Empower Marginalized Young Women in Ghana

Dear Friends,

We are so pleased to announce that on August 2nd, 2014, eleven young women received certificates stating they had successfully completed A Ban Against Neglect’s Women’s Empowerment Program. This is our THIRD graduating class! The certificate proved that the women received training in a vocational skill and basic business practices. But the certificate means much more than just this. This certificate shows the young woman is transforming her life. It shows she is providing for herself and her child. It shows she is part of a growing community of young women in Ghana that are unleashing their potential through ABAN’s programs!

The following is a speech read by two of our graduates at the ceremony. We think it sums up their journey through our programs well!

QUEEN MOTHERS, FAMILY, INVITED GUESTS, FRIENDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

God has been good to us in so many ways and today, in the presence of everyone, we want to thank Him. We thank God for the blessings of life he has given us, for the gift of our children He has blessed us with and for the opportunity to have gone through two-year training with ABAN. Today, eleven of us like many before us, graduate from this program. Most of us came here alone without any company. We walked in by ourselves. We came with few dreams and little hope, and yet today, we leave with plenty.

We look around us and see a totally different picture of ourselves today. Our little babies then crawling are now walking and talking. Our knowledge and skills have been developed. Our lives have been transformed and our future is looking bright.

For two years, we brought ourselves to a kind of discipline we thought we could not come under. We accepted the changes that came into our lives because we knew they were for our own good. We welcomed a tradition that was foreign to us but has eventually become a part of our everyday life; a tradition of hope, faith and trust, of hard work and of change. We would like to sum this change up by using our director’s favorite proverb: “Break the rules.’’ We broke the rule that said we were marginalized and so had to be poor. We broke the rule that said our children have to suffer for our mistakes. The rule that said we will not be here today in this celebration of success, like you all can see, is being broken as we speak.

We as a team have shared so many things together. We have lived together while being happy and sad, doubtful and optimistic, fearful and yet very hopeful. We know that this is going to be the beginning of a new life for us. We are going to put into practice all that we have learned over the years. But we know it’s not going to be easy. We are hopeful that we will succeed in life and we ask that you pray for us.

Whilst in ABAN, we were like children. As children, we talked like children, thought like children, dreamt like children, behaved like children. We know we have made mistakes, but we have also grown. Now is the time to make the best of our life and create a legacy that our children will be proud of someday. We will continue to learn until we can also teach and be a blessing to others.

Long live ABAN. God bless you all!

Thank you.

We are so proud of all of our graduates and cannot wait to see them continue to transform their future!