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Invest in girls education - NGO board chair to stakeholders
The Board Chair of WomensTrust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Professor Mansa Prah, has advised stakeholders to invest in girls to ensure that they remain in school and attain the highest educational status possible.
Prof. Prah, who is a former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Cape Coast, explained that although there was an appreciable improvement in access to education for girls, more effort was needed to ensure they did not drop out of school midstream.
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She was speaking at the launch of the Graduate Students Association of WomensTrust, on the theme, “WomensTrust: Investing in women and the community”.
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WomensTrust is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the development of women and girls in and around Pokuase, a peri-urban community in the Ga West Municipality, in the Greater Accra Region.
Since its inception in 2003, the NGO has catered for the needs of over 7,000 underprivileged women and girls in Pokuase and its environs.
Over the years, WomensTrust has run programmes in consultation with the community.
One of the NGO’s flagship programmes, the Womens Trust Tertiary Scholarship programme, supports academically promising but needy girls in school by providing their educational needs such as tuition fees, hostel fees and laptops, among others.
Since the commencement of the tertiary scholarship programme in 2014, 16 beneficiaries have graduated from different tertiary institutions, while 21 of them are still being supported at various levels of their tertiary education.
The Executive Director of WomensTrust NGO, Willibald Kafui Duho, described the launch of the alumni association as an important step in building a network of change agents needed to carry the mantle of WomensTrust forward.
Education critical
Giving the keynote address, a Director of Operations at the International Justice Mission, Anita Budu, noted that women and girls accounted for 70 per cent of those vulnerable to sexual and labour exploitation across the globe.
As such, education served as an important tool for empowering girls to stem that tide.
Ms Budu further noted that to sustain the impact being made on the education of women and girls, there was a need for support from individuals, parents, community leaders and other stakeholders.
Gratitude
A beneficiary of the scholarship programme, Monica Enyonam Duvor, lauded the NGO for supporting her education from the junior high school (JHS) level until she graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
“Being the first girl child to graduate at the tertiary level in my family is a plus for me and my family as a whole,” she said.
Another beneficiary, Helena Asante, who had been a beneficiary since her final year at the senior high school (SHS) level, recounted her experiences with WomensTrust, as a student at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).
Presenting a citation to WomensTrust NGO, the beneficiaries of the scholarship programme, stated that the intervention of NGOs in various communities had alleviated the plight of many young ladies as the organisations had taken it upon themselves to ensure that the girl child reached her fullest potential by sponsoring their education.
They pledged to give back to society and support WomensTrust in ways within their capacity.
Other dignitaries at the event included the Assembly Member for the Pokuase Electoral Area, Gad Yeboah, and the Queen Mother of the Djaman Traditional Area, Naa Djanbea II.