By Philip Tengzu
Nyoli, (UW/R), March 22, GNA – The Africa Centre for Human Rights and Sustainable Development (AfCHuRSD) has inspired females at the Nyoli Basic School to aspire for leadership roles at every level in society to prepare themselves for national leadership responsibilities.
Ms Bernice Naah, the Executive Director of AfCHuRSD, encouraged the girls to take up roles such as Senior Prefect in schools, youth leaders in churches or mosques and Assembly Members in the community to enable them gain experience for higher leadership roles.
She said this during a sensitisation durbar at Nyoli on the Affirmative Action and Gender Equity Act, 2024 (Act 1121), female leadership and Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) under the Girls and Women’s Economic Empowerment, Livelihoods and participation in Leadership (GWEEL) project.
The AfCHuRSD is implementing the project in partnership with the Equity, Opportunity and Development Fund (EODF) In Action with funding from the Equal Opportunity Fund (EOF) Ghana, Netherlands.
It is being implemented in 20 communities in four districts of the Upper West Region – Nadowli-Kaleo, Jirapa, Wa West and Daffiama-Bussie-Issa Districts.
It aimed to encourage women and girls’ participation in leadership and promotes their fundamental human rights including those with disabilities, particularly their economic, social and cultural rights and protection from SGBV.
Ms Naah indicated that the Affirmative Action Act was to help address the limited female participation in leadership and decision-making on issues that affected their lives.
“You know that in our current situation, the women are few when it comes to leadership.
So, we needed this law to compel institutions, both private and public, to appoint qualified women to also work in spaces where we have more men”, she explained.
Ms Naah advised them to desist from acts that could lead to unwanted pregnancies or early marriages and resist coercing by their parents to marry as that could truncate their education and mar their future.
Speaking on SGBV, Mr Suleman Hakeem, the Wa West District Director, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), urged the students to desist from touching sensitive parts of other people such as their buttocks or breasts as that amounts to sexual harassment and punishable by law.
He advised them to report such “unfriendly touches” from their colleagues, teachers or other people in the community to authorities including the teachers, prefects, parents or friends.
Mr Hakeem also encouraged the students, especially girls, to know their rights and responsibilities and enhance their confidence level to resist anything contrary to their interests while in school, at home or wherever they found themselves.
Madam Janet Kpan, the Upper West Regional Girl Child Coordinator, Ghana Education Service, reiterated the need for girls to aspire for leadership positions that were considered the preserve of males.
She, however, said being a leader doesn’t necessarily mean having that position but taking the initiative to perform the role of a leader without being in that position.
Madam Kpan, who is also the Upper West Regional Focal Person for the Affirmative Action Law Coalition, told the students to be “leaders by example” saying, “If you are a leader, it doesn’t mean that you should sit down and wait for others to work for you.”
As part of its economic empowerment component, the GWEEL project trained the Tertaa Women Group in Nyoli on the production of groundnut cake (kulikuli) to sell.
GNA
CAE /KOA