Garishegu, (N/R) March 13, GNA-Mr William Anim-Dankwa, Acting Team Leader of the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC), has advised women to support one another to gain equality with men to eliminate violence against them and girls in their communities.
He called on traditional leaders to outlaw outmoded practices that hinder the welfare and wellbeing of women and girls in their communities to allow them develop their potentials and support the overall development of their communities.
Mr Anim-Dankwa gave the advice during a community durbar to commemorate International Women’s day held at Garishegu in the Northern region.
It had as its theme: “Think equal, Build smart, Innovate for Change”.
The occasion, organised by the CCFC in partnership with Markaz AL Bishara Child Development Programme was to reflect and talk about the advancement of women towards achieving equality in society.
According to him, the progress towards gender equality in the communities were sluggish compared to the urban areas, and urged government and other stakeholders to effectively collaborate to ensure the establishment of strong affirmative actions to promote gender equality at community levels.
He called on other institutions, and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) to support CCFC and Markaz AL Bishara Child Development Programme to advance new generation of innovative laws, policies and programmes to change discriminatory beliefs and practices to achieve gender equality in rural areas.
Mr Anim-Dankwa noted that so far, CCFC was working with stakeholders in the education sector to improve on quality of education in rural areas, especially in the Northern sector to achieve children’s interests to become good leaders in society.
Later, speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Madam Margaret Abukari, the Programmes Assistant Manager of Markaz AL Bishara Child Development Programme appealed to policy makers to promulgate strong polices to end abuse against children in rural areas, and reiterated the call on traditional leaders to stop early child marriage and send the girls to school to positively develop them for future leaderships.
She noted that CCFC and Markaz AL Bishara Child Development Programme have collaborated to improve on the livelihoods of community members by establishing the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) to empower women economically.
