<<Print>>

Mr Abdul Hannan Gundadow, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) has appealed to parents in the Northern Region to put premium on girls� education for socio-economic development. He said when girls received the needed education to the highest level, they could plan well for development and that paying more attention in educating girls was not a misplaced priority. Mr Gundadow made the appeal in Tamale on Wednesday, when he deputized for the Northern Regional Minister at the 2014 Girls� Camp organised by Ibis and ActionAid-Ghana, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), with support from several other organisations and state institutions. Some 260 girls are participating in this year�s Girls� Camp on the theme: �Aspire to Inspire: Empowering Girls for Community Development.� The girls were drawn from Basic Schools in the Karaga, Gusheigu, Nanumba North, Bole, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, East Gonja and the Kpandai Districts as well as the Tamale Metropolis. They will engage in activities such as interaction with female role models, discussions on human rights, civic education, adolescent sexuality and domestic violence. Other areas include training sessions in leadership, career guidance, personal hygiene and confidence-building, health screening, games, and vocational training. Mr Gundadow said the era where girls� roles remained in the kitchen and they were regarded as the weakest vessels in society were over, as women were now competing with their male counterparts especially in the area of education. He said girls who aspired and got to the tertiary institutions were excelling, with some of them graduating with First Class Honours and advised the participants to take their studies seriously. The girls are scheduled to visit a number of important and exciting institutions such as the Tamale Sports Stadium, the University for Development Studies (UDS) and the Tamale Airport, among other notable places, to spur them on to aspire higher. The annual Girls Camp brings together girls from Basic Schools in deprived communities in the Northern Region to participate in a week of activities that are intended to inspire them to take their education serious; overcome any inferiority complex; and dream big about their academic future, their careers and their personal development. Prosper Nyavor, Education Programme Director of IBIS, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that, the camp also sought to increase girls� interest and enthusiasm for education, and promote an interface between the girls and women role models, who have achieved prominence in their careers through education. He said the camp would also build the girls� confidence and improve the �power within� them to become responsible leaders and serve as role models to other females within their schools and communities. He explained that the camp also sought to facilitate learning and sharing among the girls, as they come from culturally diverse backgrounds, and inculcate into them a sense of discipline and hard work, to help them develop the mind-set to overcome gender stereotyping and become competitive wherever they went. He said it was in view of the girls� welfare that IBIS and ActionAid were interested in using the annual camp to help the girls learn more about their sexuality, to be able to stay away from risky behaviours that exposed them to teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Mr Nyavor said girls who participated in previous camps have confirmed in post-camp evaluations of having increased their awareness of human rights, especially, their rights as girls in schools, their assertiveness and their resolve to pursue their education to the highest level to become career women.