PARENTS, traditional authorities and change agents in the Upper East Region have been charged to support the girl child attain their dreams to the fullest through education.
WaterAid Ghana, an international non-governmental organisation, who made the call at this year’s International Day of the Girl Child at the Vunania community in Navrongo of the Kassena-Nankana Municipality, said teenage pregnancy, early marriage, forced marriage, among other harmful traditional practices, shattered the dreams of the young adolescent girls.
Speaking on the theme: ‘The Girl I am, The Change I Lead: Girls on the Frontline of Crisis’, the Country Director for WaterAid Ghana, Ewurabena Yanyi-Akofur, noted that the challenges confronting girls of school age, including limited access to quality education and health information hampered their growth and development.
To this end, she indicated there was the need for traditional leaders, the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Education Directorate, parents and guardians to acknowledge girls as future leaders and change makers.
“Here in the Upper East Region, we know those challenges too well: teenage pregnancy, early marriage, limited access to quality education and health information, and the lack of safe water and sanitation facilities in schools”, Mrs Yanyi-Akofur, in a speech read on her behalf, lamented.
Notwithstanding the ample issues bedevilling the girl-child education, she applauded some girls from the marginalised society who braved the odds to shape their families and communities.
She, therefore, encouraged females in the various levels of education to aspire to higher heights, saying that, “because we see every day the courage and determination of girls who continue to dream and lead change in their communities”.
Mrs Yanyi-Akofur commended the government of Ghana for its continuous commitment to promoting girls’ education and well-being.
The Kassena-Nankana Municipal Director for Education, Mr Thomas Kanlisi, pledged his outfit would work hand-in-hand with traditional authorities, other government institutions, and civil society organisations to address harmful cultural practices that contributed to stifle the female child education in the area.
He announced that the municipality had taken delivery of 10,845 pieces of sanitary pads, and had since handed them over to 49 basic schools, for distribution to the female learners.
According to him, the Free Sanitary Pads initiative rolled out by the government was meant to help improve and retain enrolment among the female learners.
Henceforth, he emphasised, the young girls’ menses would not interfere with their class attendance, and encouraged them not to give up on their dreams, as successive governments had proven beyond reasonable doubts they had plans to rejuvenate the girls’ abilities to chase their ambitions for a brighter future.
The Director used the platform to sternly warn male teachers to steer clear of engaging in amorous relationship with schoolgirls.
The celebration of the International Day of the Girl Child at Vunania was organised by the WaterAid Ghana through the Sexual Health and Reproductive Education (SHARE), a five-year project being implemented by the organization, alongside the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Ghana, with funding support from the Global Affairs Canada.
The SHARE project promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls to eradicate poverty and build a peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous world.
FROM FRANCIS DABRE DABANG, VUNANIA
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