Poverty not sole reason for migration – MoH

Dr Zakariah Afisah, Director of Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ministry of Health, has debunked the notion that abject poverty was the sole cause of many people moving from the hinterlands to the urban centres.

She said the inability of parents and guardians to assist young ones to set their goals and priorities could also be the reason why many people particularly young girls, from the countryside move to the cities.

Dr Afisah said this to the Ghana News Agency after the Gonjaland Youth Association, the Greater Accra branch, organised a durbar in her honour for being the “outstanding female doctor of the year”.

The award was conferred on her by the Ghana Women’s Awards on May 31, 2013 for her hard work and dedication to duty as well as establishing herself as an astute medical doctor and a researcher.

Dr Afisah, who expressed unhappiness with the poverty situation in rural Ghana, especially, the three northern regions, said setting specific goals and priorities and working towards their achievements was the key to overcoming the poverty situation.

She expressed regret that people who worked hard and laboriously would use what they earned to buy fashionable dresses or cosmetics at the expense of engaging themselves in trade or buying educational materials.

Mr Yakubu Mumuni, President of the Association, said Dr Afisah served as source of inspiration to young women in the society as she grew up and was raised by with her widowed mother in the rural area of the Gonjaland.

He urged parents and guardians to invest heavily in the education of girls since women naturally possessed strong qualities that had the tendency of turning the fortunes of the nation round.

Source: GNA