Accra, Sept. 27, GNA - About thirty young girls between the ages of 8 and 17 within the Ashongman Estate/Kwabenya communities of the Ga East Municipality in Accra, have participated in the second edition of the SMART Girls Vacation Clinic.
The two-week vacation programme, with support from leading noodles brand, Indomie, afforded the participants the opportunity to acquire some socio-cultural and civic skills in a fun environment.
The Clinic also sought to imbibe in participants the tenets of sincerity, meticulousness, ambition, resilience and teamwork. These tenets represent the acronym for SMART, the name of the programme.
Speaking on the theme: ‘The Environment: My Responsibility’, a civic educationist, Mrs. Zenatha Annewetey, entreated the young girls to make individual efforts towards keeping the environment clean as small individual actions can make a vast difference towards preserving the environment.
Ms Samelia Bawuah, an author of children’s fiction, also interacted with the girls and encouraged them to see reading as a way of improving their vocabulary and preparing for leadership roles.
The young and enthusiastic ladies were also educated on reproductive health and good menstrual hygiene.
They were taken through the warning signs of sexual abuse and urged to talk to trusted persons whenever they identified those signs.
Officials of the Ghana National Fire Service also took the young girls through the usage of fire extinguishers. Other activities included traditional dance sessions as well as indoor games such as oware and ludo.
Mrs. Shirley Ferguson-Avornyo, organiser of the Smart Girls Vacation Clinic, said the desire to prepare girls at their early ages for leadership role is her motivation for organising the programme.
She said overemphasis on passing examinations was denying many young people of the requisite skills, a situation she seeks to address within her community. “Last year I saw very shy girls becoming bold in just two weeks and I promised myself to sustain this programme and the reward this year has been awesome”.
Mrs Ferguson-Avornyo urged parents to pursue the total development of their children by availing them to attend such programmes to enable them acquire relevant lifelong skills that they may never get from the classroom.
She commended Indomie and Mr William Tsegah- Proprietor of the Sky High Preparatory School Ashongman Estate, for supporting the programme and invited other organisations to come on board so that the programme could be extended to benefit a lot more girls in the community.
Besides the knowledge and skills acquired during the programme, the participants also received exercise books and packs of Indomie noodles from Multi Pro Private ltd, brand distributors of Indomie.
GNA
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