By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, June 14, GNA – A total of 6,000 young ladies have passed out from CAMFED Ghana and Mastercard Foundation’s Scholars Program for academically brilliant but needy young ladies.
The 10-year partnership programme between the two organisations offered comprehensive support to academically gifted young women in rural communities within CAMFED’s operational regions to access secondary and tertiary education.
Launched in 2012, the goal of the Scholars Program is to provide comprehensive support to 4,000 girls through Senior High School and 2,000 young women through tertiary education.
This way, the Program sought to empower girls and young women with the necessary skills to become leaders of change and create pathways for their transition to dignified jobs, entrepreneurship, or further education.
Madam Fairuza Safian, National Director of CAMFED Ghana, at the Program’s partners convening in Accra, said they provided full scholarships, personal development support, career services, networking opportunities, and leadership development training to girls and young women.
“The comprehensive nature of the scholarship meant that each secondaty scholar got items such as text and exercise books, school uniforms, school bag, sandals, mathematical set, menstrual pads, and dry food rations.”
“A tertiary scholar on the other hand received a laptop, modem, laptop bag, stipend, money for textbooks and transportation. In addition to these, their tuition fees and accommodation or hostel fees were also paid,” she added.
Madam Safian said they also worked with secondary schools, tertiary institutions, government, and other stakeholders to design interventions that would create a more supportive environment in which all young people, including marginalised girls and women, could thrive.
She said girls access to education was still an issue that needed to be tackled continuously despite the quiet and substantial gains in female enrollment in schools.
She stressed that there were still girls who faced barriers and hurdles to accessing education, especially those in the marginalised communities and the hinterlands.
Ms Stella Baidoo, a tutor and a beneficiary of the Scholars Program, said her dreams would have been shattered if she had not come in contact with the scholarship.
She added that she had been able to build a career as a teacher through the programme when she enrolled on it for her tertiary education at the University of Education, Winneba.
Ms Baidoo said through her enrollment she had been able to build public relations and communication skills as well as shape her creative and leadership skills.
GNA