The Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD Ghana), a domestic Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has held a capacity-building training for girls and young women (GYWs) to participate effectively in democratic and civic processes.
The training, held in Wa on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, formed part of the implementation of the She Leads project in the Upper West Region.
The project, implemented in partnership with Plan International Ghana, aims to increase the sustained influence of girls and young women (GYWs) in decision-making and the transformation of negative gender norms in formal and informal institutions.
Speaking at the workshop, Ms. Ernestina Biney, the Executive Director of CARD Ghana, said the project has made tremendous impacts in the lives of beneficiaries since its inception four years ago.
“And I can talk about our Champions of Change, through the project; it has changed their lifestyle, and through that, they have been able to support their colleagues including their wives to go back to school because, through the project, they realized that it is important for girls and young women to have education.
“We can talk about Senior High Schools and then our tertiary. We’ve been able to support them [GYWs] to contest for positions, not just any other position but male-dominated positions and by God’s grace, they were able to win,” she narrated.
Ms Biney said the object of the project was not to incite competition and rivalry between boys and girls but to create a collaborative and supportive environment where girls and young women identify their leadership potentials and develop skills for leading in such roles.
She, therefore, said the training was aimed at equipping girls and young women with information about their democratic and civic rights and how to effectively take part in the election processes as the general elections drew nearer.
“Our objective is that, at the end of this program, participants would be able to understand their fundamental human rights and freedoms, be peacekeepers, be religious tolerant and have an idea about their voting, how to cast their vote,” he said.
The Upper West Regional Director of NCCE, Mr. Victor Elikplim Nuworkpor, explained that the fundamental human rights of Ghanaian citizens are adequately expressed in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which he described as the “supreme law of the land.”
“Fundamental Human rights and Freedoms in the 1992 Constitution can be generally put under civil rights, political rights, economic rights, cultural rights, and other special rights,” he explained.
He said the constitution recognizes and offers women special rights that protect them from discrimination and exploitation of their vulnerabilities, urging GYWs to become abreast with those rights.
Mr Nuworkpor said the law allows an individual to have “the right to vote and be voted for” and urged the participants who qualify to exercise that right in the upcoming elections as a civic duty.
Meanwhile, he admonished that there were no rights without responsibilities and called on participants to honour their duties such as “protecting and safeguarding the environment, defending the Constitution of Ghana, promote the good name of Ghana and respect the symbols of the nation.”
Mr Danioel Kwatia Larbi, the Deputy Regional Commission of the Electoral Commission (EC), also took the participants through the electoral processes and how to cast valid votes in the upcoming elections.
On her part, the Upper West Regional Director of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Madam Vida Addi urged the young people to recognize and judiciously use the power of voices, choices, and actions in shaping the future of the country.
She encouraged the youth to prioritize peace and harmony before, during, and after the 2024 general elections as she said peace is a precondition to sustainable development.
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