People & Lifestyle
Model, Jasmine Seyram Akortsu launches Jazmyn Foundation to address issues facing women and children in Ghana
Jazmyn Foundation, a non- profit organisation founded in July 2019 by a talented modelling stalwart Jasmine Seyram Akortsu has been officially launched in Accra. Ms Seyram’s main objective is to use the proceeds, opportunities, exposure and contacts available at her disposal as a Model and Fashion enthusiast to address some of the unmet needs in the society beleaguering women and children as well as to improve the quality of life of the disparaged, marginalised and oppressed women and children within the society.The launch of the foundation took place at the Stanbic Bank Incubator on October 11, where the founder highlighted her mission to lay an unwavering foundation which will integrate tyrannised women and children back into the society through effective projects and programs and to be a leading instrument of change of life for desolate women and children in the society.
“We are being inspired by the saying of Phineas Taylor Barnum, an American showman and politician, who said that ‘Men, women and children who cannot liveon gravity alone need something to satisfy their gayer, lighter moods and hours, and he who ministers to this want is, in my opinion, in a business established by the Creator of our nature. If he worthily fulfils his mission and amuses without corrupting, he need never feel that he has lived in vain.’ Offering a helping hand to improve the quality of life of the disparaged, marginalised and oppressed women and children within the society is the organisational goal of the Jazmyn Foundation and we consider it as the Creator’s call as Taylor Barnum puts it,” commented asmine Seyram Akortsu.
Statistics over the years have proven that not less than 20% of the women and children population in Ghana in one way or the other are subjected to dehumanizing acts in our societies. Some are exposed to all forms of ailments and health attacks. Just to mention a few, Maternal Motility rate is still above average, 164 per 100,000 live birth as at 2018. Child trafficking and kidnapping is at its apex.
Ghanaian boys and girls are subjected to conditions of forced labor in fishing, domestic servitude, street hawking, begging, portering and agriculture. Over 821 million people suffered chronic undernourishment in 2017 according to the 2018 report on State of Food Security and Nutrition in the worldof which Ghana has its ‘fair share’. The alarming increase in malnutrition in womenand children calls for urgent attention. It is reported that Ghana recorded 4,645 breast cancer cases from January to September,2018 alone as surveyed by GLOBOCAN, a Cancer Surveillance database managed by the International Association of Cancer Registries (IARC).
The Jazmyn Foundation is expected to have reached out to about one third of women and children living in the deprived areas in Ghana who are subjected to all forms abuse, ailment as well as those who are deprived of some basic needs of life by 2025. It intends to achieve the above goal by executing projects and programs which includes:
- Breast Cancer screening and sensitization
- Child Trafficking and kidnapping awareness campaign
- Maternalmortalityinterventionprograms
- Obstetric fistula awareness campaign
- Hunger alleviation programs in deprived communities
- The Obaatampa project for disabled mothers and children
- Night schools for illiterate women
- Witch camps assuagement programs
- Cleftsensitizationandoperationprojects
10 .Cervical Cancer awareness and control programs.
The foundation will hold its first project, a Breast Cancer Screening exercise slated for October 20 ,2019 at the Teshie Nungua School Complex Park. Screening will be done free of charge by well renowned medical professionals and the foundation intend to sponsor the health care of anyone diagnosed of this Cancer.
“We are looking to have alliance and partnership with the various donor companies like UNICEF, CHILD RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL and individuals but as it stands all projects are funded by myself and my able team. Let me quickly use this trusted platform of yours once more to admonish stakeholders, organisations and individuals who shares a common goal and aspiration to warmly open their doors anytime we knock at them,” commented Jasmine Seyram Akortsu.
