Utilizing the KTT Project to save lives:the agenda of Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) 

My names are Joseph Kobla Wemakor, but my friends call me "HUMAN RIGHTS", for short. I'm a seasoned freelance journalist, a youth leader,  a Sustainable Development Goals advocate (SDGs) and a staunch human rights activist in Ghana. 

Being a man who is so much passionate about ensuring that the  freedom and rights of all and sundry are protected and promoted dservingly with fear or favour, I  founded the Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) in 2019 which I also lead in the capacity as the Executive Director. 

The Human Rights Reporters Ghana (HRRG) is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) whose aim is to rid the society of discrimination and advocate for human rights by giving voices to the minorities in the society particularly women, girls and children and the not forgetting the disabled who are the most vulnerable in our society. We seek to create a society without for all without discrimination hence our motto. "Society for All Without Discrimination" was crafted. 

The organization realizing that human rights issues in Ghana has been on ascendancy (Abductions, rape cases, gruesome killings, ritual murders, domestic violences, Sexual & Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Child marriages, human traffickings, Modern Slavery/Child Labour and armed robbery etc.) begging for solution but to no avail owing to the fact that the majority of most Ghanaians whose rights are being violated are not privy to their rights as humans. This is indeed the fundamental truth! 

Secondly, at the time when kidnappers were wrecking havoc in the country which led to wanton dispearances of  most people especially girls, children and women, therefore our NGO embarked on a nationwide sensitization campaign to create awareness on the dangers of kidnapping,tramadol abuse (drug abuse) and teenage pregnancy among others. 

The project dubbed: "Kidnapping, Teenage Pregnancy and Tramadol Abuse (KTT Project) which also entails an aspect of education focused on human rights witnessed over eighty (80) thousand Ghanaians across the country vigorously sensitized in marketplaces, churches, mosques and  particularly in schools.

I remembered how busy I was myself during the early part of last year (2019) when our campaign has really gained momentum within 5 regions of the country.  At the time the kidnapping phenomenon was at its peak registering a lot of disappearances here and there and the whole country was in mess, gripped with the fear of gruesome happenings. 

The dispearance of the three (3) who girls who at Takoradi in the Western Region of Ghana without trace dominated the news headlines everyday blessed day.

The girls, Ruth Quayson, Priscilla Blessing Bentum and Priscilla Koranchie were believed to have been kidnapped between August 2018 and January 2019 and have since not been found.

Not to even talk about the seizing of the two (2) Canadian women who were volunteers with Youth Challenge International, a Toronto-based international development Organisation at a gun point by some unidentified gunmen at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. 

In addition, an Estonian diplomat who was also kidnapped in April 2019 in the capital Accra and again rescued in a police raid.  The spate of abduction cases in the country at that time even  provoked our President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to come out and openly condemn the act with strong warnings and measures to deal with the perpetrators. 

In fact, a lot has really happened in Ghana just last year which put so lives at risk and created intense panic and tension amidst great fears in every Ghanaian including the foreign nationals in town who were not equally spared which I can go on and on and on to talk about. Never in the history of Ghana should this ugly incidents happen! again.!!. 

The good news is that, while all these were going on, our KTTG project was on course, spearhearded by HRRG and led by my humble self to educate the masses because we believe when people get to know the tricks kidnappers use in luring their unsuspected victims, they will take precautions not to fall victims to the miscreants as well. So when we mount our campaign platforms, one thing we do is to open their minds to the tricks the tricks these so-called kidnappers employ to work, give them the idea of what goes around in the country as far as news is concerned and finally expose them to what human rights are and how they can access the situation whenever their rights are being violated to be able raise their voices in such instances.

Surprisingly, while all these things were ongoing, our NGO received absolutely no support whatsoever from anywhere; no organization or any individual to carry out the campaign to cover the entire country which is the main objective of the KTTG Project. 

Our campaign team believes information on human rights is key but very low, the more reason why social issues which give way to the abuse of rights of most Ghanaians on the rise but without support, we can only achieve less.

We also share in the view that education on human rights should be made available to every DICK, TOM and Harry including reach every nook and cranny of the country especially our girls, women and children who needs it most to remain safe always. 

Though our campaign project is not over yet, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, we have pulled the breaks for now with the hope to continue when the situation in our country improves.

The HRRG's KTT Project must surely hit the road again and very soon, that's our hope and we will count on any well-meaning individual(s) organization (s), institutions or even government (s) from any part of the world who share in our noble vision to support a worthy cause. Our girls, women and children deserve better and we must endeavor to do everything humananly possible to protect their rights from being trampled upon which is our ultimate agenda as a Human Rights Organization.