Wacam community activist, 61, obtains a degree

This June 2012 photo shows Okyeman making a group
presentation at a community workshop. Pix: F. Asiamah 

A community activist and coordinator of Wacam’s advocacy work in the Akyem area in Southern Ghana, Mr Kwabena Frimpong Denkyira (aka Okyeman), has obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work from the University of Ghana, Legon at the age of sixty one (61).

Mr Denkyira, who hails from Adausena in the New Abirem area, is also a peasant farmer.

He started working with Wacam in 2006 to mobilise and build the capacity of the people in the area to protect their economic and social-cultural rights. He benefitted from many training programmes of Wacam, which sharpened his knowledge on environmental, economic, social   and human rights issues.

He says his interest in mining advocacy work was fuelled by his desire to protect Ajenua Bepo Forest reserve and his family lands which were to be destroyed to give way to the surface mining operations of Newmont Akyem mine. He therefore translated this desire into action by mobilising his community people against “the greed of the company” which would create current and future social and environmental problems for the people in the New Abirem area.

Mr Denkyira has expressed gratitude to Wacam for sponsoring his tertiary education, recounting that when Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng and Mrs Hannah Owusu-Koranteng, Wacam Executive Director and Associate Executive Director, respectively proposed the idea of further education at the tertiary level to him, he dismissed the idea because after completing the GCE ‘O’ Level at Oda Secondary School in 1975, pursuing a degree course at the University seemed unachievable to him.  

“It took a lot of efforts from the Executive Director and the Associate Executive Director to convince me that I could pursue a degree programme and beyond. I cannot believe that I have been transformed from a peasant farmer into the academic world. I am grateful to Wacam for the sponsorship and I have to pay back the investment it had made in me. I intend to be a lawyer to defend other poor farmers in mining areas”, he said.

According to Mrs Owusu-Koranteng, Wacam has so far supported eleven (11) of its activists at all levels of formal education such as High school, Diploma, Degree and Post Graduate studies as part of the capacity building programme for activists.

She expatiated that so far, three of community activists have been supported to have high school education while two activists have been sponsored to undergo diploma programmes in Labour Studies at the University of Cape Coast (UCC). Furthermore, four activists have been sponsored for degree programmes at various universities while another two activists have benefitted from sponsorship for Post Graduate programmes in Planning at KNUST and Environmental Management and Policy at UCC respectively.  

“Mining advocacy requires that our activists have technical and professional competences and our activists have to be trained to blend theory and practice to be able to effectively engage with multiple stakeholders including the mining companies and that is the reason for the educational support for our committed activists,” she explained.

Source: Wacam. Editing by Frederick Asiamah