A Day Spent at Aban,s Graduation Ceremony.

It was all a great day I spent at another event now not in

Accra but in Aburi, I would always appreciate and admire people or groups who

do things to initiate changes we want in our society. ABAN, an acronym for A

Ban Against Neglect is an NGO that has stand tall among other NGOs in Ghana. Despite

we see some problems never going to have a solution for, they were there to initiate

an initiative to make impossible things look possible. They are into recruiting

young hawkers in Accra streets and turn them into presentable human resources. I

met the country director, Mr. Emmanuel Quarmyne at a forum between the Ghana

Federation of Labour and Plan Nederland where his submissions to reducing youth

unemployment in the country were very laudable. Do you want to be part of the

change he and his team here in Ghana are doing? They pick convince and pick

young women who migrated to the south from the north to look for greener

pastures but find solace on the streets and are exposed to environmental hazards

such as trafficking, sexual abuse and a lot they bear testimonies to. They are

then recruited into the ABAN home in Aburi where they are trained in the areas

they want to be, be it dressmaking, hairdressing and others. I do that was why I

made it to their second graduation ceremony for the girls they picked from the

streets and transformed them into great young women.

Today is second graduation for about 8 students who just completed

their 2 years training with the foundation in subjects of English, Business,

lifestyle and a choice of vocations that each chose. We had a poetry recital

from the project coordinator; Rose Teiko entitled the alphabets of happiness. There

was a solidarity messages from some individuals such as their USA partners

Rebecca Brandt and Callie Brauel which they coined from Nelson Mandela,s 1994 inaugural

speech and also added loads of advice individually to the graduates. Past beneficiaries

Danicia Kassim and Gifty Nyamekye also were given the opportunity to speak. Danicia

speech was focused on the experiences she remembered sharing with the graduates

in the house and this tells you how friendly they were even coming from all

parts of the country. Some were described as wives to the baby boys in the

house and in laws to their mothers. Gifty was just that we needed as she was

that comic figure we needed to crack our ribs down.

Guest speaker was Mr. Razak Yakubu, the president and

co-founder of Youth Movement for African Unity. The organisation is focused on

projects such as HIV AIDS, trafficking and youth empowerment. He made it known

that it is not all about our political figures that need to do something to

bring that unity we want but other things such as our cultural values and the

little peace we keep in our environments.

To be continued.

Akpah Prince

akpahprince@ymail.com

akpahprince.wordpress.com