A community sensitisation durbar organized by the Girls’ Education Network (GEN) was held on Friday, October 9, 2020 to celebrate this year’s ‘International Day of the Girl.’
The community durbar, held at Adenta Sakora in the La-Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal in the Greater Accra Region, brought together school children, teachers, parents and opinion leaders in the district to campaign for the return of all children, boys and girls, to school when the next academic calendar resumes in January 2021 following the closure of school due to COVID-19.
Schools in the district that participated in the celebrated included West Africa Secondary School (WASS) Experimental JHS, Victory Academy Basic School, Zamsa Academy, Wisdom Ways Academy, among others.
The sensitisation durbar, preceded with a route march by school children and teachers, was a strategy designed by the organizers, the Girls’ Education Network (GEN), to celebrate the 2020 ‘International Day of the Girl’ and to reinforce the Back-To-School campaign activated by the GES.
The Convener of Girls’ Education Network (GEN), Mrs. Benedicta Tenni Seidu, has said it is never true that boys are more human than girls, and that the description of girls as less human by some Ghanaian cultures is a total misinformation.
In most cultures of Ghana, a woman is hailed for giving birth to a boy, with statements such as “W’awo nipa,” to wit, “she has given birth to a human being.”
Such statements, according to Mrs. Seidu, are not only wrong, but also portrays a misunderstanding of how the world and humanity were created.
Referring to the creation story in the Bible, Mrs. Seidu described females as the only people who God took time “to research” before creating, as every other creature He made came by word of mouth.
She explained: “God separated the making of a woman. He used words of mouth to create other things, ‘let there be this and it came into being, let there be that and it came into being’. But when it got to woman, He took time, rested; He had to breathed and think and researched, until He got to know how women should come by.”
This, she said, makes girls special people who should be supported in all things to realize their goals.
The GEN is an umbrella body of organisations, public and private, which are working in the area of girls’ education.
Member-organisations include the GES (i.e. Girls’ Education Unit, Special Education Division, Guidance & Counselling Unit, School Health Education Programme Unit), UNICEF-Ghana, CAMFED-Ghana, Plan International-Ghana, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (formerly DFID), ActionAid-Ghana, World Education Ghana, Transforming Teacher Education & Learning (T-TEL) Ghana, Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), Dream Oval and Right-To-Play, Discovery Alliance.
Others are Child Online Africa, The Pre-Tertiary Division of the Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection, Domestic Violence & Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of Ghana Police Service, Community Development, etc.
The La-Nkwantanang-Madina Municipal Director of Education, Madam Angela Nkansah, who chaired the durbar, thanked GEN for investing their energies and resources into the education of girls, and for selecting her district to celebrate this year’s ‘International Day of the Girl.’
