A week’s mentorship and educational camp meeting intended to empower girls and instill into them good leadership skills and healthy life styles, is underway in Accra.
About 120 girls selected from Ashanti, Northern, Upper East and Eastern Regions. are attending the event, being organised by Plan International Ghana, a non-governmental (NGO),under the Girl Advocacy Alliance (GAA) project.
Plan International is holding the programme in partnership with Defence for Children International and the Ghana NGO Coalition on the rights of the Child with funding from the Ministry of the Republic of Netherlands, on the theme, “Empowering girls to lead; the responsibility of all”.
Participants were being schooled on violence, harmful traditional practices, skills acquisition and how to succeed in their academics exploits.
Mr Joseph Appiah, Head of Business Development of Plan International Ghana, said participants were selected from girl clubs, formed by the local implementing partners, teacher-mentors and district girl child officers in the various districts.
He said the girls would be engaged in cross-cultural experience that would empower, educate and activate their potentials.
Mr Addai stressed the need to educate and empower girls as they were vital to the growth of the community and the country,
He said that “Plan International Ghana strives to improve the quality of life of girls, and we can achieve this by educating these girls and making them ambassadors to their peers in their communities”.
Mr Sefah Alex Boadu, the Greater Accra Regional Director of the Department of Children, said giving leadership capacity to girls would contribute to their empowerment.
He lamented that women in the country earned 60 per cent less than men and mainly constituted the majority of the unemployed in the country.
Mr. Boadu hoped that the girls being mentored at the camp would also educate their colleagues at home after the engagement.
He noted that girls faced many challenges, including peer pressure and the meeting sought to address some of these issues, to enable them stand up for their rights.
Project Manager of the project, Anna Nabere, said the 2019 camp meeting was the third since its inception in 2016, with 620 girls benefitting from it so for.
She expressed hope that by 2020, when the project would be over, a lot more girls would be empowered to overcome challenges in their life.
Ms Biwiin Constance, the Camp Prefect, encouraged girls to stand up for their rights, and become useful to their communities.
BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY
