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| Geoffrey Buta |
GEOFFREY
BUTA is an unassuming and outgoing media personality of a kind, whose shadow of
good works stretches to almost all the corridors of the northern savannah zone
of Ghana and beyond.
He is one of the few Ghanaian photojournalists
many rural and urban dwellers particularly women and children will never forget
of ever seeing in their homes, farms, market places or festivals taking
pictures that rightly captured the low and high moments of their lives. Buta as
he is affectionately called by colleagues enjoys capturing captivating and
amazing moments in the lives of women through the lens of his camera.
A staff of state-owned newspaper– The Ghanaian
Times, a subsidiary of New Times Corporation, Buta is the GJA Photojournalist
of the Year 2012. In the same year, he received the award for best journalist
for road safety reporting (print category) from the National Road Safety
Commission; and was also finalist for Human Rights Photography in Africa
(People’s Choice Award) organised by German Development Media Awards/Deutsche
Welle.
In 2013, Buta won “People’s Choice Award”
for my foto4change project organised by Reach for Change and Tigo; Best
Journalist for road safety reporting (print category) from the National Road
Safety Commission; as well as Thompson Reuters Foundation/Nokia Photo Award
2013 in the UK.
As the world commemorates the 2015 International
Women’s Day Celebration, Buta decided to organise a photo exhibition in honour
of all the women he had met during the course of performing official duties
since he was posted to come and work in the Northern Region.
The exhibition showed dozens of pictures of
hardworking and accomplished women as well as those who are depressed and
suffering taken from different locations in the Northern and Southern parts of Ghana.
Buta told Savannahnews, that
the exhibition was to allow patrons to learn about the significant
contributions of women towards the development of their communities and
families, appreciate them for their efforts and support them to realise their
dreams or potentials.
According to him, most of the women he came
into contact with over the years lacked the necessary support and capacity to be
able to do what they want to do in order to establish themselves economically and
be able to take very good care of their families.
He called on government to consciously institute
measures such as giving grants or micro credit schemes to rural women to enable
them go into small and medium enterprises because such initiatives had the ability
to lift them and their families out of poverty.
The public exhibition, first of its kind by
a photojournalist in the history of Northern Ghana, saw patron saying kudos to
Buta for telling heart-touching stories of women from diverse socio-economic
and cultural backgrounds.
The pictures of the women were taken from
the Upper East, Northern, Volta, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions as well as neighbouring
Burkina Faso. Some of the pictures describe how women in different parts of
Ghana are trying to eke a living, make an impact in their society or how they
are being maltreated by the traditional justice system in their society. Some
of the women are peasant farmers, traders, alleged witches, traditional cloth
weavers, small scale mine workers and among others.
Chairwoman of the exhibition Mrs. Gifty
Baka called on Ghanaian men to celebrate the little achievements and efforts of
women particularly their wives, daughters and sisters and encourage them to
attain greater heights in anything meaningful they get themselves involved in.
Mrs. Baka who is also Country Director of
Christian Children’s Fund of Canada commended government for introducing LEAP
1000, a social protection programme intended to alleviate poverty levels among
6000 women living in the Northern and Upper East Regions. She however urged
implementers of the programme –Ministry of Gender, Children and Social
Protection, to manage the resources judiciously so that each and every
beneficiary would get what is due her.
International
Women’s Day is celebrated globally and annually on 8 March to highlight the
1995 Beijing Declaration and
Platform for Action, a historic roadmap signed by 189
governments 20 years ago that sets the agenda for realizing women’s rights.
While there have been many achievements since then, many serious gaps remain.
This
is the time to uphold women’s achievements, recognize challenges, and focus
greater attention on women’s rights and gender equality to mobilize all people
to do their part, United Nations Women said in a statement. The Beijing
Platform for Action focuses on 12 critical areas of concern, and envisions a
world where each woman and girl can exercise her choices, such as participating
in politics, getting an education, having an income, and living in societies
free from violence and discrimination.
To
this end, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is the clarion
call of UN Women’s Beijing+20 campaigns “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!”
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