Ambassador for a Day Competition - Video Transcript

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Watch the TV report on the Joy News Facebook Page

Voiceover The four winners were chosen from hundreds of young women aged 16-19 from across the country to spend a day with the High Commissioners of United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Ambassador of France. Speaking at the event, the British High Commissioner, Harriet Thompson, explained the rationale of the Ambassador for the Day initiative. According to her, her office are committed to tackling gender-based issues across the African continent.

Harriet Thompson, British High Commissioner for Ghana The British government has decided to dedicate the whole of the month of march to issues of gender equality across the continent of Africa. So the High Commission here in Accra is hosting and organizing a series of events throughout march that seek to promote women and girls in Ghana, and to promote issues of gender equality around education and health and so on. 

And the Ambassador for a Day competition is one of the things that we’re most excited about because it gives young women, such as Maish here, an opportunity to experience what will be quite a different life for a day. I’m really looking forward to hearing her opinions, her thoughts, about not only gender issues here in Ghana, but what she thinks about things that are happening in the world more widely at the moment. 

Voiceover One of the awardees, Barikisu Ibrahim, tells JoyNews how she intends to embark on a project to create awareness about infant and child mortality. 

Barikisu Ibrahim I have the interest in taking care of children most especially, in financially low homes, because the rate of child mortality and mortality in women is very high due to financial problems. And so if in a way we are able to create jobs through entrepreneur skills for them, they would be able to earn something for themselves in order to prevent such problems.

Voiceover The other winners were Feruza Abdulai, Maish Ibrahim, and Dorcas Arthur. National Director of Campaign for Female Education – CAMFED Ghana – Sally Ofori-Yeboah explained the criteria used in selecting young women for the program. 

Sally Ofori-Yeboah, National Director, CAMFED Ghana The criteria was for young women between 16 and 19 years. And then it was also for just open anyone who would express themselves about all the gender questions that were put out. And then also aspire for an opportunity to spend a day with an Ambassador to share their thoughts on what they would do differently or what they would do if they were in their shoes. 

So these opportunities were to circled out to all the groups, the various WhatsApp platforms that the young women are gathered on, and then they did put out their videos, you can either use your local dialect, your local language, anything that was – we were careful about not excluding anyone. And so that’s how come we got entries into this and announcing the form then come through the program. 

Voiceover The British High Commission intends on extending the initiative to solving mental health issues affecting women.