THE AUCC SRC WEEK CELEBRATION MEMOIR

On Monday the 7^th of this month, the SRC week was launched by Mr. Michael Baafi, a lecturer and the guest speaker. With him were the others like the queen mother of Adabraka community, Nanabanyin Dadson, who was later announced as the chairman of the program, Mr. Ogochukwu Nweke, the dean of student affairs, Mr. Ato Afful, a lecturer and supervisor of radio discovery a campus based radio station where I host ‘the request-line every Tuesday and a good number of the SRC executives. A prayer was said by Mr. Ato Afful which was quickly followed by the introduction of the chairman by Miss Angeline Laryea, a student. After her introduction of the chairman was the chairman’s speech of acceptance. His speech was followed by that of the SRC- AUCC chapter’s president, Sangmorkie Tetteh’s speech on the theme ’making higher education relevant to the economic growth of Africa' which was also followed by a speech from Mr Ogochukwu Nweke, the dean of student affairs on the theme. Mr. Michael Baafi, delivered his speech after this and formally launched the SRC week with the assistance of the queen mother after she had arrived with her company a few minutes later. ‘We cannot afford to fail Africa’ she had said in her speech. According to her, our level of education should show in everything that we do. For instance a dress made by a university graduate should differ from a SHS graduates’. Then came a speech from a representative fromCAL-BANK. The final speech was that of the chairman of the occasion, closing remarks after which was a closing prayer. This was done by Alibaba Mohamart, the vee p of the Journalist for Human Rights (JHR), AUCC chapter. We called it day.

     Day two of the celebration was marked with a quiz between the four halls; baobab, adinkra, discovery and African unity hall. The quiz wall all about AUCC and discovery hall emerged winners with 48 points, followed by baobab with 26 point, then adinkra with18 points and African unity following with 7 points. A short break was given after which were debates between the halls; discovery and baobab halls set the ball rolling on the topic ’the high rate of unemployed graduates in Africa should be blamed on the academia’ discovery hall for the motion once more emerged winners over baobab who were against the motion with 78 points against 66.  Adinkra and African unity battled it out on the topic ‘education at the tertiary level is not the panacea for Africa’s woes’. Adinkra secured 88 points for themselves speaking against the topic whilst African unity secured 85 points speaking for the motion. These two halls emerging as winners came together at the decider segment to debate on the topic ‘acquisition of a degree should be a requirement to qualify you as a member of parliament’. Adinkra hall topped it all with 82 points against 71 of discovery. During all this time, a donation by AUCC students was ongoing at the Accra psychiatric hospital.

        Day three of the celebration was all about food. A cocktail party was organized on campus late in the night. Palm wine and other beverages were served along with chicken with good music at the background.

     Day four was a day to ‘represent your school'. Each student was expected to wear their high school uniform after lectures if not to school. I wasn’t left out, I got a vest from Adisadel college and a tie

.  The afternoon session was all about African dishes. This was a competition between the halls once more.  Adinkra once more emerged winners. According to the judges, ‘they cooked very difficult meals in a short time and it was well done'. After the announcement of the winner for the cooking competition was an inter-halls dance competition, there was male competition as well as female. Adinkra won in both cases. Later that evening was  fashion night which didn’t turn out well.

  Day five was inter-hall games, the activity almost every student was waiting for. The day finally came and at the el-wak sports stadium, the halls battled it out. The games started with the women soccer. Although most of the women wanted to play a full time, they were only allowed to play penalties. First, adinkra hall played against African unity hall whilst discovery hall played against baobab hall. As Adinkra won against African unity, Discovery hall also won against Baobab hall. The two halls, Adinkra and discovery had to play against each other for a winner. It was a tough game, however, there had to be a winner. Discovery hall finally won the penalties after I missed my second penalty shoot. 

There were rain showers when the track games began. I stood in the fourth lane representing the Adinkra hall. With my eyes set on the finishing line, all I heard was ‘GO’.  Everyone had started with some fire and surely, there was not going to be a tie. The slimmest of us all, representing Baobab hall took the first position although she had fallen at the finishing line, followed by me, then African unity and finally discovery. I was however cheated of my position; instead of second, I was given the third position. 

Baobab and Discovery hall started the men's soccer. Discovery once more beat Baobab hall. During this time, the women's volley ball was ongoing. Adinkra hall vs. baobab hall was the opening match. 'I cannot afford a loose when I am part of the team' I told myself, 'we have to win'. It was a 'dream come true' when we beat baobab hall two straight. Discovery hall ladies beat African unity ladies in the volley ball, hence had to meet the winners of the first game, Adinkra hall. However, the ladies of Discovery hall proved that they really could play volley ball when they beat us two straight. 

The men's soccer match between Adinkra and African unity was in play all this while. African unity hall beat Adinkra hall for the first time. The men athletics took off shortly after. Baobab luckily enough had two of their men taking first and third positions, Adinkra had one man taking the second position and the rest belonged to discovery and African unity hall. The winners of the two games battled it out. Discovery beat African unity to become the winners of the men's soccer game. In the men's volley ball, African Unity played against Discovery hall whilst Baobab played Adinkra hall. Also for the first time, African Unity beat Discovery hall as Adinkra also beat Baobab. The two teams as always had to play against each other to determine the winner, just like their women, they won against Adinkra. Baobab and African unity played for the third and fourth positions.

                                                                                                                                              On the sixth day, which was a Saturday, there was a health walk in the vicinity of Adabraka after which was a 'kenkey party'. This was to foster unity amongst the students in various halls and levels. The JHR, AUCC chapter set off to Cape Coast to make a donation to the Ankaful psychiatric hospital.

The seventh day was celebrated in the house of God. For successfully taking us through the week, we had to thank Him and that ended the celebration.

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE (GBV)

our women and girls

Gender based violence is the violations of an individual’s rights because they are male or female. According to Mr.  Robert Akoto Amoafo from the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC), the greater portion of people abused are women in reference to GBV. He added that a smaller percentage of men are also violated it is a silent epidemic. These violations according to him are most often culturally, traditionally and poverty driven although other factors like naivety.  Old women and pregnant teenage girls are the most vulnerable.

According to article 1 and 5 of the universal declaration of human rights(UDHR),  signed by 48 member states of the UN in 1948, ‘all are born free and equal in rights and in dignity; no one shall be subjected to cruel or dehumanizing  treatment or torture respectively. However, the dignity of our older women is compromised unlike the men. At a certain stage in their lives, some older women are accused of being witches when there is a misfortune in the family although these may be as a result of our own actions and in actions. For example, a man who has forgotten that five years ago he made a girl pregnant and asked her to abort it will blame his grandmother or any old lady in his family if he is unable to bear children. These old women are subjected to physical and emotional tortures from family members and sometimes sent off to witches camps. Sometimes before sent to witches camps, some family members deny them food and attention, insult them and treat them like they are not human. Every year, 1000 old women are taken to witches camps according to INTEGRATED REGIONAL INFORMATION NETWORK (IRIN). These old women are sent out of the community where there are separated their loved ones and people they care about. It is really unfortunate that family members and the society as a whole allow this practice. It is everyone’s responsibility to protect the rights of these old women. Let us not sit and watch this go on in our society’s .it is about time we put a stop to this practice. It’s surprising and sad that only the old women suffer this.

 pictures of a camp and some of the 'witches'

Teenage girls who become pregnant are not left out of this discriminatory. At the end of 2013, Ghana recorded 75000 teenage pregnancies according to statistics conducted by the Ghana Health Service. The right to education of these girls as entrenched in the 1992 constitution of Ghana and the UDHR are most often abused. Their rights to be treated equally are also abused. It has become a routine and a tradition that any girl who gets pregnant whiles still in school must drop out if they are not ready for an abortion. The boys who get them pregnant however are allowed to be in school if they are still students. Speaking to a few teen mothers they would love to go back to school after delivery but are afraid of the stigmatization. The guys however walk freely which is very unfair. It is the responsibility of everyone to protect the rights of these girls. Imagine all these 75000 girls dropping out of school, this means we are losing a lot of our future leaders and this is not good for a country. It is our duty to help end this practice.