The Young Women Leaders Network (YWLN) celebrated 5 years of empowering girl child across the country.
The anniversary which was themed “Impacting the lives of the girl child, 5 years down the road “ was marked with series of activities including empowerment sessions with guests speakers followed by breast cancer screening.
YWLN is a non-profit organization that seeks to educate empower and support young girls and women from urban slum and rural communities in Ghana through menstrual health education and personal development.
The organization was established in October, 2016 with their first project dubbed “One Inmate, One papaye “where they raised funds to give a lunch treat to the female patient and children of Accra Psychiatric Hospital.
The founder, Hajar Diko Osman in an interview with Mynewsafric.com explained how the vision started.
She said “this came up as a suggestion from a friend and was proudly executed”.
“In 2017 I attended a Young African Leadership Initiative Fellowship, were I realized I have really not been doing anything because the people I was in the camp with were all really doing well, in terms of their businesses and humanitarian activities, so I thought of doing something different in my community”.
That’s when I thought of the “Gift a Sanitary Pad” campaign which started in 2017 were we educate basic school girls on menstrual hygiene management and gift them a pad” she narrated.
The event saw a lot of basic school girls presents with guest speakers emphasizing on the importance of self empowerment.
The first speaker, Hajia Asmau Ayub who is a licensed counseling Psychologist spoke about women’s mental health to creates consciousness among the young girls.
She advised the girls to believe in themselves, discover their personal traits in order to be able to control their emotions and build self-confidence so that they can speak up against what they deem right without being disrespectful.
Director of Achievers Ghana Ahmad Mohammed, encouraged the girls with story of how his mother got married at an early age without knowing who she was being married to but did her best to cater for his education out of her 7 children.
He also stated that most of the problems marriage couples are facing lately is because many women are not economical empowered.
Hajia Fatima Zahra Hassan who is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Jadore Cosmetics also advised the girls to take control of their lives because she was forced into marriage at age 19 and was physically and emotionally abused by her ex husband. She also advised the girls to read to broaden their minds because that’s what helped her since she had to drop out from school.
On his part Rabiu Maude took the girls through an imaginary method of asking them to imagine if certain situations have not happened or some women have not succeeded in their quest, they will not benefit from them.
He also advised the girls to empower themselves in other not to me underrated by anyone especially suitors.
The chairperson, Madam Ayisha Adam, Director of Iqra Educational Center also advised the girls to be economically empowered by learning a skill or do a business even if it’s “condensed toffee” to break the cycle of the “no money syndrome in our communities”.
She also advised the girls to be decent, aim high and pursue higher level of education to break the narrative of “girls who attained higher education are spoilt”.
YWLN is currently running a project of training young girls on sowing their own pads which are reusable and can be used for as long as five years with proper hygienic management.
