Women in Local Governance
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Rukayatu Quaye, Laterbiokorshie Electoral Area

Rukayatu has lived in Laterbiorkorshie for ten years. She runs a youth centre where she trains young people in Batik and Tie/Dye making. The centre also has resource persons who train young women in dress-making. She set up this training centre so that young people in the community can be meaningfully engaged. She wants to become the assembly woman for her electoral area since she is already considered a leader in the community. She has even been called “assembly woman” for a long time. Some members of her community encouraged her to contest this year’s district assembly elections so that she can serve them better.

Some of the problems she hopes to address in her community if she is elected include security and sanitation. According to her, people’s bags and mobile phones are snatched frequently. In addition, there are usually outbreaks of diseases as a result of refuse dumps which are not cleared for long periods, and choked drains.

She goes from house to house campaigning and also holds small group meetings with the members of her community. She tells them that voting for her means that the whole community is going to the assembly because she cannot be a leader without the women, men and children in her community. Rukaya says she has been successful in her campaign because she has done a lot of research at the office of the sub-metropolitan assembly concerning the infrastructural development of the Laterbiokorshie electoral area. In addition she documents all the questions she is asked and improves on the responses.

She faces financial problems but believes that money is not everything. She says most of the people in her community do not endorse the idea of a woman holding a leadership position yet she is confident that she will become the assembly woman for the area.