Dora Badu Acheampong - She works to empower girls

While growing up, Dora saw many young girls in her community drop out of school as a result of teenage pregnancy.

Some of those girls married early, hence their education came to an abrupt end, while others simply abandoned school, thereby perpetuating the cycle of poverty in their families.

Realising the sorry situation of most of the girls in her community, she resolved not to allow such a setback end her education. She, therefore, went back to school after she also fell in the same web of teen pregnancy and was delivered of her baby.  Today she is so delighted that her education has helped to transform her life and made her an example to many in her community as a trained teacher.
 
Upon successful completion of her education, Ms Dora Badu Acheampong, determined to fight the problem of the low level of education and the early marriage of girls in her community by  setting up the Help A Girl (HAG) Foundation focused on mentoring young girls. This was after she contested the Ghana’s Most Beautiful (GMB) reality show last year.

The foundation seeks to encourage young girls to stay in school and build their future, and more importantly, help victims of teenage pregnancy who failed to return to the classroom to continue their education.

In a chat with Ms Acheampong, who was the Ashanti Regional representative of the GMB Season X, she said her dream was to become an influential person in life and affect society positively.

In pursuit of that objective, she challenged herself in technical school where she studied General Arts to focus on her studies in order to realise her aspirations.

Ms Acheampong has, therefore, not given up and is still working towards achieving her dream.
 
Dora’s zeal to succeed in anything she sets out to do motivated her to enter the competition which she fortunately, qualified for the auditions  and performed creditably in the final by placing fourth.  
She said her motivation in entering the contest was the fact it would bring her into the limelight to enable her to explore all available avenues to contribute to the development of the nation albeit small.   

 Foundation

Ms Acheampong said the foundation was set up purposely to empower girls to become independent and engage in profitable ventures to be self-sufficient.

The foundation assists in educating girls on the need to be in school and stay there till they complete their education. It, therefore, provides the educational needs of girls who have dropped out of school to enable them to return to the classroom.   


Education

Dora had her primary education at Saint Andrews Junior High School where she wrote the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). She received  a number of certificates in sports, educational workshops and leadership roles at that level. She continued her education at the Juaso Senior High Technical School.  

While in senior high school (SHS), Dora took keen interest in creative activities such as poetry, acting, writing and public speaking. She was awarded the Best Student for the Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME) project held at the Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ SHS in 2006. After her secondary education, Dora gained admission to the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).

At GIJ, she took part in the Miss Akwaaba event and was crowned winner in 2012. She also became the Women’s Commissioner for the Students Representative Council (SRC) in the 2015/2016 academic year.

She successfully graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication Studies (Journalism) last year.   

Inspiration

Dora says she is inspired by the famous words of Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey - ‘If you educate a man you educate an individual but if you educate a girl, you educate an entire nation.’
 
“My dream is not to become a doctor or President but to be an influential person in society affecting lives positively and also improving on my writing skills and the act of public speaking to help others in society,” she said.