Over 750 Female Students in Northern Region benefit from ‘Girls Strength Project’

• Posted on February 22, 2019February 22, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

A total of 756 Students from the Bagagaba Cluster of Schools in the Sagnarigu Municipal Assembly in the Northern Regional Capital Tamale benefited from a speed mentoring and career shop programme dubbed ‘Girls Strength’ from Wednesday 20^th to Friday 22^nd February, 2019.

The project which is the brainchild of 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow Zubaida Ismail who is the Northern Regional Correspondent for Media General’s TV3 has the aim of convening Mentors to guide the female Students on selected topics such as self-belief, self-confidence, sex education, female hygiene tips, career guidance, amongst others.

The Convener of the ‘Girls Strength’ programme Miss Ismail has been organizing this project since the past two years in other parts of the Northern Region. “At Girl’s Strength, we believe prepping the confidence and self-esteem of rural and urban girls is the first step to empowerment. If a girl doesn’t discover who she is, what potentials she possesses and how to actualize these potentials, she might not appreciate the classroom knowledge” Miss Ismail who studied at Syracuse University in USA on the Public Management track of the Mandela Washington Fellowship revealed the reason for this project.  

For its third year, the Girls Strength programme was supervised and partly funded by US Embassy’s International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). Miss Ismail was made to collaborate with Corporate Communications Executive and Entrepreneur Nana Kwesi Coomson, also a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track of the Mandela Washington Fellowship programme. Mr. Coomson is a Senior Journalist with The Chronicle newspaper and Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.net.

“I have never been this confident of the future of Ghana. Interacting and mentoring these female Students, I realized that they have big dreams and seeing Zubaida Ismail on TV often gives them great hope that it is possible to also make it regardless of where they come from. Telling them our stories and how we have been able to maneuver through the vicissitudes of life has also pepped them up the more. I remember asking one girl what makes her confident of becoming like her mentor Zubaida and she said because she was once like her and lived in Tamale so she knows she can also become like her in future” Mr. Coomson shared his experience of the 3 days mentoring programme.

The head of the Phamacovigilance/Research and Drug Information Center at Tamale Teaching Hospital Cynthia Akumanue who studied at the Florida International University on the Public Management track and Nancy Anataba, a Geological Engineer who studied at the University of Nevada-Reno on the Business and Entrepreneurship track were the other 2018 Mandela Washington Fellows who joined the Girls Strength project as Mentors this year.

Students of Bagabaga Demonstration Primary A, Bagabaga Demonstration Junior High Schools Blocks A, B and C were the beneficiaries of this year’s Girls Strength.

The Headteachers of the schools who were profoundly grateful urged the Mentors to make this an annual event.

Photos and videos below;