News
WOMEC empowers adolescent girls
Dr Charity Binka, Executive Director, WOMEC
Women, Media and Change (WOMEC), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), which have empowered several women over the years, has rolled out a project to mentor young adolescents, mostly girls, to take up leadership roles within their respective communities.
Dubbed the Gender Transformative Programming (GTP), a turning point project mentorship and leadership forum on the theme, “Equipping adolescent girls for leadership,” was organised by WOMEC.
It aimed at empowering adolescents to muster courage and speak for their rights irrespective of the issues confronting them.
Students from various schools within the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality in the Greater Accra Region participated in the mentorship event at Sebrepor for the fourth phase of the WOMEC adolescent empowering programme which was held recently.
Ms. Dulcie DelaliAttipoe, Programmes Coordinator of WOMEC said that it was time adolescent girls were empowered to gain self-confidence to report wrongdoing in the communities.
She observed that adolescent girls needed to be mentored at an early age to be responsible leaders in their various fields of endeavours.
According to Ms. Attipoe, policymakers must formulate policy and programmes aimed at protecting the lives of adolescent girls in the country and called on the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) to pay critical attention to the needs of adolescents.
MsThelcaWricketts, a lawyer and facilitator at the event, also urged the government to, through its appropriate agencies, implement the various legal framework as far as child rights were concerned.
She noted that many children were facing various forms of abuse in some parts of the country, adding that a lot of advocacy work needed to be done to protect adolescents who were future leaders of the country.
Ms. Wricketts commended WOMEC for organising such a programme for adolescent girls, saying that such events should be replicated in other parts of the country.
Dr. Charity Binka, Executive Director of WOMEC highlighted the need for adolescent girls to aspire higher and take their education serious to become good citizens in society.
She said that WOMEC would continue to offer support for young girls to enable them to harness their talents.
Dr.Binka admonished young girls to always pursue their dreams and desist from immoralacts that would bea hindrance to their dreams.
By Alfred Nii Arday Ankrah
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) will undertake a nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination exercise in schools from October to December 2026 to protect eligible girls against cervical cancer and other HPV related diseases.
The exercise, organised in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and its partners through the School Health Education Programme (SHEP), will be conducted in two rounds.
The first round is scheduled for October 19 to 23, 2026, while the second will take place from November 30 to December 4, 2026.
In a press release dated October 19, the GHS explained that health workers would visit schools across the country to vaccinate eligible girls aged 9 to 14 who have not yet received the HPV vaccine.
The exercise forms part of efforts to raise awareness about the routine HPV vaccine, increase vaccination uptake and strengthen the country’s routine immunisation programme.
The GHS has called on school authorities, parents, guardians, teachers and community leaders to cooperate with health teams to ensure the successful implementation of the exercise.
The Service reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the health and well-being of Ghanaians, particularly children, through vaccination and other public health interventions.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang has held high-level discussions with organisers of the 2026 Global South Academic Forum in Shanghai, seeking to draw lessons from China’s acclaimed rural revitalisation and poverty reduction drive.
The meeting, led by the Forum Chair, Professor Lu Xinyu, explored practical areas of cooperation and knowledge exchange between Ghana and China, with focus on community-driven development, fisheries and aquaculture, local governance, sports initiatives, and infrastructure development.
According to officials, the engagement is part of a broader effort by the Ghanaian government to study tested development models that can be adapted to the local context to promote inclusive growth, empower local communities, and improve livelihoods across the country.
China’s success in lifting over 800 million people out of poverty through targeted rural policies, investment in agriculture and local infrastructure has become a global reference point for developing nations.
The Vice President’s team says insights from the Forum will help inform policy direction, particularly in strengthening decentralised governance, boosting the fisheries and aquaculture sector, and investing in community-level infrastructure and youth sports development.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang is expected to continue engagements with academic and development institutions while in China.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
