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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Central Region marks International Girl Child Day

By
Nana Oye Gyimah / Victoria Agyemang, GNA

Besease (C/R), Oct.
17, GNA – Globally, an average of 15 million girls marry before the age of 18
annually while a teen girl dies every ten minutes as a result of violence
perpetrated against them; with 130 million girls between the ages of six and 17
out of school.

Mr John Ekow Aidoo,
Central Regional Manager of the Ghana Red Cross Society, who made this known at
this year’s regional celebration of the International Girl Child Day at Besease
in the Komenda-Edina -Eguafo -Abrem (KEEA) Municipality, called on Ghanaians to
prioritise girl-child education and their security.

The day, declared by
the United Nations to be celebrated on October 11 each year, was marked
globally on the theme: “Empowering girls for a brighter tomorrow”; and the
national theme was: “Promoting access, transition and completion of
education for girls “.

In an effort to stem
these persistent obstacles, the Ghana Red Cross is merging its efforts to the Strategic
Approaches to Girls Education (STAGE) Project.

The STAGE project
aims to lower the barriers that vulnerable and marginalized girls face in
attaining education and create awareness about the need for safeguarding and
protecting the girl.

The goal is to
rethink how girls and young women across the world can transition into the
workforce, starting with expanding the educational opportunities available to
them.

Therefore, it helps
to highlight and address the needs and challenges of girls, promote adolescent
girls empowerment and enlighten them on their human rights for them to support
their families, communities and countries.

Mr Aidoo said the
main objectives of the STAGE project is to create awareness on the need for the
protection of girls against sexual exploitation, neglect and abuse.

He said the project
will recruit 500 girls from 20 communities in the municipality to provide
accelerated learning programmes to the beneficiaries through numeracy,
literacy, life skills and vocational enterprises.

To tackle the
challenges associated with child marriages, teenage pregnancies, school
dropouts, and streetism in the region, Mr Aidoo urged parents to invest in their
children’s education and called on girls to stay away from bad company.

GNA

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