August 16

MADAM DIANA Adjei , a beautician and
founder of Aseda Foundation in Takoradi,
says she learnt the hairdressing trade for a
year and decided to assist prostitutes plying
their profession on the street to get decent
work so she approached them to teach them
the trade, hence the start of Aseda Beauty
Salon and subsequently the foundation.
“I decided I was going to live with them
in the kiosk serving as my salon. They
became fulfilled and secured, hard-working
and dedicated and since that time, over 20
years and still counting, Aseda Beauty Salon
trains people for free,” she said.
Aseda Foundation
“At Aseda Foundation, what I do is to go
round the country, mobilize people who are
interested in learning trades and also people
who by some reasons can’t further their
education and are wasting away in some
villages and towns, then bring them to
Takoradi and give them to some trade
masters like welding masters, spraying
masters, refrigeration mechanics masters,
tiling masters etc, to learn the job for free,”
she Diana said.
Diana said it is the grace of God that
helps her to negotiate with the various
masters for free apprenticeship but she takes
care of the trainees’ accommodation,
feeding, clothing and some other basic
needs, down to the tools they use to learn
the trade till they pass out.
“After they pass out, I help also with
their startup; I fund some of them, and I
push others to work on contract with
people,” she added.
What are your major achievements?
The founder said she had been able to
talk to 610 masters in 25 different vocations,
who are currently training over 3400
children from she mobilized from Northern,
Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central and Eastern
regions, as well as the Western Region
How much impact has your project had?
I have been able to bring from the streets
some prostitutes who are now bosses of
their own businesses and have also been
married.
What challenges have you faced?
The challenges are uncountable; the
root of them all is finances. For instance,
because of the impact, a lot of the children
are showing interest and when they come,
accommodation becomes a challenge, as well
as feeding and clothing.
How do you feel when you see the
impact your work has had?
When I visit the shops of the people I
have trained, sometimes I weep, because
when I cast my mind back to how they were
when they came in, the struggles and now
they own well-equipped shops, I feel fulfilled
and I give all the praise to God.
I have had testimonies from some
Ivorian girls who joined the Enchi group to
come and train and what they said was they
thought they were coming for prostitution
but my intervention had given them hope.
Sabina Assan, nominator, said, “The
children are a lot, and Diana herself is a wife
and a mother, and to have added these
numbers and given them a better life, in
terms of health, shelter and clothing, all by
herself without any support, she needs all
News
DAILY
MTN Heroes of Change:
Ms Adjei trains prostitutes in trading
• Madam Diana Adjei,
Beautician and founder of
Aseda Foundation
the
help she can get.
“ Diana started this project at age 20 and
she is now 42 and has all this done alone
and expanded, with the increasing numbers
today, she needs all the support she can get
because it’s out of a genuine heart.”
Mr S. K. Adisu, Community Leader, said:
“I have known Diana for over 20 years,
during her apprentice days before I became
an assembly member. With time I got to
know she was involved in training young
girls in the beautician vocation for free. I
began paying close attention to her and even
brought some ladies from my community
and church for her to train.
“For someone to go all out, to put these
numbers on health insurance, to provide
them food, clothing and shelter without any
sponsorship or support, she needs to be
rewarded and encouraged to do more. She
has brought total behavioural change to the
society, especially young ones.”
Rita Nyaho, Beneficiary, said she was a
prostitute in a club, and saw a group of
young women who came to the club to
have fun so she approached them and
asked who they were and they introduced
her to their madam.
“I approached her and she told me they
were a group of beauticians so she gave me
her contact and location and then I chased
her the following day. Accommodation and
feeding were problems for me and so I was
prostituting to raise capital for my future.
Therefore when I met the woman and she
told me she wasn’t going to take anything
from me when she trains me, accommodate
me and clothe me, I became shocked
“Quickly, I joined them and never went
back to the club. I didn’t know the clubbing
was the madam’s strategy to pull girls like
myself from there. Today I am a graduate of
her vocational training; she started my
business for me and has also helped me to
get into marriage.”
Ghana’s human rights needs improvement
- Director of Amnesty Intl Ghana
HERITAGE, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Arrest public master trainers offering
training to private schools - GNACOP
BY PHILIP ANTOH
philip.antoh@dailyheritage.com.gh
THE EXECUTIVE
Director for Ghana
National Council for
Private Schools
(GNACOPS), Mr
Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah
has called on the public, especially
academic stakeholders, to report any
public master trainer extorting monies
from private school teachers in the
name of training them to fit into the
new academic curriculum yet to be
implemented from the September 17,
2019.
According to Mr Gyetuah, some
government teachers who were
trained as master trainers for the new
academic curriculum have started
extorting monies from some private
school teachers for training.
He said the ongoing canker
strongly contradicted the road map
agreed between them, leadership of
Ministry of Education and its agency
National Council for Curriculum and
Assessment.
Speaking at a press conference in
Accra, Mr Gyetuah disclosed that per
the content of the agreement, private
schools have their own road map for
BY PHILIP ANTOH
philip.antoh@dailyheritage.com.gh
THE DIRECTOR of Amnesty
International Ghana (AI), Mr Robert
Akoto Amoafo, has stated that
Ghana’s human rights activities need
improvement because human rights
do not relate to only elections and
voting.
According to Mr Amoafo, human
rights include one’s ability to access
good drinking water, food to eat,
participate fully in local governance
and be active at all times but the case
of Ghana is limited to only voting in
an election.
Speaking at a Youth Camp
organised by Amnesty International
Ghana for the youth dealing in
human rights drawn from all the
regions in Ghana at the Pentecost
Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh
in the Central Region, he called on
the youth to always exhibit a
•Mr Enoch Gyetuah (2nd L), Executive Director of GNACOPS flanked
by his executives at the press conference in Accra
the training of private teachers.
“Any master trainer of the public
sector who shows up to train a
private school teacher should not be
allowed. Such people should be
reported, arrested and dealt with
according to the laws of the country,”
he announced.
He added that master trainers of
public institutions were trained with
the resources of the state and are
defensive skill.
Mr Amoafo, speaking on the
theme; ‘Increasing Human Rights
Impacts through Digital Media: the
Role of the Youth,’ said “clearly
human rights situation in Ghana is
not the best and is not the one that
as a human rights advocate will able
to give thumbs up to.”
“As for me I think that there is
more that we have to do to get there
because in Ghana, human rights is
limited to the right to vote during
election but forgetting the rights to
dignity, participate fully in local
governance and even accessibility to
basic life opportunities,” he stated.
He said AI impact assessment
report for 2018 revealed that actions
taking place in the digital media had
impacts on their campaigns online.
Therefore “we decided to increase
the accessibility campaign.”
Mr Amoafo added that through
social media, AI was able to make
huge impact on awareness by
therefore not supposed to raise a
charge for any training.
“It is against the laws of the
state...This is the reason why the
Ministry has called upon the private
schools to train their own master
trainers," he strongly noted.
He announced that as part of the
drafted measures towards the training
of private school teachers, 130 master
trainers in the private sector have so
•Mr Robert AkotoAmoafo, Director of AI, Ghana
presenting an award to one of the youth
educating Ghanaians on issues about
bails and human rights campaigns.
He said the youth camp was
aimed at placing the youth at a point
where they could be empowered to
far been trained for the
various categories of the
new curriculum and that
they were inducted and
confirmed on Friday, July
26, 2019, at Ghana
Atomic Energy
Commission by the
Deputy Minister for
Education, Mr Osei Yaw
Adutwum.
According to him, the
trainers have already
started a stimulation
training to ascertain the
level of their
understanding of the
new curriculum.
Mr Gyetuah said the
130 master trainers from
the GNACOP would, as
part of their duties, be
authorised to train over
70,000 private school teachers at all
the 98 selected training centres across
the country within the months from
the beginning of August to
September 14, 2019.
He said the Ashanti Region alone
had been apportioned 20 training
centres, Greater Accra 10, Bono East
Region seven, and Ahafo Region five
among others.
take actions concerning human rights
issues in their various communities.
The Board Vice Chairperson in
charge of Youth Education, Mrs
Elizabeth Adomako, said the youth
“Any master trainer
of the public sector
who shows up to train
a private school
teacher should not be
allowed. Such people
should be reported,
arrested and dealt
with according to the
laws of the country,”
he announced.
He, however, pledged to ensure
that all private schools were covered
under the training.
He said the new curriculum
introduced by the Ghana Education
Service and the National Council for
Curriculum Assessment would go a
long way to improve the learning
outcomes of the various basic
schools in the country.
The new system, he noted, would,
unlike the old one, put students on a
good academic pedestal and that
parents would be able to assess the
performance of their children.
were gathered to teach them
how to take action through
digital media and also send
solidarity message online.
Mrs Amoako said “we want
to educate them and empower
them to see more activeness
online.”
The Chairman for the
occasion, who doubles as a
Member of the National Youth
Coordinating Team, Ms Ellen
Dzidzor Boateng, said the
programme started on July 28
and ended on July 30, 2019
during which time the youth
learnt about Microsoft to enable
them to use digital media to
advance human rights activities.
Ms Boateng said the youth
were taken through parallel
workshops such as human rights
education and campaign and
mobilization to propel them in order
to be able to organize their various
activities in the regions.
Lord’s Garden
Montessori
holds maiden
graduation
BY PRINCE ESSIEN
THE LORD’S Garden
Montessori School of Nungua
in the Krowor Municipal
Assembly has held its first
graduation ceremony for three
graduands with a call on
parents to invest in the
education of their wards (sic).
The ceremony was held on
the theme ‘Quality Pre-school
Education: the Role of Parents
and Teachers’.
Madam Elizabeth
Akowuah, the Early Childhood
Coordinator of the Tema
Metropolitan Assembly, who
was the guest speaker, said
parents had greater role to play
for ensuring quality education
of their wards (sic).
She said, “It is important to
educate your wards (sic) since
they are the future generation
of the country,” adding that
parents had shirked their
responsibilities to house-helps
and running after money,
which is not helping in the
upbringing and proper training
of the child.
“Parents wake up early in
the morning and go to work.
They report home very late
and do not even check
whether their children have
done their home work,” she
added.
Role of parents
According to Madam
Akowuah, “Parents must be
careful in how they address
school concerns in front of
their child. If they display a
negative attitude toward
school, their child may adopt
that as his/her own attitude
toward school.”
She further said research
had revealed that high selfesteem
and student
achievement are closely related
to positive parental
involvement in school
activities.
“When parents get involved
in school, it can be a
motivating factor to the child.
It tells the child that the
parents think school is
important. Parents need to
keep in touch with their child's
school and build a relationship
with the teacher,” she said.
Role of teachers
Madam Akowuah said the
most common role a teacher
plays in the classroom is to
teach knowledge to children
using a curriculum that meets
state guidelines, which they
must follow.
The director and
headmistress of the school,
Mrs Rosemary Bota, urged the
graduands to value education
and study hard to achieve their
dreams and aspirations.
The graduands also
expressed their gratitude to
school authorities for
honouring them, saying “being
a student, your primary role is
to learn. Taking keen interest
in studies will help one
understand facts and figures,
the social and natural
environment and how things
work in reality.”
•Mrs Rosemary Bota, Headmistress of Lord’s Garden
School and some of the graduands