JHR chapter president Mustapha Muhammed Jamiu poses with magazine banners at the African University College of Communication
The JHR student chapter at the African University College of Communications has gained national attention with a student-produced rights media magazine.
Within two short years, a magazine that began as a JHR-mentored project at AUCC, has become a fixture on the university campus. In 2013 the student chapter will be producing the third issue of the magazine, Faces of Ada, focused on human rights abuses and environmental problems in the community of Ada. This year, the students are producing the magazine independently!
“As a development communication student, what I have observed is that it is because of how we involve stakeholders in the process of these projects, and they submit themselves to the service since they have realized it’s for the benefit of their communities,” said Mustapha Muhammed Jamiu, current president of AUCC’s JHR chapter.
JHR trainer Laura Bain initiated the magazine project while working at the university as a JHR Educational Officer in 2011. The original magazine Faces of Old Fadama focused on the plight of residents in Accra’s largest slum community.
When the first issue of the magazine was published, the reaction was vast. Local and national media immediately took notice of the community and produced follow-up stories in print, radio and television on the situation in Old Fadama.
The magazine’s second edition Faces of Prestea, published in 2012, focused on exposing the injustices in a mining community in Western Ghana. The magazine’s reach was impresssive and national attention was again drawn to overlooked issues in a marginalized community.
The production of the human rights focused magazine has now been incorporated into the university’s journalism curriculum, ensuring its sustainability for years to come.