Bernice Azameti (right) receiving her start-up kit from Ms Antoinette Gyan.
About 50 girls undergoing training in various male dominated skills in the Volta Region have received start-up kits under the ‘Better Life for Girls’ programme.
The beneficiaries, aged between 15 and 19 years, who are out of school and less likely to go back, are being trained in skills like fabrication and glazing, carpentry, masonry, tiling, auto spraying, general electrical, painting and decoration and welding.
They each received a bag containing equipment for their specified area of training to support the learning of the skill.
UNICEF Ghana, with support from KOICA, is implementing the ‘Better Life for Girls’ programme launched in 2017, in 16 districts in the Northern, Volta and Oti regions through its NGO partners and government.
The programme is aimed at systematically empowering adolescents with a particular focus on girls. It also seeks to address the challenges confronting adolescent girls and provide better alternatives for the most vulnerable and marginalized.
In the Volta Region, the program is being implemented by Savanna Signatures in the South Tongu, Central Tongu, North Tongu, Akatsi North, Akatsi South, Ketu South and Adaklu districts.
At a brief ceremony to hand over the start-up kits to the beneficiaries in Sogakofe, communications officer, UNICEF, Antoinette Gyan, congratulated the girls for their courage to undergo training in various male dominated skills to improve their lives.
She said through the programme, adolescent girls who could have missed out on the opportunity to get some skills to earn an income to support themselves now have a chance to better their lives.
“UNICEF will continue to provide technical and financial support to the government to lead and coordinate such efforts across the country,” she added.
Country Director, KOICA Ghana Office, Moo Heon Kong, in a statement read on his behalf said the funding support reaffirms its commitment to the development of the education and health sectors.
He said there were scores of vulnerable girls in many deprives communities without employable skills, education or vocational training who need to secure income-earning opportunities and employment.
“It, therefore, remains KOICA’s strategic cause and objective to support the government especially at this crucial time, where the economic ramifications from the Covid-19 pandemic are yet to be fully determined,” he said.
Executive Director of Savanna Signatures, John Stephen Agbenyo, said the economic transformation of every country must be built on vocational training, adding “the tools given the beneficiaries would empower them to achieve this transformation.”
Volta Regional Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Stella Agbezuhlor Mawutor, commended the beneficiaries for their boldness to venture into male dominated skills and pledged to assist three of them financially to achieve their dreams.
A beneficiary training in general electrical from the Akatsi North, Bernice Azameti, was full of praise for the organizers saying they were determined to overcome the challenges associated with females engaging in a male dominated activities to excel in their vocation.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri