Ms Mavis Nana Yaa Kyei, the Social Development and Gender Superintendent at AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine, has underscored the importance of girl child education, saying that it is the surest way to empower girls to break barriers to reach their full potentials.
Speaking at a durbar organised by the Obuasi Municipal Girl Child Unit in collaboration with AngloGold Ashanti to mark the 2024 International Day of the Girl Child, Ms Kyei said investing in the education of girls could propel them to compete in male-dominated fields.
According to her, the celebration of the girl child aligned with AngloGold Ashanti's core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion not only in the workplace but also in their host communities.
Celebrated worldwide, International Day of the Girl Child is a key global effort aimed at celebrating girls everywhere, amplifying their voices, actions, and leadership.
The theme for the 2024 celebration is, "Girls' Vision for the Future."
The celebration in Obuasi brought together girls from both basic and Senior High Schools in the Municipality. Ms Kyei said AngloGold Ashanti had instituted a plethora of programmes targeted at empowering the girl child to realise their dreams as contained in the cross-cutting theme of its 10-year Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP). She mentioned the promotion of menstrual hygiene education with the purpose of ending period poverty, encouraging girls to stay in school, and well as implementing the Girls in Science Mentorship Programme as some of the initiatives targeting women's empowerment.
"Your dreams are valid, and you can achieve everything that you set in your mind to achieve," she encouraged the girls. Mrs Cecelia Mensah, the Obuasi Municipal Girls Child Coordinator, indicated that the country was on the right path towards empowering women to achieve their full potential.
She said more girls/ women were now assuming key roles hitherto considered the preserve of men in the country, confirming that stakeholders' efforts in empowering women were on the right trajectory.
Mrs Mensah stated that organising such programmes was the way to build the capacity of girls to believe in their abilities and aspire to achieve great things in future.