Tuesday, February 17, 2009

More opportunities for fashion designers

Saturday, February 14, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 46)
By Rebecca Kwei
Fashion designer, Michael Allan David of Allan David Collection has called on young designers to strive hard and come out with innovative designs since the fashion industry is constantly rediscovering itself and will, therefore, seek new talents.
Speaking to The Mirror in Accra after he had participated in Createurope: The Fashion Academy Award in Berlin, Germany, he said there was a lot of opportunities for people in the creative industries provided they remained innovative and not lose sight of their identity.
Createurope: The Fashion Academy Award which was initiated by Goethe-Institut served as a network for relevant academic and training centres and promote intercultural exchanges between young designers.
It was open for fashion design students and young fashion designers aged between 18 and 32 from all of Europe.
According to Allan David, although the competition was for European designers, Dr Ulrich Sacker of Createurope recognised that there was a lot of talent in Africa because he had seen the works of ace designers such as Kofi Ansah and Oswald Boateng and thus decided to invite other African designers to participate in the one week project.
The African designers came from Ghana, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan and Cameroon.
Allan David said although the Africans did not participate in the main competition, they exhibited their collections and also attended workshops on the new trends in the fashion industry.
He said the programme exposed him to other designs from Europe and also had the opportunity to share ideas with European designers and the need for networking.
He expressed appreciation to the Germany government, Goethe Institut and the German Embassy for their support.
He also participated in Afric Collection Fashion Parade which was held in Cameroon recently to showcase the best collection from the continent.
Presently, Allan David says he is preparing to participate in another fashion show for African designers slated for Kenya in April this year.
The challenge for him after participating in all these fashion shows, he said, was to strive hard and come out with better collections.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Trader 'abducts' student, 17

Saturday, February 7, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 27)
By Rebecca Kwei
NOT satisfied with the sexual intercourse he had with his victim, an accused person, Samson Kwakye, is said to have decided to lock up the victim in his room and abused her sexually several times.
The facts of the case, as presented by the prosecutor, ASP Lawrence Gbele, are that the complainant is a pensioner living at Dome Pillar Two with the victim, a 17-year-old final-year senior high school student.
During the Christmas holidays, the victim went home for a short period and was asked to go back to school on December 27, 2008.
While on her way, she met the accused, Samson, a trader who lives in the same vicinity, and a friend.
The accused asked the victim to buy him food, which she complied.
When she brought the food, Samson requested that she send it to his room, which she did.
The victim alleged that Samson then locked her up in the room, seized her phone and prevented her from receiving calls from anyone.
Later, the complainant had information from the victim’s school that she had not reported.
The complainant then called a cousin of the victim’s and informed him about what had happened.
The cousin began calling the cell phone and the accused picked the calls and warned the cousin not to call the victim again.
Samson also prevented the victim from going out and only allowed her to take her bath late in the night.
The witness managed to call the victim on her cell phone while the accused was away and she directed him to where the accused had locked her up and later she was rescued on January 20, 2009.
A complaint was lodged and the accused was arrested. During interrogations, he admitted the offence.
The accused was arraigned before the Accra Circuit Court where he pleaded not guilty to a charge of abduction.
He was granted bail in the sum of GH¢2,000 with one surety to be justified. He will reappear on February 11, 2009.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Increase in rape, defilement cases

Saturday, January 31, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 28)

By Rebecca Kwei
Statistics available at the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Greater Accra Region indicate that there was an increase in reported cases of defilement from 449 in 2007 to 552 in 2008.
Rape cases reported also showed an increase of 161 in 2008 as against 151 in 2007, while there were 59 cases of indecent assault in 2008 as compared to 52 in 2007.
In 2007 the number of reported cases of incest was four but increased to 15 in 2008. However, assault cases decreased from 2172 in 2007 to 2122 in 2002
Speaking to The Mirror on the possible reasons why defilement cases have increased, the Public Relations Officer of DOVVSU, Accra, Chief Inspector Irene Oppong, attributed it to lack of effective communication between parents and their children.
She explained that suspects had a way of luring their victims such as sending them and giving them money or gifts before they defile them.
Chief Inspector Oppong said in cases where children had already been defiled, because there was no communication, the victims were unable to tell their parents or guardians and they (parents/guardians) were also not able to detect the abuse early.
She encouraged parents to educate their children on sex and sexual abuse and what they should look out for in order to identify possible predators.
According to her, it was important for parents to be cautious of people who took care of their children because it was the same people who turned around to abuse children.
“About 90 per cent of child abusers are not strangers or aliens to the victim but people they know,” she stressed.
On assault, she noted that some traditional and cultural practices played a major part in why people saw nothing wrong with it.
For instance, when a parent assaults a child, he or she says “the child is my property and so I can do whatever I want”.
She said most parents saw assault or abuse as a way of correcting their children.
With married couples, she said most people believed a man must ‘discipline’ his spouse when she went wrong hence most men did not see anything wrong with assaulting their spouse.
Chief Inspector Oppong said more people were reporting cases of domestic violence because of DOVVSU’s outreach programmes, which had educated them to know that domestic violence was a crime.
She advised couples to use dialogue in resolving issues rather than resorting to violence, adding that they may also contact DOVVSU, which would take them through their marriage crisis management programme, where they use mediation and counselling sessions to mend broken families.
Statistics of other cases reported at the unit are: Abduction 146 in 2008 as compared to 123 in 2007; child labour three in 2008 and 2007; child trafficking 10 and one in 2008 and 2007 respectively.
There were also 19 reported cases of criminal abortion in 2008 and 24 in 2007; exposing child to harm, 87 in 2008 and 123 in 2007. For compulsion of marriage two cases were reported in 2007 and three in 2008. Under the section of failing to supply basic necessities of health and life, 111 were reported in 2008 as compared to 116 in 2007.