Story: Mary Ankrah
A one-week workshop of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) Africa Sub-Region opened in Accra last Monday.
The workshop is being hosted by the Ghana Girl Guides Association (GGGA) to highlight leadership and fund development.
It seeks to support member organisations to build their capacity in fund and leadership development with special focus on succession planning systems and to provide a guided platform for member organisations to address major challenges they face.
It is expected that the workshop would help the participants draw from the member countries, including Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and India, to acquire practical tools and techniques on building and implementing a successful fundraising strategy.
The Head of Administration of Ashesi University College, Dr Esi E. Ansah, in her address, said there was the need for a conscious effort to make children learn and acquire qualities and lifestyles of those who train and groom them.
She said the notion that children were future leaders was not encouraging them to learn and do things as leaders now, since that notion made them think that they could wait till the future when they were given leadership positions then they would truly believe they were leaders.
“You are leaders at any age, where you are two years, five, and 12 or 20 years, it is not a future thing”, she emphasised.
She said the training and grooming of children must be a deliberate process and every Ghanaian must be involved in bringing up the kind of leaders the country wanted.
Dr Ansah, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Axis Human Capital Limited, indicated that some of them tended to put up certain behaviours, hoping to that they would change in future when they became leaders, and, therefore, advised parents, guidance, teachers, religious leaders and all to train and groom children and strategies to involve them in the daily challenges and prospects of life.
He explained that because of globalisation, a lot of things had change, especially with social impact of the media, and urged parents to pay attention to those global changes which should instil the right values in children.
She also encouraged children and Ghanaians to take up voluntary work, adding that “it is important that when you commit your life to serve, you will not listen to anybody because you have the heart to do so”.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Commissioner of GGGA, Mrs Juliana Ofori-Kissi, said that the GGGA became a full member of the WAGGGS since 1969 with 10 million members worldwide.
Being among the largest women organisations, she said the body was committed to helping girls and young women develop their potential and make them responsible citizens.
In line with that objective, Mrs Ofori-Kissi observed that GGGA had trained about 16, 000 girls to acquire skills in the informal sector, including leadership and career development, home craft and personal care, among other skills, towards the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that relate to poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability and women empowerment.
“Many girls have benefited from the above mentioned skills training and we continue to spread our wings to reach out to more girls and young women in our society”, she added.
As part of the programme, GGA launched the fifth World Centre project of the WAGGGS of the Africa Sub-Region in Ghana.
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