Pan African Women’s Day marked

Director of Esther Agyemang Armah Media Productions (EAAMP), Esther Armah Agyemang and media practitioner, Anita Erskine, yesterday stormed the studios of Class FM in Accra where they hosted the station’s morning show as part of activities marking this year’s Pan African Women’s Day celebrations.

The aim of the programme was to engage women from various parts of Africa who have held up the mantle of women development and to celebrate their achievements and impact on women in their communities.

Director and founder of EAAMP, Esther Armah, who doubles as the initiator of the Annual Multi Media Women’s Day project, explained that in partnership with Class FM, the project seeks to engage women from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds in discussions regarding challenges facing the African woman.

This, she said, will create a forum and provide the opportunity to focus on women and target their challenges in order to provide answers to them.

Owner of Women Radio, a Nigerian-based FM station, established mainly for the Nigerian woman, Towin Okenwale, who spoke during a conference call, revealed that in Nigeria only 16 to 20 per cent of media programmes are dedicated to women development whereas about 73 per cent of women complain that issues relating to them were not being given the needed attention.

She stated that women across the world face problems regarding childcare and in their relationships.

However, because of prejudice and gender biases, nothing at all is being done to find solutions to women problems, she added.

She noted that it was in view of this that a smaller portion of about 17 per cent of women in Nigeria decided to set up a platform to arm women which eventually gave birth to Women Radio.

According to her, services rendered by the FM station include seminars, events, and workshops which are basically aimed at equipping women to rise above the ladder.

Others are vocational training in dress making, cake techniques, makeup artistry and beading after which these young girls are given start-up capitals to finance their businesses.

For her part, Director of Programmes at the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Jessica Horn, said solidarity was the best way to deal with fear which seems to be the key factor of women under-development.

She mentioned that creativity and risk-taking were also paramount to success.