Sogasco old students give back to alma mater

A group of old students of the Sogakofe Senior High School in the Volta Region on Saturday May 27, held a capacity building workshop for members of the Eye Media Network, a high school campus based media organization on the Sogasco campus.

The workshop, is an initiative of ChangeNation Ghana, a group made up of journalists, teachers and students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

The participants were taken through lessons on news gathering, vox pop, mini feature, mass communication, among others.

Speaking in an interview after the training, Patron of the Eye Media Network, Mr. Fiawoyife Asiwome said the workshop was a timely intervention by the old members of the club.

He said haven seen people close to their age and taking them through the lessons will go a long way to boost their confidence and to inspire them as well.

“I must say that I am very much impressed about the workshop today. Not just because the facilitators are former students but with the professional manner in which they handled the workshop. The impact on the group will be phenomenal because this is something that has been lacking for a very long time and the children really needed people not too far from their age group and people they can identify with. Going forward, the club will not be the same again because the materials available to them will help correct the short comings of the club,” Mr. Fiawoyife said.

Talking about the challenges of the Club, Mr. Fiawoyife said the club has moved from reading news at school gatherings to recording and presenting as Television news Broadcast. This he said has been halted because the club’s only camera has broken down.



“Our single camera got broken down a week ago and this has brought our work to a halt. Our ability to produce video news just as television stations do has been our strength as a club. The new headmaster saw it and he was very impressed same as visitors. They get excited and begin to ask themselves questions as to who these young broadcasters are and who is behind their training. When they realize these are students of this school, the excitement grows. Unfortunately now that we do not have a camera, all these will have to be on hold until we get one,” he said.

The eye media was culled from an amalgamated club known as PREDDEC in 2010.

PREDDEC consisted of press, drama, debating and culture. This followed plan Ghana's girls making media project (GMMC) which included Sogasco as one of the four Volta region schools to benefit from the project.

The PREDDEC was a vibrant club that sought to equip students with the basic skills needed in the aforementioned areas. It however lacked logistics to fully carry out its mandate.



When GMMC was launched, members of PREDDEC with interest in the media were used to form the nucleus. With logistical help and training from plan Ghana's project the club began to function more successfully and gained not only national recognition but also global recognition.

The club engaged in weekly news broadcast in a now improved way; changing from mere reading of items to Audio visual presentations till date.

The club has produced quiet a good number of journalists and many others continue to enroll in the Ghana Institute of Journalism.