UK University Partners Ghanaian NGO To Promote Human Rights In Mining Affected Communities 

The University of Nottingham, a public research university based in Nottingham, UK, is partnering a Ghanaian based human rights media advocacy organisation, Global Media Foundation to promote human rights in mining affected communities.

The 6,000 pounds project title: Change from Below: Building the Capacity of Local Communities to Advocate for their rights has a one-year lifespan.

The project was necessitated following a research conducted by Dr. Samuel Okyere, a Lecturer at the University in 2012 title: “Re-Examining the Education-Child Labour Nexus: The Case of Child Miners at Kenyassi”

The article was to contributes to the debate on the linkages between education and child labour. It draws on evidence from ethnographic fieldwork conducted with 57 children working at an artisanal gold mining site at Kenyasi,

The Founder/CEO of Global Media Foundation, Raphael Godlove Ahenu Jnr announced this at a news conference in Sunyani.

The main goal of the project, he said is to build the capacity of residents in the mining affected communities to be able to participate in policy debates and public discourse on mining, land dispossession and social justice in Ghana and internationally in order to advocate for their own rights.

The CEO said the project will further create deeper and more informed awareness of the debilitating social, cultural and environmental effects of gold mining activities in Kenyasi and surrounding areas where the underlying research was carried out.

According to Mr. Ahenu Jnr, the project will identify and build the capacity of 120 community based change agents in the beneficiary communities through workshops.

The communities in the Newmont Ahafo Mines to benefit from the project are Kenyasi Number one, Kenyansi Number two, Ntotroso, Gyedu and Manu Shell

Mr. Ahenu Jnr said the project will enhance the knowledge, skills and information necessary to enable the trained change agents participate in and shape policy and public debates on mining.

The project, Mr. Ahenu Jnr noted will further empowered the residents to effectively campaign for action against the ongoing environmental and socio-economic rights violation in their own communities and beyond.

It will also provide a platform for the research findings to be fed into the programmes and policies of Global Media Foundation.