Empowering Girls in School

Hello Reader! 

Greetings from Ghana.  Songtaba is very excited to once again to give donors update on our work with girls in the northern region of Ghana.

Songtaba with the support of donors have continued to build the capacity of girls to protect them against all forms of gender based violence. As part of the process of creating a violence free environment in both our schools and home, Songtaba over the years have mobilized these girls into clubs which you are aware off and the activities they do. During the period under review, the president of the E.P junior high school girls club president hatched the idea of linking all the girls club in the Nanumba district to form one platform.

She was supported to go round the other schools to meet with the girls clubs to sell the idea of them joining together to start a girls club movement in Nanumba. This idea she said was born out of news item she saw on television about how girls in another region of Ghana who were beneficiary of a sponsorship programme by non-governmental organization have been able to organized themselves even after the end of the scholarship programme to come back and give back to society by help their brothers and sister still in school. Other members of the girls clubs were excited about the idea and they resolved to convene a meeting with all the leadership of the various girls clubs to appoint an interim executive who will help draw up a programme for the movement.
Under the guidance of Songtaba and the some teacher mentors, the meeting was finally convene and the interim executive appointed and a week after the selection of the interim executive Songtaba organized an orientation session for the executive to build their capacity on their new roles and also to support them draw up a comprehensive road map to a strong girls movement in the Nanumba.

The idea of this girls movement is a kind of an association of former girls club members who wants to still be part of the activities of the school based girls clubs even after completion of school so as to serve as role models for the girls still school as well support the school based girls clubs in the advocacy work.

The spirit in the girls is very high and they are very much excited about this idea and through your support, Songtaba will support to realized this dream

Dear Readers and Supporters,

Songtaba present to you another update on our activities in supporting to build the confidence of girls through our girls club concept. This quarter, five  girls clubs making of  one hundred and fifty (150) met with the regional Girls education officer as a role model to discuss with them on how to stay focus in school and shared her experience with them. The discussion also focused on how important it is for the girls to take leadership roles and their participation in decision making.

Madam Agnes who was the role model led the girls in discussion of various topics such as becoming a good leader, dynamic s of group management and roles and responsibility of group leaders.

She emphasis that, before one becomes a good leaders you need to excel in your education, Hence she encourage all girls to be serious with their books and should not hesitate to report cases/issues that violate their right to education in and out of school environment to the appropriate   authority. These girls clubs is a platform or a support system to protect girls from abuse and also to make the right choices in their education in terms of the kind of educational programmes to persue in the future.

The girl’s club members were also encouraged not to always stay behind for the opposite sex partners to lead. The 21^st century encourages girls to always walk side by side with their male counterparts.  The executives were advice not to vie for only position within girls club but also those in their school, community and the country at large. As a network they were encourage to support each other to succeed to produce role models for the younger generation that will follow them. Role models like chief justice, the attorney general and minister for justice and the current chief of staff who are all women who started as young girls as they are currently and were able to compete with men in their current positions.

The discussion was climax on managing group dynamic, roles and responsibilities of girls’ club executives.  This was intended to clearly point out how this network will operate. The schools base clubs will continue to operate as they have been and after graduating they will join the alumnus   which is the network of girls’ club members in Nanumba.

One of the key outcomes of the meeting was that great feeling of girls and their readiness to contest for positions in their schools as they presented their actions on next steps. They called for another broader discussion with many other role models. Songtaba therefore will work with the girls leadership to organize an annual general assembly meetings a. The participants were excited and promise to do step-down training for their respective club members at their communities.