President of Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives
Dr. Mrs. Jemima Dennis-Antwi, the founding President of Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, was the Guest Speaker at the third Congregation of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in the Cedi Auditorium, UHAS Main Campus, Ho on Saturday, July 14, 2018.
Dr. Mrs. Dennis-Antwi excellently juxtaposed her personal anecdotes and a deeply pregnant quotation from Ghana’s most celebrated President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah:
…the task ahead is great indeed and heavy is the responsibility and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge - a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, courage to believe , courage to dare, courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, courage to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life?
She skilfully, with the aid of the principal ideals from Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s quote, illustrated her experiences from her earlier exciting days as a fresh undergraduate Nursing Student in University of Ghana to the time of her graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing with Psychology. She continued the illustration into her career life and the vision that she pursued.
She pointed out her disappointments with the then Ghana Health Service appointing authorities as she was forced to take up Temporary Staff Nurse position after graduation, when her rank should have been Nursing Officer. According her, the system at the time could not fathom why persons who want to pursue Nursing should go straight to the University without passing through the Nurses Training College and working for a long period of time. She related that Senior Nurses at the time felt such persons were too young to be called Nursing Officers. They therefore often put impediments in the way of the young graduate nurses. Despite the prevailing glass ceiling, the courage to fight and the courage to work propelled her to obtain the Nursing Officer grade albeit delayed.
Dr. Mrs. Dennis-Antwi encouraged the 554 students of UHAS who had successfully completed the requirements of their respective programmes to cultivate the courage to dream in the face of adversities and be life -learners.
The Member of Board of Directors for International Confederation of Midwives representing Anglophone Africa urged the graduands to position themselves for “…a lot of hard work, giving of self, tolerance,…’’ and venture into areas that might traditionally be considered to be the preserve of other disciplines / professions.
She listed the opportunities that came with her courage to dream beyond her immediate circumstances. She recounted prospects that were associated with her decision to chart rare adventures. She articulated to the graduands how she got a scholarship from the British Council to read Masters in Health Promotion and Health Education at the famous Edinburgh University in Scotland, United Kingdom.
Addressing the fully packed 1,200-seater Cedi Auditorium, she told the gathering how her courage to dare and pursue PhD was ignited by motivations from mentors and friends who had read research reports she had compiled for office work and consultancies:
So with the courage to dare and self-funding, I ventured into pursuing my doctorate at De Montfort University in Leicester-UK where I was awarded a PhD in 2006.
Dr. Mrs. Jemima Dennis-Antwi recounted her pre and post PhD moments which drove her to develop the courage of envisioning. She related
Now the issue was: A PhD so what? I needed to activate the courage of envisioning. What did I want to do with my PhD? Which direction did I want to go? I chose the path of international development work with Population Council , American College of Nurse Midwives, the International Confederation of Midwives, head quartered in the Hague-Netherlands and all these opened magnificent opportunities to apply all the skills I had garnered with over 20 years of experience to touch the lives of mothers and their newborns through the strengthening of midwifery systems in 10 African countries and globally as I had the privilege to sit at the table of great men and women at the WHO-Geneva, UNFPA, JHPIEGO , and many organisations as globally we battled with addressing the Millennium Development Goals.
Beaming with pride and high sense of devotion to Ghana, the patriot Dr. Mrs. Dennis-Antwi kindled the spirit of patriotism in her audience by urging them to love and serve their country at all times by saying “… I did all these without re-locating outside Ghana. I lived in Ghana and continue to live here whilst touching my country and also the world.”
The founding President of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives had the following motivational words for the UHAS Class of July 2018:
To some of you, you are just starting, some are in the middle of the journey and for some you are still pondering over what next. Remember there is no short-cut to success. Rather you have the potential to travel on a winding journey of the wilderness period towards great leadership and achievement. At every point of the journey you need to be courageous, daring, committed, loyal, have character and patience to build your life-time competencies. Ghana needs you. The current technological advancements offer you the platform for innovation towards great success and leadership. You have the potential to challenge yourself beyond myself and all the accomplished persons gathered here. Your future is before you for it is not just what you have underneath that matters. Rather, it is what you do that defines you.
Dr. Mrs. Jemima Dennis-Antwi summed up her address with a captivating quote from Maya Angelou:
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.