News
12 teachers trained on Gender-Based Violence in schools
Twelve teachers from 10 schools in the Greater Accra Region have been trained as gender advocates to help fight Gender-Based Violence (GBV) within their schools.
This training formed part of the “Young voices matter: empowering boys and girls in the fight against GBV” project, led by Regina Asamoah, an International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) Impact Awardee.
It covered essential aspects of GBV, including understanding its dynamics, recognising psychological impacts, leveraging technology for intervention, and employing age-appropriate communication strategies.
Speaking at the event, ACP (Rtd.) Dr. Patience Quaye, a U.S. Embassy Ghana GBV Champion and Fellow of Missing Children Ghana, said gender-based violence was a crime against humanity, hence the need to educate learners, support survivors, and ensure that perpetrators face justice.
She also addressed the potential for teachers to be perpetrators and highlighted the importance for school to have policies and procedures for reporting and addressing such incidents.
A Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS), Dr Dzifa Abrah Attah, guided the teachers in identifying psychological traits in learners that may indicate they are experiencing GBV and taught them how to provide emotional and psychological support.
Dr Attah encouraged teachers to familiarise themselves with their school’s mental health resources, consider referrals, follow up on them, and provide academic accommodations during students’ recovery.
Prof. Samuel Kojo Kwofie, Head of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Ghana, educated teachers on the use of technology to address Gender-Based Violence (GBV).
Prof. Kwofie said there were Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), which includes cyber stalking, cyberbullying, doxxing (searching for and publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent), cyber mob attacks, image-based abuse, online impersonation, sextortion (a form of online blackmail where the typically unknown offender creates a fake online profile and tricks or coerces the victim into sending sexual images of themselves), online harassment, revenge porn.
TFGBV is a kind of digital violence committed and amplified through the use of information and communications, technologies or digital spaces against a person based on gender.
“Many of our students may be experiencing TFGBV, and we need to be vigilant, especially given that almost every student has a phone and spends a significant amount of time online,” he said.
Prof. Kwofie advocated the development of locally relevant apps tailored to address the specific manifestations of GBV in schools.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
News
Ghana-Colombia strengthens ties through diplomatic engagement
In an important diplomatic engagement, the Colombian Ambassador to Ghana H.E. Daniel Garces Carabali paid a courtesy call on the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, at his office in Accra to discuss some key areas of collaboration.
The meeting focused on pressing issues, including security, decongestion of Ghana’s prisons, prison reform programmes, training programmes, improving the welfare of prisoners and enhancing disaster management in the country.
The courtesy call underscores the growing bilateral ties between Ghana and Colombia, building on previous engagements, such as the visit of the Colombian Vice President to Ghana in 2023.
The meeting demonstrates the commitment of both nations to fostering cooperation and addressing shared challenges.
News
Ghana to host African Catholic Journalists from August 10
The Union Catholique Africaine de la Presse (UCAP), also known as the African Catholic Union of the Press, in collaboration with the Catholic Association of Media Practitioners-Ghana (CAMP-G), is set to host its prestigious Triennial Congress from August 10 to 17 August, 2025.
The programme would be held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Legon, Accra, Ghana.
This landmark event, the most significant gathering of Catholic journalists in Africa, will bring together media professionals, researchers, and experts in digital technology from across the continent and beyond.
The theme for the Congress is: “Balancing Technological Progress and the Preservation of Human Values in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
Congress Highlights
The UCAP Congress 2025 will feature discussions and deliberations on critical issues arising from or related to integral human development, particularly within the framework of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Some of the key sub-themes to be addressed include:Corporate Social Responsibility in Managing the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Human Values, Deploying AI in Eco-friendly Business Start-ups in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges, Technology and the Reprogramming of Social Reality, Distortion of Reality in Social and Digital Media, Ecological Education and Action Against Unsustainable Exploitation of Natural Resources, and Media and the Promotion of the Recommendations of the Synod on Synodality in Africa.
Participants will include media professionals from both ecclesiastical and lay organisations, media researchers and academics, representatives from the Vatican, government agencies, NGOs, civil society, and the digital technology sector.
Objectives of the Congress
The primary goal of this Congress is to strengthen the capacities of media professionals and educate the public on the necessity of preserving human values amid rapid technological progress. Specific objectives include; Training 100 media practitioners in Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies, with a focus on balancing innovation and human values.
This will include promoting ethics and bioethics in technical research and technological innovations through media.
Advocating for human values such as respect for life, human dignity, charity, solidarity, and human rights and assessing the impact of technological progress to better understand the challenges, risks, and opportunities presented by AI will be part of the objectives.
UCAP is a continental organisation dedicated to promoting communication within the Catholic Church and its partners in Africa. With a mission to foster spiritual growth, collaboration, and responsible journalism, UCAP works to spread the Gospel, uphold human values, and support developmental initiatives across Africa and beyond.
UCAP is an independent, autonomous, non-political, and non-profit organisation comprising African Catholic journalists, communicators, academics, researchers, and institutions in various media fields.
