Girls Excellence Movement (GEM), a Non-profit Organisation with focus on empowering young girls to aspire to greater heights, has mentored school girls in North Dayi District.
Students drawn from the Anfoega Senior High and some selected basic schools in the District, were taken through life changing lessons that would positively impact their lives in the future.
GEM is a group made up of women and men with different professional backgrounds whose mission is to instill the spirit of excellence and achievement in girls and nurture them to become women of substance, aspiring to greatness in all spheres of life.
Founder & Executive director of GEM, Ms. Juliana Ama Kplorfia, Mentors and members from Girls Excellence Movement(GEM),students and pupils from selected schools and their teachers were in attendance.
During the program, Ms. Kplorfia urged the girls to be bold and confident in owning their short falls and working towards improving them, adding that there was no easy path to greatness except through hard work.
She expressed the hope that the programme would be extended to all parts of the country in future.
Ms. Belinda Dogbatse, a Mentor from GEM, asked the girls to associate themselves with peers who would have positive influence on their lives while shuning all distructions.
She said it was important for girls to understand their purpose in life to guide the choices they made about their future.
“All choices come with consequences, know what to expect before following it up,” she said, and that poverty should not be a hindrance in achieving one’s aim”
She told the girls not to perceive menstruation as a weakness or sickness but must be conversant with their menstrual cycle dates and constantly practice personal hygiene to stay healthy.
The girls were also taught how to be focus on their education and study effectively, Ms. Gloria Opoku Darko, a member of the GEM Finance Team, entreated the girls to avoid all forms of destruction while in school so it does not impact negatively on their education.
She asked them to form study groups to learn from each other and overcome their weaknesses.
On Information Technology, Ms. Linda Adamu, a GEM STEM Team member said the girls must be innovative and develop a good attitude towards learning Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
She said technology was improving the lives of people and that it was important for all to understand the concept and encouraged the girls not to be limited by perceptions and prejudice against the sciences.
Speaking to few students, they were happy with the program and see it as timely program that informed them on how to grow their lives to become responsible women in future
In an interview with Ms. Kplorfia advised the girls to make informed decisions in life.
She also urged them not to see family planning, which most of them had done, as an opportunity or license to have indiscriminate sex, since family planning does not protect them against Sexually Transmitted Infections.
When asked how long she and her team has been doing this, Ms. Kplorfia said, GEM started in 2008 with the goal of inspiring, educating, mentoring and informing to transform girls into great women of excellence.
She called on government to keep its promise of waiving luxury tax on sanitary pad to makes it affordable to all and also go a step further to make pads available to girls in school freely.
Girls Excellence Movement (GEM) distributed Softcare Sanitary pads, Mathematical sets, soft drinks, natural hair products to each of the 475 girls who participated in the program
