HD+, satellite television service provider, has trained female officers of the Ghana Prisons Service (GPS) in satellite installation as part of its quest to promote skills development.
Over 80 female prison officers received hands-on-training in assembling and disassembling a dish, identifying its parts, tracking a signal and understanding the settings of a decoder.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SES HD Plus, Adelaide Abbiw-Williams, in an interview emphasised the power of training and skills in transforming the lives of women and empowering them to contribute economically in their environment.
“At HD+ we believe women have the ability to contribute in the social economic growth of their environment when given the support and training,” she said.
Ms. Abbiw-Williams expressed her profound gratitude to leadership of the GPS for collaborating to successfully initiate the programme. She lauded them for their commitment in empowering the female officers through technical training, and described their actions as a step toward gender inclusivity, professional development and empowerment.
Generally, the initiative will further ensure that homes with HD+ Devices and accompanying satellite equipment across the country are professionally installed by accredited installers.
Commenting on continuity of the initiative, she said: “We just started with the prisons service in Accra, and are hopeful of rolling it out in all the other regions. After that, we hope to also reach out to other institutions”.
Being the first batch of people benefitting from HD+’s satellite installation training, President-Prisons Ladies Association, Director of Prisons in Charge of Services and Technical (DOP), Patience Baffoe-Bonnie, charged the officers to master the skills and utilise them in order to reap positive outcomes from the training now and in the future.
She is optimistic that the training will serve as an additional skill and source of income for the female officers, and also boost their confidence.
“It will boost the ladies’ confidence and offer them an additional business opportunity; and as they are divided into groups for the practical sessions, it will strengthen the bonding between them,” she said.
The coordinator of the training, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP), Loretta Valentina Amoah – thrilled with the level of interest exhibited by the officers, is confident that the women will make good use of the skills they have acquired.
“Personally, I am enthusiastic about the initiative. It’s interesting and challenging, but having seen most of my fellow officers keeping up their interest, I know the majority of them will take it to a different level. You rarely see women doing satellite installations so I think it is a challenge we have to embrace, and we look forward to seeing positive results,” she said.
SES HD Plus Ltd. believes that empowering locals with professional installer training programmes will not only ensure users of the service have access to installer support, but most importantly contribute to the development of broadcasting in Ghana and the economic status of locals.
Corporal Rachel Tawiah described how the training has been of benefit to her, saying: “One advantage of the HD+ training is that, currently, I can fix the ditch and the decoder; hence there’s no need to rely on the assistance of another person. Initially, I thought it was a difficult thing to do; but after the training I realised it is a rather easy and simple thing to do”.
SES HD PLUS Ghana Limited is a subsidiary of SES, the leading global content connectivity solutions provider that markets the HD+ product to provide satellite homes with quality and affordable entertainment options.
