Plan Ghana trains young women leaders on media literacy

Lan-Ghana has organised a day’s learning and sharing workshop in Accra on how to use new media to effectively communicate for 30 female gender advocates from six regions of the country.

Under its She Leads project, the workshop was aimed at funding and resourcing young girl-led and feminist, in organising collective action and activism for their work.
The girls were selected from Central, Ashanti, North East, Greater Accra, Upper West and Volta regions.

She Leads is a five-year advocacy project, which started in 2021 and will end in 2025 and is a joint programme of Plan International Netherlands, Defence for Children - ECPAT the Netherlands (DCI-ECPAT), African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), and Terre des Hommes the Netherlands (TdH), and is being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Cross-check fact

The She Leads consortium brings together child rights organisations, feminist and women’s rights organisations, and Girls and Young Women (GYW) led groups and aims to increase the sustained influence of girls and young women on decision-making and the transformation of gender norms in formal and informal institutions.

The workshop saw the dissemination of a toolkit on Meaningful Involvement and Engagement of GYW in African Union (AU) Processes and Platform, media literacy and Advocacy training for GYW, media stakeholders and CSO partners and the presentation of GYW friendly Manifesto to the National women organisers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

A Guest Lecturer, University of Media, Arts and Communication- Ghana Institute of Journalism (UNIMAC-GIJ), Efo Korku Mawutor, who took the participants through ‘Media Literacy: Empowering Girls in Communications Policy’, called on the young girls to always cross-check whatever information they received on social media before they reposted them.

He advised them to ensure that they did not churn out false information as it could be detrimental to their work.

A Lecturer, UNIMAC-Institute of Film and Television, Ruth Yemofio, also took the young girls through practical lessons on using media devices and social media platforms to amplify the voices of girls and women in leadership.

Women leadership

The She Leads Project Manager, Anna Nabere, said the project was about quality girls and young women leadership. She said there was a gap when it came to young women's participation and leadership in decision-making so the project was designed to fill that gap.

So the project, she said, promoted girls' participation in decision-making processes at all levels of society, including school councils, community boards, and political forums, to cultivate leadership skills and amplify their voices in shaping policies that affected their lives.

The project, she said, also established mentorship programmes, which connected young women with accomplished female leaders in various fields, and provided guidance, inspiration and networking opportunities to nurture future generations of female change-makers.

Writer’s email:rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh