Standpoint launches foundation to support needy persons
The Standpoint, a television programme aired on Ghana Television, (GTV) to provide a platform for women to share their views on a wide variety of issues, has marked its fifth anniversary with a lot of activities.
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The anniversary, on the theme: “Women what do you have?”, was used to launch a foundation to support the needy in society, especially the girl child, and also to provide shelter and better opportunities for street girls. The foundation is known as ‘The Girl in Need’
The foundation is expected to support deprived girls aged between 15 and 18 in education and vocational training.
The Standpoint, which is hosted by Gifty Anti, was introduced in July, 2008 with the aim of empowering women to undertake leadership roles and make their voices heard.
The weekly gender advocacy television show had discussed several topics such as: Is marriage the ultimate?; Dealing with a broken heart; Life without a biological child; Cervical cancer; Safe pregnancy; and Understanding the pregnant woman.
Other topics include Breast cancer; Pregnancy did not stop me; Life with a sickle cell child; Life with an autistic child; the Muslim man and gender equality; Women and politics; Celebrating single women; Who is a feminist?; and Women and financial independence.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of the fifth anniversary celebration in Accra, Ms Anti explained that the show had impacted positively on the lives of a number of women on their right against sexual abuse and domestic violence.
According to Ms Anti, the show had highlighted challenges facing women and opened doors for women to express themselves.
She said sometimes companies and individuals refused to sponsor her show because "they feel I discuss only gender-related topics which is not the case. It gets difficult a lot of the times, but I am not discouraged”.
In spite of all the odds, Ms Anti was happy that the programme had helped and touched the lives of many women and homes.
She indicated that hosting the programme had not been very smooth, stressing, “I have been battling issues of gender while my unmarried status is sometimes used against me, I get reports that some husbands prevent their wives from watching my show because according to them, I am not married and do not have a child so how can they learn from someone like me?”.
According to Ms Anti, life had not been a bed of roses for her, since at a point in time she had had to work as a carpenter and a street hawker to support her father who was then taking care of eight children.
By Jennifer Ansah/Ghana
