The Asante Gold Corporation, as part of creating jobs has launched the Women in Mining initiative in Bibiani and Chirano to address the under representation of women in the organisation. The initiative also seeks to achieve theme ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Employment’ among women in the management of the company. Mr Frederick Attakumah, the Executive Vice President and Country Director, Asante Gold Corporation said, the company’s quest to create a safe and secure space where women were empowered to thrive and realized their maximum potential was in line with the Sustainable Development Goal five on Gender Diversity. ‘Our objective is to build a female-friendly organization’. The Executive Vice President reiterated that sexual harassment, and gender-based violence would not be tolerated at the workplace and pledged to work with Asante Gold Women in Mining members to understand how best to create a safe avenue for reporting of all forms of harassment including micro-aggression and non-Physical violence. He further promised to adequately resource Asante Gold Women in Mining in their activities and asked Management through annual budgetary provisions that covered planned activities of the Asante Gold Women in Mining chapters. He also encouraged them to implement Programs which included outreach to Senior High Schools, Church, and Mosques among others, for career counseling purposes and Women’s Health awareness creation, among others. Mrs Georgette Sakyi-Addo, the National President, Women in Mining lauded the managements of Asante Gold for being forward looking and recognizing the important role women have on the growth of the Company. She cited a recent baseline research organized by Women in Mining which identified three issues that Women in the Mining sector were battling with. According to the research,39.8 percent of respondents cited ‘lack of effective leadership’, by management as an issue,14.8 percent also complained about ‘work life and family balance’ whist 45.4 percent of them mentioned ‘discrimination and harassment’ as a major issue that needed to be tackled urgently. ‘Whether perceived or real these signals that, we all have a lot of work to do,’ and called on stakeholders to work together to find lasting solutions to these issues. Mrs Bertha Yeboah Asuamah, on behalf of Women in Mining, Bibiani and Chirano chapters encouraged young girls to take up STEM courses to be employed by Mining Companies.
Source: Ghana News Agency
