Accra, Sept 11, GNA - A 34 year-old female Graduate Teacher, Ms. Mavis Manugbor, says she would pursue the development of women, children and the vulnerable if given the mandate to represent the Korle Workon electoral area in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

The aspiring Assemblywoman who is currently a graduate student in Industrial Mathematics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Saturday, expressed concern about the low level of female empowerment and their participation in decision making in the area.

Ms. Manugbor said she would seek Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) and donor support to improve their welfare and equip them with skills to improve their businesses and outlook to enable them to care for their families and children properly. She said that as a teacher, she would organise and promote programmes for children in the area to ensure their educational development and concentrate on efforts to protect the youth from the social effects of the commercial activities in the Central Business District of the capital.

Ms. Manugbor expressed concern about poor sanitation and refuse disposal as a result of the location of major markets in the area and said she would organise regular cleanup exercise with the residents. She stressed the need for public education for the people to desist from littering and indiscriminate dumping of refuse to maintain a clean and healthy environment in the community.

The aspiring Assemblywoman who is also a social worker and an executive of the Ashiedu Keteke Good Name Foundation, an NGO in the area, stressed the need for more female participation in governance and decision making and said women should not be relegated to the background and used only to serve food and drinks at functions. "I am in this race to give meaning to female participation in governance and decision making to promote the welfare of women and children to ensure improvement in households", she said. She noted that as person who is "born and bred" in the area, she was very conversant with the problems and needs of the community and would work hard to solve them if she was given the nod to represent the people as their Assemblywoman. 11 Sept.10