‘Girl Power’ Camp closes in Eastern Region

A two-week camp programme to build the capacity of rural girls in the Eastern Region, has ended with a call on stakeholders to be interested in the education of young girls in the rural areas.

The was part of a Girl Power project being sponsored by Plan International, an NGO in collaboration with Ghana Education Service Girl- Child Education Unit to expose basic school girls from the rural communities as a tool to reduce teenage pregnancies and promote retention in schools.

More than 400 girls drawn from rural communities in Akuapem North, East Akim and Upper-Manya Krobo districts were taken through studies in Mathematics, English and Science, Information Communication Technology to improve their knowledge in the core subjects to improve the results of the basic education certificate examination.

Others were career guidance, adolescent and reproductive health, grooming and manners, boy-girl relationship and friendship, entrepreneurship skills, role model presentations, socialisation and other outdoor activities all aimed at building their confidence levels.

Mrs Rosetta Sackey,Regional Director of Education, in her closing remarks noted that the only way to empower girls to be independent adults is through education and lauded Plan International for such intervention.

She said education of girls has a positive impact on women in the areas of reduction of poverty, improved maternal health, decrease child marriages and increases the involvement of women in decision, making positions.

The Regional Director, emphasised the importance of introducing the girls to entrepreneurship skills adding that such move would give them alternatives to raise money from their handiworks to fund their education other than relying on boys for support.

Mr Kofi Adade Debrah, Manager of Plan Ghana Eastern programme, said the Girl Power project is a gender transformative and affirmative action project that seeks to bridge the gap between males and females.

He said Plan Ghana spent more than GH¢ 146,000 on the two-week project because of its passion towards the education and empowerment of girls particularly in the rural areas to make them economically independent.

Mr Debrah urged the beneficiaries to take advantage of the programme and aspire to go beyond the cycle of women in the villages and communities where they came from to achieve the aim and target of the project.

Mrs Cynthia Anim, Regional Coordinator of the girl- child education indicated that the girls had learnt how to make cake and liquid soap, beads making and beads decoration on slippers as part of the programme to build their entrepreneurship skills.

Some of the girls who spoke to GNA were thankful to the organisers for the exposure while some indicated that it was their first time of coming out of their communities and therefore pledged to leave up to expectation to realise the objectives of the project.