Mrs Hannah Awadzi’s story

Mrs Hannah Awadzi  is a Communications Professional, she works as a Journalist with the Ghana News Agency and also runs a not for profit advocacy organization. The Special Mothers Project which focuses  on cerebral palsy and issues affecting families raising children with disabilities in Ghana and beyond.

Hannah also loves counselling, thus she has trained as a certificated counsellor and is licensed by the Ghana Psychological Council as a Psychologist Assistant. Hannah was born in Obuasi, a gold mining town in the Ashanti region of Ghana.

Hannah is currently pursuing a Master’s degree programme on Contemporary English Study from the University of Ghana. She has a degree in Psychology and Linguistics from the same university and has a Diploma in Mass Communications from the Ghana Institute of Journalism. In addition, a Diploma in News Paper Reporting from the Institute of Commercial Management (UK).

Hannah shared what she is passionate about and elaborated her reasons. Hannah believes in pursuing and fulfilling her purpose in life  thus, she does not allow society’s opinions and ideas about how to live to influence her intuition.

“I believe in treating everybody fairly and giving everybody a chance to excel, I dislike it when people are discriminated against just based on who they are, disabled, black or white, for me, all human beings are God’s special creatures and must be respected and valued”.

Hannah advocates for inclusion of all especially children with disabilities in government’s developmental agenda. She believes countries, especially African countries must go for an Inclusive development policies and programmes.

The Special Mothers Project is a not for profit advocacy organization for especially children with cerebral palsy and families raising children with disabilities in Ghana and beyond. The project serves as a counselling forum or platform for parents and families raising children with disability, especially families with new diagnoses of disability.

The Special Mothers Project points or connect families to the limited however, available services that exists in Ghana for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. Special Mothers project organizes what we term “Empowerment workshops” for parents especially mothers of children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

Hannah is the Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project and has also authored a book: The Unexpected, an inspirational book that shares her story on progressive triumph through trials.

This book listed on Amazon as “The Unexpected by Adwoa Okorewaa” – https://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Pain-Gain-Adwoa-Okorewaa-ebook/dp/B08CGP6D59/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+unexpected+by+Adwoa+Okorewaa&qid=1595661081&s=books&sr=1-1

The Special Mothers Project is mainly online and reaches out to families through online tools such as social media. The project has a WhatsApp platform for families nurturing children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities and is also very vibrant on Facebook.

Please connect with Hannah on the below social media platforms:

• Facebook -Special Mothers Project in Ghana
• Twitter– Special Mothers@Hannah Awadzi
• Instagram – Parenting_Counselor
• LinkedIn– Hannah Awadzi  
• Youtube – Hannah Awadzi

Mrs Hannah Awadzi Senior Journalist (Communications Specialist) Ghana News Agency (GNA) Accra

Executive Director: Special Mothers Project (Advocacy on cerebral palsy issues)

Psychologist Assistant (Providing psychological support for families raising children with Special Needs)

• http://devagenda.wordpress.com
• http://specialmothersproject.blogspot.com
• www.specialmothers.org

Hannah shared with us the importance of educating the communities about cerebral palsy. She said that many people in Ghana and perhaps in Africa have very little knowledge on cerebral palsy as a condition, many even believing that it is a “curse”. The Special Mothers Project sees the need to educate communities about this condition to facilitate the acceptance of children with the condition. These are mostly children left behind in our development plans and programmes just because of the limited knowledge.

Children with cerebral palsy or other disabilities are part and parcel of our lives. We may try to prevent this condition from happening frequently however as humans we cannot totally prevent it. The more reason we need to think ahead and plan for such children as part of us, otherwise what actually happens is that such children when born are “just left to rot” because of the lack of knowledge.

Hannah shared the impact of patriarchy in Ghana and the place of women. She said that it has always been a men’s world, so she gets really happy that feminism is gradually gaining grounds. There are very good women leaders who can use their leadership skills to cause great change but due to patriarchy, it does not come easy. Hannah is all for quality women leaders and  thinks women should really be given a chance to become chiefs, “yes chiefs not just Queen mothers”.

Hannah shared her life changing moment, where everything completely changed for the better. We called the U-TURN moment…

My Life changed for the better when I accepted my daughter with cerebral palsy (Now seven years old) as a precious gift from God. I began to cherish her greatly and became very grateful to God for her life. Instead of seeing pain, I begun to see it as gain, I counted my gains and they are many, I have learnt so much from this seven-year-old. She helped me redefine my own life, she helped me touch lives and make impacts and I now live with a lot of joy and gratitude.

Her presence in my life has motivated me to attain higher heights in life and by higher heights, I mean to live my life impacting a lot of lives positively.

Hannah’s words of wisdom to African women on why they should continue taking up spaces .

To African women taking up spaces, just have it at the back of your mind that woman are not their own enemies, “we rise by lifting others”, there is enough room for all of us to shine, we are all unique in our own way and we can make it happen.