More than 30 selected youth have been trained on community journalism to serve as catalyst towards ending harmful widowhood rites in their communities.
The youth, drawn from Bolgatanga municipality, Talensi and Nabdam districts were taken through basic ethics of journalism, photojournalism, cartooning, drama and storytelling.
The training was organized by Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM) with support from ActionAid Ghana.
The beneficiaries who were also schooled on the rights of widows were tasked to collect primary data for onward submission to their mentors for publication in the mainstream media.
Some of them who spoke to A1 News said they were well equipped and informed to sensitize their various community members geared towards dehumanizing widowhood rites.
“I never knew widows have the right to report cases to the police station when they are abused. So this program has educated us a lot to serve as an ambassador in our various communities” Tindan Daniel stated.
Another beneficiary, Zoogah Dorcas commended organizers of the training for mobilizing efforts geared at ending harmful widowhood rites.
“We can do drama on the suffering of widows and also educate the women and the community leaders on the rights of the widows. So when we do such, they [widows] will be able to fight for their right” Ms Zoogah observed.
Project Officer of Widows Rights at WOM Patricia Ayichuru stated the training is a paradigm shift from the many activities the organization has embarked on to end harmful widowhood rites.
“We have been working with the widows themselves, [and] we had engagement meetings with the traditional leaders pertaining harmful widowhood rites. They made promised to help us in getting solutions to these harmful widowhood rites, but, we realized that, the change we wanted wasn’t what was coming and so, we thought of involving the youth, and we thought of involving the journalists who are actually the voice of everyone” Ms Ayichuru stated.
By: Joshua Asaah|A1radioonline.com|101.1Mhn
