Remarkable individuals:-an occasional series

31^st December Women’s Movement- and women in Ghana.

Established on the 15^th May 1982, after military coup Leader Jerry Rawlins had begun his second period of ruling Ghana, the 31st December Women’s Movement, set about educating and training women across Ghana, but particularly in the poorer remote and rural districts.

 Its aims were- and still are-“ to harness the 51% of the adult population who are women, so that women could actively play an integral part of decision-making at every level.” The organisation adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Status of Women as part of its constitution.

A collective sorting palm nuts ready for sale. photo-internet-from 31st December website.

Elizabeth, now enjoying retirement from her work in Ghana Education Service (GES) as the Officer for Early Childhood  and Kindergarten Education, was a District Organiser for the 31^st December Women’s Movement.  

Haruna and I met her by accident early one afternoon when we stopped at a “Spot” bar for a well earned cold drink, after hours of motor bike riding to visiting remote rural farms.  Elizabeth was enjoying a cold beer: nothing remarkable in some countries, but in Ghana, the women I see in bars are typically the white/ non Ghanaian volunteers, the serving  staff,  or passing food vendors with trays and baskets of snacks and fruits balanced on their heads.

Elizabeth spoke proudly of travelling far and wide, setting up training groups in villages across the Upper East region to gather and teach women crafts such as carpentry, functional literacy and agricultural skills and to establish business collectives. Hundreds of thousands joined and lives were changed for the better. The 31^st December Women’s Movement, still 1 million strong, still closely associated with Rawlins and his wife, is credited with bringing forward universal kindergarten education for all Ghanaian children- and Elizabeth’s own role within GES grew out of her pioneering work. It also spearheaded the drive for more recent Parliamentary Acts on family law, child support law, marriage law and a domestic violence law.

I pose with Elizabeth and her daughter in law.

Yesterday, in a primary school classroom, I asked the pupils who could ride a donkey. All the boys put up their hands, none of the girls. Why?

Image-Ghana Business News-article headline-"Boy rides to school on donkey"-17.12.2008

Sobering, but given the continuing lower status of women here, as evidenced by their observed daily work routines and characteristically subservient conduct, in addition to the global occurrences of violence against women, under-representation in senior decision making roles, much remains to be done and questions asked as to why?- and why not?