The Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD) Ghana, has held a capacity-building workshop for some female students in the Wa Municipality on gender equality and girls’ rights to enable them to participate actively and responsibly in society.
The training was also to empower the girls to be assertive in demanding their rights, when necessary, through appropriate means and to know the responsibilities expected of them in society.
The workshop formed part of the She Leads project implementation by CARD-Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana and brought together the girls from the Wa Senior High Technical School, Wa Technical Institute, Jamiat Girls Senior High School (SHS) and Wa Islamic SHS.
Speaking at the workshop, Ms Ernestina Biney, the Acting Executive Director of CARD-Ghana, said the training was also to empower them to champion change in their communities and schools and advocate issues affecting them wherever they find themselves.
She explained that empowering young females to be asser
tive was not for them to rub shoulders with their male counterparts but to enable them appropriately to demand their rightful position in society.
Ms Biney encouraged parents and guardians to motivate their girl children to aspire to take up leadership positions in society including schools and to see themselves as people who could cause a change wherever they found themselves.
Sharing her life experience with the girls, Madam Felicia Baganiah, a teacher, and a mentor, explained how determination amidst challenges and volunteerism helped her develop her capacity to lead and impact lives in society.
She encouraged the girls to identify their strengths and passion and to take advantage of the She Leads project and other girls’ empowerment activities in their schools and communities to build their capacities and develop their skills.
Madam Baganiah, also the Upper West Regional President of the She Leads Social Movement, urged the girls to maximise the power of technology such as YouTube and other social med
ia platforms to develop their skills in their chosen fields.
‘When you identify your short and long-term goals, be consistent with the short-term goals. So, after completion and you come home, do not just sit back, find something to do.
‘The galamsey guys will come, buy the indomie and all kinds of things for you but end up jeopardising your lives and truncating your dreams’, Madam Baganiah cautioned.
Madam Alice Doghle, the Upper West Regional Gender Desk Officer and Guidance and Counselling Coordinator of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), observed that gender roles were products of socialisation and the learnt roles could be unlearnt and equal opportunity created for both males and females to thrive in society.
She emphasised that gender equality did not mean men and women were equal but providing boys and girls equal opportunities to enable them to realise their full potential.
Madam Doghle explained that achieving gender equality could prevent violence against women, ensure
peaceful coexistence and increase productivity and economic growth.
She said gender equality could be achieved through female leadership, cultivating self-confidence and independence to overcome challenges and discrimination.
Madam Doghle also advised the girls to take their education seriously to acquire knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and pursue their career goals.
Source: Ghana News Agency