Girls advised to be innovative
Girls have been advised to be innovative and take interest in acquiring entrepreneurial skills to improve upon their living conditions and contribute to national development.
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At a mentorship training for young girls by Glamdolls, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in Accra on Saturday, a Senior Programme Officer at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Madam Malonin Asibi, said skills and knowledge acquisition were the driving force of economic growth and social development of any country.
According to her, a nation’s economy would be productive and competitive through the development of human potential, adding that women constituted the most vibrant and dynamic segment of the population and had enormous human potential.
She said in ensuring national development, economic empowerment of women and girls was necessary and that without that, the progress of the nation would be hindered.
Madam Asibi mentioned lack of financial capital, socio-cultural challenges and lack of tangible assets as some of the factors which hindered efforts by the girl-child to realise her full potential and contribute her quota to national development.
“Inadequate policy frameworks and infamous gender norms often create barriers to girls and women economic advancement,” she said.
Strategies
Madam Asibi said workforce development and employment strategies were critical to help girls and women to contribute to helping themselves and their families not to live in poverty, adding that, in working towards girls’ economic empowerment, there was the need for stakeholders and policy makers to advocate and ensure the enactment of laws that promoted gender equality at the workplace and the need for employers to ensure a friendly working environment for women.
She said in an attempt to promote girls’ education, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, had trained and awarded scholarship to more than 600 girls in male-dominated fields such as auto-mechanics, plumbing and electrical engineering to enable them to gain employment.
“400 female head porters have also been trained in employable skills and were given start-up capital to start businesses to help themselves.” she said.
Mentorship training
The Manager of Maybelline New York, Mrs Aretha Sabeng Yorke, took the girls through some mentorship training that would enable them to make an impact on the society. She said there was the need for women and girls to be creative and generate new business ideas.
She advised them to make maximum use of their time and avoid acts that would hinder the development of their potential, adding that, to be successful, time and resource management was a necessity.
For his part, the Marketing Manager of Glamdolls, Mr Dentch Ramoon Nanakofi, said their organisation would continue to help in the development of skills of girls in the country that would prepare them for the future.
‘’We are equipping these young girls with make-up skills, fashion and entrepreneurial skills to enable them to earn a decent living,’ he said.