Book for grooming young girls launched
Daniel Kenu Business News
The Deputy Minister of the Ashanti Region, Elizabeth Agyemang has launched a handbook for the grooming of young girls into "strong women.
"Dubbed: 'Strong girls make strong women," which was put together by Women's Health to wealth, an internationally recognised NGO with support from partners in Kenya and India, the teacher's manual would provide a guide to building and inculcating into girls their basic rights against social violence including rape and to make them financially literate.
Focus
It focuses on health, education and economic empowerment in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals three, four and five.
It centres on among other things ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
The NGO, Women's health to wealth, which operates in seven districts and 46 communities in the Ashanti Region through fan clubs and facilitators, is to make a proposal to the Ghana Education Service to incorporate the manual into the curriculum of teaching and learning.
It would also be made available to churches and other religious groups to build the moral fabric of society.
Speech
In a speech read for him by Ms Agyeman, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, congratulated the NGO on forming boys clubs as well because ‘social violence’ was not limited to girls alone.
He said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, being the co-chair of the UN Secretary General's Eminent Group, was interested in the action plan by the NGO and would do all he can to support their vision.
The minister said it was crucial for girls to be given critical life skills that would impact positively on their lives in future.
The Executive Director for Women's health to wealth, Mrs Abena Akuamoah Boateng, called for more support to expand the project to cover the entire region and possibly Ghana as a whole.
She said the vision was to contribute meaningfully in making women to have a turnaround and impactful lives by 2030.
Giving an overview of the book, the Julia Fan of Women Strong International, one of the partners, said the book held the key to providing a knowledge-based and a confident women society in the future.
She called on the government to embrace the concept and allow the NGO to partner various agencies of state to protect the interest of young people.