By Juliet ETEFE
The Girls Excellence Movement (GEM), a Non-profit Organisation with focus on empowering young girls to aspire to greater heights, in partnership with Africa with us foundation, have mentored school girls from the Labone Senior High School in Accra.
The team in line with GEM’s Wheels of Inspiration initiative, inspired the girls taking them through topics such as sexual consent, menstrual hygiene, having a vision-board, peer-pressure, building self-confidence, positive thinking, emotional intelligence, peer-learning, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The founder of GEM, Juliana Ama Kplorfia, guided participants through the power of mindset, illustrating how it can either constrain or enhance one’s potential, approaches, and results.
She emphasised the significance of mindset in achieving success, highlighting the detrimental effects of negative, limited, and fixed mindsets while advocating for the adoption of a progressive or growth mindset, enabling individuals to overcome challenges and achieve their goals.
She urged the girls to cultivate a positive mindset capable of propelling individuals toward their future goals, highlighting that success in pursuing one’s vision requires dedication, diligence, and resilience.
She also encouraged them to celebrate their individual uniqueness’s and discard the thought-societal definition of beauty.
“Today’s outreach event, in collaboration with the African Arts Foundation marks the start of GEM’s calendar year, emphasising the importance of building girls’ capacity and inspiring them to pursue leadership roles across various domains,” she said.
Government can do more
Speaking on the call for sanitary pads to be made affordable by removing existing taxes and government’s ‘tax-free locally produced sanitary pads’ decision, she said there is room to do more.
“It is good news that if it is made in Ghana there’s no tax on it, but we cannot find the locally made ones. So, it’s like government have given us a check that can only be cashed in the future, government can do more,” she noted.
Addressing the girls, Madam Doris Gafatchi drew their attention on the need to get information that will grow them, get a role model and be patient as they embark on their life endeavors.
Founder of the Africa with Us Foundation, Cassandra Nuamah, encouraged the girls to believe in their abilities, highlighting that being a woman should never be viewed as a limitation but rather as a source of strength.
She reiterates the message of confidence, emphasizing that they should pursue their dreams with conviction, knowing that anything is possible regardless of gender.
Reflecting on global experiences, she emphasises the importance of leadership and confidence in girls’ empowerment.
She expresses gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to girls’ education and empowerment through the partnership with GEM, saying the partnership resonates with their mission.
Interacting with the B&FT, the Labone senior high school girls commended GEM for their dedication to mentoring them on the topics which they are confident will contribute significantly to their personal development and academic achievement.
The impact of the GEM initiative, the students say will undoubtedly continue to resonate with them, shaping them into confident, knowledgeable, and well-rounded individuals.
Africa with us Foundation is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to help build and empower impoverished and low-income African communities through the youth. It holds strongly that: “The youth are our future so by pouring into their betterment and growth, we are establishing continual and sustainable growth.”
The Girls Excellence Movement – GEM is a registered non-government, non-for-profit youth organisation started as a passion project in 2008 to build the capacity of girls and inspires them to aspire to greater heights. It became a full-blown NGO in 2018 with a bigger agenda to groom more women for the decision-making arenas, in all fields of human endeavour, from politics to aeronautics.
