Ama Boafo – Arthur (PhD) Lecturer, University of Ghana, School of Continuing and Distance Education
Ama Boafo-Arthur is a faculty member at the University of Ghana’s School of Continuing and Distance Education. She’s the coordinator for Student Support and Advisory Services at the Department of Distance Education. Prior to her engagement at the University of Ghana she was a Faculty Member at the Valley View University’s Development Studies Department for about five years.
She is a dedicated, resourceful, and goal-driven professional educator with a solid commitment to the social and academic growth and development of children, youth/young adults. This is reflected in her research interests which include sexual abuse, adolescence and youth studies, reproductive health, childhood studies and multiculturalism.
Ama has a background in Sociology and Development Studies. She has a Bachelor’s and MPhil degree in Sociology from the University of Ghana. She again has an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge University in the UK. Following her interest in Childhood Studies she pursued a PhD in Development Studies at the Institute if Statistical, Social, and Economic Research at the University of Ghana, conducting her research on the Livelihood Strategies of Street Children in Accra.
Her greatest desire is to help create an environment free from abuse thus advocacy and education of all is paramount in helping to change the old order in Ghana and beyond.
Dzifa Abra Attah (PhD) Clinical Psychologist/Lecturer
Dr. Dzifa Abra Attah is a lecturer at the University of Ghana, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Korle-Bu. She is also engaged in conducting mental health research and practices as a Clinical Psychologist in Ghana.
Over the past 10 years, she has done extensive work with vulnerable populations including people living with HIV/AIDS, street children, children in foster care, trafficked children and children engaged in forced child labor.
She obtained her first degree and master’s degree from the University of Ghana, Legon in Psychology and Clinical Psychology respectively. In 2013, she received a full time doctorate award to study Psychology (Public mental health) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Here, she was the first student from Stellenbosch University to be awarded the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund in 2014.
For her PhD, she conducted groundbreaking research on the lived experiences of child sexual abuse in a local Ghanaian community. In this piece, she writes about the participants’ unsettling stories of sexual abuse, as well as her own experience of sexual harassment during and after the data collection phase of the study. Among other findings, her work sheds light on the cultural expectations of child care in Ghana, which mandate collective effort to foster and promote healthy child development.
As a professional, she seeks to add her voice in the fight against abuse or violence of any form.
SIR FRANK PAA KUMI
Sir Frank Paa Kumi is the Chief Operating Officer and Founding Director of the Passionate Africa Leadership Institute (PALI). He is a social innovator, a strategist, a governance watcher and a leadership coach. Paa Kumi has fifteen years of a practitioner’s experience in civic engagement, social development, training and development and community mobilization. He also serves as the secretary to the PALI governing council and co-chair of the coalition of NGOs associated with the United Nations in Ghana, DPI.
He received professional training in Development Management from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and a Bachelor in Business Administration with emphasis on Human Resource Management from the Central University.
In May 2005, Paa Kumi led the formation of the Vision Care Network International; a community based youth-led organization which has significantly seen transformation from a community development institution to finding a niche in driving social innovation to advance the course of participatory governance, human development and youth empowerment (social accountability)[read more=”Click here to Read More” less=”Read Less“] In order to achieve the above mission, Vision Care Network International was branded and renamed in May 2015 as Passionate African Leadership Institute (PALI) to reflect its newly found niche. The Institute has a 3-tier operational model namely, PALI-Centre for Leadership and People Development with defined focus on human development especially growing leaders, the PALI-Centre for Natural Capital Governance and Social Accountability for safeguarding participatory governance and the PALI-Youth Impact Projects to drive total youth empowerment and transformation. The above establishment and initiatives provide the leadership narrative of Sir Frank Paa Kumi which resulted in growing a community organization into the level of a fully pledged developmental institute.
Paa Kumi is a fellow of the 2007 cohort of the prestigious British Council’s Interaction Leadership Program, a Pan-African Leadership Mentoring Program with support from the British Government. He is fast becoming one of Africa’s shining examples in challenging the deficit thinking problems within the region through relentless efforts. He invests in developing the leadership capacities of other young teen leaders as his personal contribution to the process of training and mentoring the next cream of Africa’s human capital asset.
Paa Kumi has presented and facilitated numerous training, capital building and motivational sessions and conferences on self-development, organizational growth, leadership and governance for faith based organizations, civil societies, educational institutions and SMEs both home and abroad. Notable among them include: Church of Pentecost (COP) Youth Political Chamber, Youth Ministry-Church of Pentecost, International Christian Harvest Centre (Denmark), Kingdom Mysteries Centre (KMC), Colleges of Education in the Eastern, Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Greater Accra Regions, the Ghana Baptist University College, among other public engagements.
Paa Kumi makes regular contributions to global and national discourse by appearing on the current affairs shows of some electronic media platforms such as the Morning Shows of First News Network (FNN) and Television Zoe. He is also a regular respondent to issues on Metro Television, TV3 News Network, Precious TV and Ghana Television.
In 2017, June 11th, He was published by the African diaspora community as the role-model-of-the-week with the caption….’ https://afripoet.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/role-model-of=the-week-mr-frank-paa-kumi-from-ghana-entrepreneur-pastor-director-of-pali-ghana/
Sir Frank Paa Kumi is currently the Chief Operating Officer/Director of the Passionate Africa Leadership Institute (PALI), Convener of Reshape Africa Initiative and President, Care Charismatic Outreach. [/read]