Profile of authors
Dr Prospera Dzang-Tedam
Prospera is the Lead for Social Work Practice Quality at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom. Prior to this she was Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Northampton for 10 years. She has published widely in the areas of cultural competence, witchcraft-labelling and child safeguarding. Prospera conceived of the initial concept which resulted in the development of the Sunflower Project in an all-girls secondary school. As the lead consultant, Prospera was involved in all aspects of the project until August 2016 when the pilot phase concluded.
Mrs. Elsie Gaisie-Ahiabu
Elsie holds an MPhil in Social Work from the University of Ghana, and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in the area of Population Studies. She is the Programme Coordinator of the California State University - Office of International Programmes at the Ghana Centre. She is also the founder and director of a local non-governmental organization (LNGO)-DeSMAS. DeSMAS or Deprived Single Mothers Assistance Scheme afforded her the unique opportunity to apply the principles and skills of a social worker in assisting single mothers and their children in deprived communities.
She has also coordinated various programs and projects, offered consultancy services, taught at tertiary level and has been involved in research aimed at improving the well-being of women and children. As a result of her keen interest in the welfare of children, she quickly bought into the concept of the Sunflower project proposed by Dr. Prospera Dzang-Tedam in 2014. She was the Project Manager and was responsible for ensuring that up-to-date and concise reports were retained on all aspects of the project and that utmost confidentiality was maintained.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to our families and friends in the UK, Ghana and around the world for their inspiration, support and encouragement during the setting up and running of the project.
To the girls in the Project school, the Headmistress, and the staff who enabled the pilot project to succeed, we are eternally grateful for your role in making this book a reality.
The authors pledge their ongoing support for the project through the proceeds from this book.
Our Journey and Commitment
We have known each other for over 20 years, having first met at the University of Ghana, Legon where we both studied and achieved a BA (Hons) in Social Work. Our friendship developed and has been sustained over the years because of our similar interests around not only protecting children from harm, but also actively working to ensure children’s needs are understood. Despite living and working in different countries we have always been in regular contact and have both pursued careers in the area of social work.
As social workers, we believe in the need to support, advise and guide families to be better able to bring up their children in environments free from all forms of abuse and neglect. As academic researchers, we feel able to achieve this through disseminating our findings and sharing the experience gained from our pilot project.
Our book, ‘Child Protection in Boarding Schools in Ghana: Contemporary Issues, Challenges and Opportunities’ invites readers to carefully consider ways in which we currently work with children and young people in boarding schools and proffers new ways of working with them to ensure their best interests are met and maintained throughout the course of their studies.
This is not an attempt to blame or criticise any profession or any individuals, institutions, organisations or agencies. Instead, it represents an attempt to contribute to finding robust and lasting solutions to some of the socio-cultural challenges which may exist in Ghanaian boarding schools and are faced by secondary school-aged children on a regular basis. Our vision is to be a part of the solution by prompting dialogue among key stakeholders, policy and decision-makers.
Of significance to us are the findings of a number of reports which identify Ghana as lacking in robust child protection policies. For example, the fourth MDG progress report (2008 MDG Report) in September 2010 identified the need for improved child protection services across various sectors in Ghana. Additionally, the 2015 MDG Report acknowledged the slow pace of gender equity in access to secondary school with the update of female children still being problematic (MDG 2015).
What qualifies us to write a book on child protection in boarding schools?
Protecting children should be high on every Ghanaian citizen’s agenda, however, we recognise that more often than not, this responsibility is abrogated to professionals such as social workers, police, development officers, gender and child-rights advocates, teachers, nurses, doctors and others. Whilst we write this book from our positions as child protection and child welfare experts, we bring to bear our own childhood experiences of boarding school in Ghana. We have memories of the sorts of treatment and behaviours we approved of and the ones that left us in despair, fear and anxiety. There are also the experiences which left us traumatised and which we have avoided having to reflect on until now. For example,
One of the authors was in a boarding school which had its farms. Students were the ‘farm hands’ and produce from the farm was used by the school kitchen to feed students. The farm was many miles away from the school and often the journey there would occur on foot, and students would have to take their hoes, machetes and other relevant farming implements with them. On one such occasion, a number of students were being transported in the trailer of a tractor which unfortunately was involved in an accident. Some students sustained injuries and were taken to the local hospital. My vivid recollection of the doctor in charge repeatedly saying, ‘no injury, no medicine’ is one that will forever remain ingrained with me. The author is aware of one peer, who till this day continues to experience pain in her arm, requiring regular medical intervention Intervention to address the emotional and psychological trauma was absent.
Secondly, as parents of children who are currently in secondary schools, we explore with them their experiences of their schools and aim to understand whether these are similar or different to ours. Discussions with our own children reveal some of the less desirable situations as still present in their experiences today. Needless to say, there have been improvements in many areas of boarding school provision in Ghana, however, there are always opportunities to develop and improve on some processes to ensure that children experience a safe, nurturing and healthy boarding
