Encouraging young girls to develop interest in taking up leadership positions through mentorship programmes is necessary to set them on the path of holding top positions in the future.
“Educating girls early enough on the relevance of aspiring for higher positions will make them ambitious and willing to take their academics seriously to achieve their dreams.”
Founder of the Leading Ladies Network (LLN), a women’s leadership development organisation, Ms Yawa Hansen-Quao, made the assertion yesterday in Accra, during a girls’ mentorship programme held for pupils from selected schools within the Ga North Municipality.
The mentees were taken through topics including manners and courtesy, suicide prevention, entrepreneurship, voting and leadership in public, savings, investment and career choices.
According to her, girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially, needed to be paid special attention and motivated enough to enable them build confidence in themselves and have the belief that no matter their backgrounds, achieving success was possible.
Various researches, she said, had shown that the earlier young girls are exposed to leadership opportunities, the more likely it is for them to run public service positions when they come of age, and the more likely it is for them to have the ambition to do extraordinary things.
“Mentorship guides girls to be on the right track that is why we sometimes hold governance camps to select those interested in a career in public service, all in the quest to prepare them for what that looks like.”
“We take them on excursions to parliament as well, for them to understand the interactions between the legislature, executive and the judiciary, because we believe that will make them develop the interest in running for public offices one day,” she added.
Ms Hansen-Quao revealed that so far, her outfit had impacted more than 5,000 young girls from 32 different Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Ga North Municipality.
She hoped the number would increase to 10,000 by the end of the year.
The Girl Child Education Coordinator of the Ga North Municipality, Ms Christiana Ankrah, on her part, commended the LLN for their contribution towards promoting girl child education in the country, adding that the various mentorship programmes held within the municipality over the years by the LLN was yielding positive results.
Targeting young girls and coaching them to become successful and responsible adults, she said, was a move in the right direction.
In furtherance, she advised the young girls to take their studies seriously and avoid indulging in acts that could mar their future.
A facilitator of the LLN, Mrs Ajoa Bright Tetteh, urged the pupils to be entrepreneurially minded while chasing their dreams.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
