A visual communication and mentorship project to empower young girls and shape their mindset to aspire for higher exploits in life, was on Monday launched in the Upper West Region.
Dubbed the “Calendar 4 Change” Project, the 12-month’ assignment would feature very prominent and influential women in the region on calendars that would be posted in classrooms of schools in the various rural communities in the region, to constantly remind the girls of the need to aspire to be like those women.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Times, the Executive Director of Necessary Aid Alliance, a non-profit organisation in-charge of the project, Mr Mulumba Ngmenlabagna Songsore, stated that the project sought to change the worldview of girls in rural communities and get them to work harder academically as well as pursue bigger goals in life.
He explained that the project, funded by Plan International, Ghana also aimed to trigger a change of mindset among girls to understand that their gender was not a barrier and they could also assume very prominent statuses in society if they worked harder.
“School children in cities often meet and observe successful people across both genders and adopt them as role-models who consciously or unconsciously influence their way of thinking and cause them to aspire to be like them, as they draw motivation from them, but the narrative is different for girls in rural and smaller communities who are constantly faced with patriarchy”, Mr Songsore said.
According to him, the issue was compounded by the excessive male dominance even in some basic professions in the communities, such as teaching and nursing and said it limited the thinking capacity of girls who grew up with the mindset that womanhood was just about giving birth and taking care of children as they had seen their mothers do.
He said that the calendars would be displayed in classrooms as well as notice boards of schools and each girl would also be given a copy to keep as daily reminder to be inspired, to become like any of the women she had seen on the calendar.
He listed among others, the Regional Director of the Department of Gender, Mrs Charity Banye, Regional Director, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Ms Christina Dery, Municipal Director of Education, Ms Sophia Dimah Nandzo as well as Ms Kuminso Pascaline Songsore, an author and a Senior Assistant Registrar at the University of Ghana and Dr Hamidatu Darimani, a Lecturer at Dr Hilla Limann Technical University, as some of the women that would be displayed on the calendar for the first year of the project.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
