THE SPLASH YOGHURT EXPERIENCE

A lot of young university graduates have great business ideas but lack the the wherewithal to put their thoughts into action.
Others also think that,the only way they can succeed in life is to get a white collar job.However,a 25-year-old biochemist who is a product of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST),has proved that is possible to succeed in life without looking to the formal sector for employment.
Ayesha Adam Hadir, a Muslim woman,who set up her own yogurt processing factory,named Splash Foods Processing Ventures whilst in the third year at the University,believes that everything is possible.
"Young graduates needn't sit idle at home doing nothing"start something,she told the Spectator,at her factory located at Awoshie,in Accra.
She says that even if you get employed anywhere,you can still do your own business on the side.After a semester's course on 'fermentation',and her younger sister's craving the fresh yogurt which she always bought for her and the family,coupled with her theoretical knowledge in yogurt preparation,she tried her hands at it in her mother's kitchen.
The outcome,of her try was horrible so she contacted those already in the industry but failed to show her the trick.She then called her lecturer,to share her frustrations with him and seek advice.
What spurred Ayesha on was this statement from Dr.l.W.Ofosu,"fermentation is not an art and not a science."she kept trying until she had it right.
Ayesha started with only 10 bottles,sent them to a friend's mum's shop for sale.Her father,Alhaji Hadir Adam,saw the potentials in the business and offered her 100 us dollars.With that money,she bought the needed items and moved to her mother's shop.
After production,she will board,"trotro",and do the distribution herself.Soon,her vacation was over.
Ayesha produces yogurt in vanilla,strawberry,pineapple and lemon flavors.She has just launched her new product,'millet consisting of yogurt and millet which tastes so good.
Ayesha has a food Handlers Certificates from Accra Metropolitan Assembly(AMA),and her range of products have been certified by Ghana Standard Board.They also follow strict health practices.
Her products are distributed to various Hotels and Supermarkets around the city of Accra and she intends expanding her market soon.
The production of Splash Yogurt began in 2006,during her third year at the University.By then,she had trained her Mum,Hajia Jamila Omar and a few aunties to take over the job whilst she also started production in school.
It was through the support of a room's boyfriend nicknamed Splash,who did aggressive marketing on campus,whom the yogurt was named after,that the product saw light.
By the time she returned from school,her mother had saved enough to repair an accident car her father had offered to her business.She improved the quality of the production.
Her work with Food and Drugs Boards after school and with Golden Tulip,Kumasi city as Food safety supervisor for a year,gave her wealth of experience.
Due to the divided attention for splash and her job at Kumasi,she quit to focus on her business.
Ayesha received an interest-free loan to inject into her business.With that,she built a cold-room and purchased tricycle for distribution of her products.
'Fresh yogurt helps her improve one's immune system:helps prevent cancer.Those with lactose intolerance can be put on fresh yogurt for between three to six months as treatment",she said.
Splash Foods Processing faces high cost of electricity,distribution in its supply and machinery constraints.
Processing machine to process milk into yogurt is being built to augment those available.
Ayesha ensures there is continuous supervision at her factory as people will always do what you inspect and not what you expect.
She is a member of the Ghana Muslim Academy,a group of Muslim intellectuals,who mentor and teach the youth during vacations.
In future,she hopes to produce her own raw materials and establish a school to train the youth in ice cream,soya milk and yogurt making.
Ayesha holds a certificate in Quality Assurance and has attended several training programmes.She believes that the yogurt market is big.

PAA BOATENG DROPS'KOKROKOO

It common these days to find young gospel musicians,no doubt about it.Every musician has a motive and challenges.
Young and talented kumasi-based gospel sensation,Paa Boateng,started as an instrumentalist until he discovered his talent and love as singer at age nine.
At the age of 15,he came out with the album,Onyame ba,which had eight sensational tracks,including Nkuguo,Me hia agyenkwa and M'aso ne mu,all under New Age Records in 2006.
In 2007,after he had completed his Junior High School(JHS)education,he came out with his second album,Ohia Abaaba,which also had eight hit tracks,such as Maye Hyira and OyeOnyame,among others,with the same producer,Mr.Eric Apreko Gyamfi,CEO of New Age Ventures.
Paa Boateng,the last born of the late Rev.John Jude Mensah and the late Jemima Agyenim Boateng,belives he was anointed by God to do his work.And,this may partly account for why everyone who hears his songs onders how'a young boy'could sing this way'.
After his second album,Paa embarked on a tour in Europe to minister the word of God through music and thus performed with the likes of Christiana Love,Ernest Opoku,Ohemaa Mercy and Kwaku Gyasi.
"i've been silent for the past three years because i was ministering the word of God through music and also,scheduled my time for music according to my calender",he said.
But,he is now out with his third album titled Kokrokoo which seeks to adore how great God is."We must worship and praise God because even cocks are praising him",remarked Paa in an interview with Spectator Agoro,last Thursday.
Some of the songs on the nine-track album are Yie ne adoye and Aseda.He admires musicians like Ohemaa Mercy,Christiana Love,Jane and Bernice,Soul Winners,Oware Junior but do not wish to be exactly like them.
"i like them but don't want to be myself",he told Spectator Agoro.
Although he is a gospel musician, he really enjoys listening to musicians like Echo,Obrafour,Praye,Asem,Richie and Okyeame Kwame.

MISS MALIAKA'10 TAKES OFF

The search for who takes the baton from Miss Gezelle Addai, winner of last year’s Miss Malaika Beauty pageant, kicked off last Friday night at the Royal Richester Hotel in Accra.Sixteen (16) pretty ladies, aged between 18 and 25, were unveiled as the contestants to ‘battle’ for the ultimate this year, which are a brand new KIA car, the opportunity to become the country’s ambassador of Malaika and other souvenirs.One after the other, the glamorous ladies lined up on a dais set up for that purpose, having earlier delivered snippets of riveting catwalks to the admiration of their patrons.This year’s event will be the eighth season of the pageantry since 2002 when it was introduced by CharterHouse, and the contestants will be housed for the next 13 weeks at the Royal Richester Hotel to work their ways out to the crown.Since a high premium is placed on intelligence in determining who becomes the next queen, the contestants throughout the season will undergo drills in varying forms, to determine their eloquence, elegance, intelligence-quotient (IQ) and self-confidence.There will also be cooking sections, alongside grooming sections to improve their public-speaking capabilities.As an early indication of their preparedness for the season, the contestants wowed their audiences when they exhibited their talent in styles during a fashion show with clothes designed by renowned designers in Ghana.Launching the event, Ms. Anitabel Asante, an Event Manager at CharterHouse, explained that the “motive behind this contest is to give young ladies the platform to show their talents and the ideas they have for the country.”

LISTEN TO STORIES OF REMAND CHILDREN

I write with pain in my heart about the issue of children in remand homes.Many people have the perception that every child at the remand home is a bad child,which could be true but i strongly believe there are some there who have sad reasons for ending up there.
some ended there because of the treatment they received at home either through maltreatment or a rape case,among others.
Also,parents send their wards there for them to be reformed because of the way they behave towards their parents.
In 2003,there was a case of a girl who was sent to the remand home by a business women who plies between Ghana and Nigeria.The woman met this poor girl stranded somewhere on her way to book her ticket for the next car.
She questioned the girl and got to know that she was brought up by her step-mother's friend who tired to sell her to someone else,so she ran from the woman's house to the station.she was brought to Ghana and was sent to the remand home.
There are a lot of innocent children at the remand homes whose stories need to be listened to.
I am pleading with Ministry of women and children Affair to come to the aid of these innocent children.