrue dans

la conférence, en particulier de ceux qui représentent et / ou de travailler avec les plus marginalisés

et vulnérables et de la capacité et de l’engagement de l’organisation à représenter et promouvoir la

Conférence internationale sur le sida publiquement.

 

Les partenaires remercient chaleureusement Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) pour

leur travail et leur engagement au cours de leur représentation sur la conférence organisation des structures.

 

Détails du contact

Positive Women’s Network, South Africa

Heerengcht Building

87 De Korte Street, 3rd floor 305

Braamfontein, 2017

South Africa

pmabele@pwn.org.za

+ 27 11 339 7679 or +27 78 383 9529[/tp]

It’s been raining heavily in Ghana since late noon yesterday, the weighed-down clouds drenching the eastern and finally arriving in the southern half of the country early this morning. Even now, the weather is still very overcast and there is a constant baby-shower of rain. It is as if Mama Earth is projecting an aggregate of the vibes coming from all over the world today – World Environmental Day, June 5.

It is as if she is saying, “I am here.” In the current state of the environment, the earth, and the climate in the preparations leading to Rio+20, it is as if she is letting us know that she is with us – watching, waiting and hoping. Yet what a half century of exploitation, commercialization, and inconsideration it has been! Should you hop onto a satellite high above earth, and compare the forest/plant cover, the shorelines, the desert areas, the waterbody-volumes all over the continent, of 50 years ago with those now, the depletion is over 60%.

Concerned? We are most alarmed about the current state of the environment of the continent. This is not simply due to the increasing agricultural and resource challenges slowly strangling us day by day, but also because in Africa, it is women who bear the brunt of most disasters, suffer most, and work hardest – and in the global scheme of things, it is Africa that is usually at the receiving end of most environmentally dangerous products and activities from the rest of the world. This equates to African women being the ultimate recipients of the consequences of these events, whichever angle we analyse it from. Do we know what women represent in the circle of life? If we do, then this should be a very frightening state of affairs for each and every one of us!

These reasons are mostly why in 2007, we took the decision to make the African Biodiversity Network one of our biggest grantees, investing major funds into their biodiversity-environmental-sustainable arch of activities from then till now. The ABN’s pioneering initiatives have done much and continue to preserve important, sustainable ecological knowledge and practice. Please take a look for yourselves what this wonderful institution is doing for Africa!: ABN Healing Africa. And when you’re done, find out about Mphatheleni Makaulele, one of ABN’s women partners from South Africa, and the amazing initiatives being run by her Mupo Foundation.

Words defy us, ABN and Mupo! Words defy us, all African stalwarts fighting against the influx of disastrous products, groups, activities, and institutions that have been gnawing away at Africa’s foundations and lifestyles and threatening to turn our continent, a haven of life, hope, ingenuity, and sustenance; the cradle of civilization and great personalities, into a barren land!

Women of Africa join ABN, Mupo Foundation, and other partners in their efforts to re-heal what we have wounded and scarred, pledging to work towards a more hopeful future for our continent. Plant a tree today, make a donation to our Grantees, and do something environmentally friendly today (and every day!).

Little seeds make mighty trees. Happy World Environment Day, Africa!

Golda Addo (AWDF Communications Associate)

For the past few months, our radios and air spaces have been blasting out and vibrating with hair-raising acts of violence against women and children. What concerns us is the obvious disparity between the levels of violence before, and the levels currently. The magnitude of violence in Ghana is now overwhelming, and calls for immediate action from as many quarters as possible. The likely question on people’s minds will be “What are the various female activists in town doing? This, for us, is a very relevant question that requires prioritized and immediate action as its answer.

Be it due to complacency or lack of commitment to issues, we are not yet certain, but we definitely have seen a decrease in awareness creation and public campaigns against Domestic Violence in the country. Our media houses focus more on political issues and front-page scandals, amongst others, since these are what generate the huge amounts of revenue they desire. National issues surrounding Gender, Women, Children, and Empowerment have become de-prioritised in these media, only receiving central treatment once in every long while, or when prominent institutions and iconic figures make mention of them, which is often a momentary occurrence rarely sustained by the media stations.

Time was, when the “big guns” of women empowerment, female issues, and gender initiatives in Ghana all played very active roles before and during the 16days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, an event celebrated from 25^th November to 10^th December every year. All of a sudden this has ceased, and this event is marked by a few fluttering banners in inconspicuous locations in a few capital points in the country, a few newspaper and journal adverts with little stimulation or excitement to action, and very restrained, unexciting discussions in poorly publicized media programmes and forums. I vividly remember when we had attention-grabbing posters of abused women and children with inscriptions on them at vantage traffic lights in the capital which educated both literate and illiterate on the unacceptability of violence and abuse. This was an effective method of sparking debates and discussions among passengers in cars, taxis and tro-tros and even on pedestrian-walks. Remember that violence is no respecter of persons, class, profession nor public standing, and anybody at all could fall victim to it at any point in time.

From several recent reports coming in from Ghanaian media houses, Domestic Violence has taken on a new and deadly trend where abusers have progressed from physical battery to fatal attacks on both spouses and children. These attacks are often shown, post-occurrence, to have had murderous intent, and at times bear inherent traits of lunacy or mental illness. If this does not call for immediate governmental, national, and societal intervention, nothing does. Below is a catalogue of some of the recent reports on violence from random points and mediums:

• Man kills wife, commits suicide, 15^th May, 2012
• Father arrested for attempts incest with daughter, 16^th May, 2012
• Rapist kills two siblings, wounds mother, 15^th May, 2012
• Man kills his two kids, stabs pregnant wife, 3^rd May, 2012
• Man slashes wife’s throat for ‘daring’ to divorce him, 10^th May, 2012
• Pregnant woman dies from stab wounds, 4^th May,2012
• Trader cuts ex-lovers scrotum, testicles out, 7^th May, 2012
• Cop rapes married woman, 7^th May, 2012
• Man throws improvised explosive devices at 4 children for disturbing his siesta.
• Woman, 22, stabbed to death by boyfriend, 20^th April, 2012
• Fetish priest in court for murdering lover, 19^th April, 2012

“A suspected sex maniac has allegedly shot and killed two siblings and wounded their mother after raping their elder sister in the bush at Dukoto Junction in the Amenfi East District in the Western Region…………………”

“Police in Kumasi have commenced investigations into the death of a 22 year lady said to have been stabbed by her boyfriend at Oduom. The incident reportedly happened soon after *Maame Frema’s family told her boyfriend with whom she has a child that they could not continue the relationship. The victim is said to have reported her boyfriend’s abusive behavior to the family………………….”

“*Nana Sika Manim, a 35-year old fetish priest, on Thursday appeared before the Kade District Magistrate’s Court charged with murdering his 19-year-old girl friend……”

“Emotions took the better part of a 34-year-old man when he allegedly slaughtered his wife on a farm last Saturday after the woman had threatened to divorce him, The woman, whose name was given as *Akua Boaminh, was the mother of five children, including a two-year-old she was nursing before her death. According to the police, when the deceased’s body was discovered in the bush, it lay supine, with the face covered with a scarf, while the hands were tied to a tree. The body, stained with blood, was almost covered with ants.”

*names changed to protect their identity

Reading and listening to these heart-breaking stories of violence impresses more deeply in us, the need for women and female-focused organisations in Ghana to be more proactive and set up strategies to deal with all forms of violence, before the fatal happens. AWDF is not left out in this struggle to create a violence-free Ghana and Africa and will continue to use its programme that supports the 16days of Activism Against Violence Against Women to support women’s organizations across the continent, to create awareness and literally “make noise “through various activities to commemorate the event. AWDF has supported this event from 2003 to date, and has provided financial supports to over 105 women’s groups from 25 African Countries to the tune of over $USD 97,000. From our 2011 analysis of applications received from across the continent towards the 16days of activism we realised that just a few of the applications came from Ghana; the period was silent and most women’s groups were not heard or seen undertaking any serious or extensive public awareness campaigns and activities on violence against women, which is very uncharacteristic of the Ghanaian Civil Society community.

The current worsening trends, as seen, heard and read in the media is a clarion call for all women’s rights organisations to take awareness creation and education extremely seriously, because, who knows whom the next victim will be? No, don’t look over your shoulder.

Hilda de-Souza

Rose Buabeng

Gifty Anim

(Grants Department – AWDF)

 

 

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) is pleased to support the Open Forum 2012 on the theme of ‘Money, Power and Sex’. This event takes place from the 22nd -25th May at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in South Africa.

On Tuesday 22nd May in room 2.62 at the CTICC, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, AWDF’s Communications Officer will moderate a session on:

“Organising Online: Feminists share experiences of cyber activism” with panelists Hakima Abbas, (Executive Director, Fahamu); Gathoni Blessol, (Co-Founder of Watetezihaki Platform); Jan Moolman, (Association for Progressive Communications); Minna Salami, (Blogger & Writer, Ms Afropolitan); and Spectra Speaks (Afrofeminist WriterArtivist, and Executive Editor of Queer Women of Color and Friends). In this conversation, feminists from Africa and the Diaspora share details of their online activism, connecting with feminists online, managing safety and security online, and linkages between online and offline activism.

On Wednesday 23rd May in the main auditorum Theo Sowa, Interim CEO of AWDF will provide an overview of ‘Power’ and its connections to Money and Sex.

AWDF looks forward to connecting with participants attending the 2012 Open Forum.