Gertrude Bibi Annoh-Quarshie
Ghana
I call myself a feminist because I believe in the rights of women and I advocate and support all
efforts by women to exercise their rights.
Although I live and am based in Accra, my work takes me to a number
of African countries. I am currently working with the African Women’s
Development Fund (AWDF), an innovative organisation at the cutting
edge of social justice and women’s rights philanthropy in Africa. As
Finance Manager, I am responsible for managing the overall financial
obligations of all projects and maintaining accounting controls by
preparing and recommending policies and procedures. I am in charge
of the functions involving money and strategies around raising and using
money efficiently, economically and effectively in my organization. I work
very closely with other members of the management team on matters that
can affect the financial health of the organization as well as the overall
organisational strategy.
I believe that our actions define whether we are feminists or not. I have
been called a feminist and I call myself a feminist because I believe in
the rights of women and I advocate and support all efforts by women to
exercise their rights. My work is centred around ensuring that women are
able to live in a world where there is social justice and equality.
One of the challenges facing feminists in Africa is strengthening the movement
to attract and retain a wider network of feminists of all generations from
young girls to older women. The movement does not seem to be engaging
as much as it should with the necessary actors who are contributing towards
the marginalisation of women. For sustainability and continuity, there is the
need for deliberate attempts to raise awareness about the achievements of
the movement by celebrating feminists and documenting their achievements
so that others can be informed and be part of the movement especially
young women. There should also be more clarity on what the movement
hopes to achieve in the future to make it relevant to the society at large.
I also believe that we need to celebrate the work and achievements of
feminists and connect with each other at a personal, community, national
and international level. To ensure that our flames of passion continue to
burn, we need to inspire one another, to work tirelessly till all forms of
inequality against women are eliminated. It may take centuries but we
should never give up. The Feminist Charter can be used as a guideline
to establish feminist clubs for girls and young women. Girls have to be
mentored at an early age to believe in themselves and their identity.
In my personal and professional life, I continue to raise awareness on
feminist ideologies. I have a network of young women that I mentor and by
associating with them, I take the opportunity to raise their consciousness
about the inequalities around them and to make a choice to be part of
the change to end all forms of violence I am inspired by change – by the
accomplishments people achieve everyday and their refusal to give up on
their rights. I love nature, travel and the beach – it reassures me that all the
things that are bothering me really don’t matter in the big picture.
VPS II
. 29