THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT: HOLD ON!

The above video is a true story about the producer's life, Gabriel Torgbor-Ashong, with support from UNICEF Ghana. Gabriel is currently a child/Youth rights activist using Journalism as a main tool to champion the course of less privileged young people in Ghana.

Journalism Students Drive Press Freedom, Entrepreneurship in Ghana

Source: Global Press Institute Website.      Reported by Lily Mensah

 ACCRA, GHANA – In a small, crowded classroom on the campus of Ghana Institute of Journalism in Accra, Ghana’s capital, more than 60 students converge every Wednesday to give voice to issues concerning them using a new student publication.

The platform, called “Keteke,” is a new student initiative founded by Samuel Creppy, a 25-year-old student in his second year at the institute. Creppy says the goal of the platform is twofold: to strengthen the students’ voices on issues that concern them and to practice the skills they are learning in the classroom.

"The fact that a communication institute had no radio station and also does not have its own newspaper was a worry to us."

- Gabriel Obodai Torgbor Ashong, Keteke Co-founder 

Creppy, who is studying public relations and communications, says he surveyed students to find out what they wanted.

“As a result, I came up with an initiative, which will serve as a platform for students to air their views and practice what they are being taught in the institute,” he says.

Keteke has three means of disseminating information: a tabloid, a newsletter, and a website that features news and blogs. The tabloid comes out every two weeks, and the newsletter comes out twice every semester.

Keteke means “train” in the local Ga dialect.

Creppe says just as trains are fast and accommodating, he hopes Keteke will be a fast, dynamic information source for a diverse population.

At the Ghana Institute of Journalism, students started their own publication after noticing the need for freedom of expression on campus. The club also offers a platform for students to practice what they learn in the classroom, all the while honing their entrepreneurial skills. This initiative is unique, as many universities across the country do not have student-run publications. The main challenge for Keteke is funding, but the group is optimistic and has set goals to expand to other campuses in the next few years.

Many universities do not have student-run publications, according to students from various schools.

At the Ghana Institute of Journalism, Ashong says that Keteke has gained the highest membership of any student group within its first year. Francis Gbadago, the current president of the Student Representative Council, the university’s student-government body, confirmed this.

Keteke fills a void detected by students at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, says Gabriel Obodai Torgbor Ashong, co-founder and chairman of the initiative.

“As students of GIJ, we saw a number of challenges,” says Ashong, who is in his second year at the institute studying journalism.

In the classroom, students learn about the importance of freedom of expression to democracy. The student-led organization, which started barely a year ago, is crucial to practicing this tenet on campus, Ashong says. 

“The fact that GIJ being a communication institute, which has been in existence for over 50 years, has no radio station and also does not have its own newspaper was a worry to us,” Ashong says.

Gbadago, president of the Student Representative Council, calls Keteke a step in the right direction.

The students strive to use Keteke to bridge the communication gap between school administrators and students in order to address challenges that students face.

For example, the lack of online communications forced students to commute to school during vacation in order to find out their tuition costs for the coming semester. The application process was also tedious for prospective candidates because they also had to come to the campus to complete it.

As first-year students, Creppy and Ashong felt it was necessary to address these and many other challenges hampering students’ academic experience.

Visit  http://globalpressinstitute.org/global-news/africa/ghana/journalism-students-drive-press-freedom-entrepreneurship-ghana#.T_2Mx78cK6w.facebook

For the original Story

LET’S PUT CHILDREN FIRST: THEY DESERVE BETTER!

Some children engaging in stone quarrying

I always become worried when I see and hear about negative things done to children in media reportage. I wish African countries could introduce some sort of urgency and impetus in efforts to halt the rate at which children are either trafficked or engaged in force labour. For the little I have seen children go through, I don’t think it’s prudent to watch on unconcerned or not being proactive in response to child labour on the continent and especially in my country Ghana. 

Just recently, some friends and I were in Otinidin, a quarrying community in Accra-the Capital city of Ghana, and at a firsthand, we got to know how some children had to suffer just to sustain their families. Quashie, a 13year old boy who does quarrying to support his grandmother met his untimely death when he drowned in a mining pit during one of his normal expeditions. 

The situation wasn’t quite different in Gemeni, a fishing community in the Volta Region of Ghana. Holy, a 17year old fisher folk explained how some children were allegedly killed and used as baits to get more fishes from the Volta Lake. Holy was happy that his parents were dead. According to him, they would have renewed his contract with his master to work under difficult conditions whilst the parents collected the wages. Most of these children are often not given proper health care when they fall sick through the work they do or abuse meted out to them. Education seems to be a mirage since priorities of their guardians are to see their own children through school at the expense of these vulnerable children. 

Achieving the Key targets of goal 1(Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger), goal 2(Universal Basic Education), and goal 6(combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 will be good news for Ghana. But these cannot be successful without taking proper look at the challenges affecting children. I understand the Human Trafficking Act 694 and the Children’s Act 560 of Ghana, for instance, have been enacted to address issues of this nature as and when they arise. It is commendable, but what lies beyond the enactment of our laws? 

Persons who are found guilty in playing any role in child trafficking should really be dealt with in accordance with the law to serve as a deterrent to others. Our leaders, especially the states and countries of those that children are trafficked and used for forced labour should have the political will to speak against such activities. They should also look at ways we can empower families economically to be able to look after their children well. I look forward to a time where our leaders would use occasions like World Day Against Child Labour to account for significant achievements in tackling children’s problems and not the usual cliché of what they intend to do. 

Children on a Fishing canoe on the Volta lake

        

Right to play is best enjoyed during childhood and not hard work. Memories of the state of children at Otinidin and Gemeni are still fresh on my mind. Aside writing this article, I’m left to wonder what the future holds for them if nothing is done about child labour. It is worth to note that” A stitch in time saves nine”    

SEND AND RECEIVE GMAIL ON YOUR PHONE AS SMS

Email has become a part of everyday life. There’s so much you do with it: apply for a job, make an inquiry, get notifications from your social network, receive photos or an invitation that makes you smile, and just communicate back and forth with your friends.

The Gmail team at Google puts in a lot of effort to make sure messages are delivered as soon as you hit "send". However, sometimes barriers arise between you and your email.  What if you’re not by a computer? Or your phone is not connected to the internet? Or the internet is down or too slow, so that emails just won’t load?
To help solve these issues, we’ve created Gmail SMS.  We’re excited to be making this new service available in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. You can now send and receive emails as SMS messages using your mobile phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has an internet connection, like Wifi or 3G. Gmail SMS works on any phone, even the most basic ones which only support voice and SMS.
Gmail SMS automatically forwards your emails as SMS text messages to your phone and you can respond by replying directly to the SMS. You can control the emails received by replying with commands such as MORE, PAUSE and RESUME. Additionally, compose a new email as an SMS and send to any email address recipient - who will find your message in the right email conversation thread!

   
  Compose an email SMS message   Receive Gmail as SMS

Receiving and sending your emails is fast and easy with Gmail SMS - you don’t even need to get online to use Gmail.

You can register your phone from your Gmail account online in 5 easy steps:

1. In your Gmail account, click on your profile photo or account name at the top of the page and and click Account 

   

2. Click Open SMS settings in the "Phone and SMS" section.

3. Add your phone number to receive Gmail to that number.

4. Verify your phone number by entering the verification code that we sent as SMS to your phone.

5. Check the box for email forwarding to your phone.

Last but not least, receiving Gmail SMS is free of charge.  Standard SMS rates apply when replying to messages, creating new messages and sending Gmail SMS commands from your phone.  We hope you’ll like it!

Source: Google Africa Blog by Geva Rechav, Product Manager, Emerging Markets