Women urged to empower themselves

Koforidua, Nov. 16, GNA -  Rev Rose Donkor, the Founder of the Women’s Development Centre (WDC) of the All Nations University College in Koforidua, has urged women to empower themselves to have access to skills to improve their standard of living.   She also appealed to them to be outspoken and have the ability to make decisions about their personal and collective circumstances.   Rev. Donkor was speaking at the graduation ceremony of 45 women from the WDC in Koforidua on Thursday.   She said women’s empowerment had been the issue of hot debates worldwide, especially in countries where females were suppressed and confined within the walls of the house.   “Women have to understand that power has to be fought for; it would not be given out easily” Rev. Donkor said.   “Our graduating students have chosen to take the power by embracing the opportunities presented to them to be empowered by the WDC”, she said.   Rev. Donkor said empowerment included the ability to make decisions about personal or collective circumstances to access information and resource for decision making and to learn and access skills for improving a person’s circumstances.   She added that the ability to influence other’s perception through exchange, education and engagement and increasing one’s ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong were also empowerment.   Rev. Donkor appealed to women to increase their “positive self-image” and overcome stigmatization.   She urged the graduates to let society and the country as a whole benefit from their expanded pool of talent.   Ms Angela Dwamena-Aboagye, the Executive Director of the Ark Foundation, urged the graduates to put whatever they had learnt into practice to benefit their communities and the nation at large.   She urged them to be women of substance to be highly respected in their communities to be able to form part of decision makers.   The graduates were taken through English, Mathematics, Introduction to Information, Communication Technology (ICT) and Business and Entrepreneurial skills.   The WDC centre,  since its establishment in 2004 had trained over 1,545 women and been a source of strength and hope to women in the Eastern Region and beyond.   GNA... Read Full Story