On the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child (IDGC), a child-centred Non Governmental Organisation, College for Ama (CofA), has urged government and civil society organisations to work to bridge the gap between rural and urban education.
In 2011, a United Nations Resolution established October 11 as the IDGC, a day designated for promoting the rights of girls and addressing the unique challenges they face.
The 2014 International Day for the Girl Child is on the theme; �Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence.�
A statement issued by Professor Nana Araba Apt, Founding Member and Honorary Chief Executive Officer of CoFA, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Friday, said in order to effectively address the poor enrolment and performance of children in rural schools, especially the girl child; �there is the need for government and civil society organisations to commit more resources into infrastructural development such as classroom blocks with toilets, the provision of education materials and trained and motivated teachers�.
As the world celebrates the IDGC, CofA congratulates all civil society organisations working to support the national girl child education initiative, it said.
The statement said there was the need for greater efforts in investing in rural areas of Ghana, more particularly in rural schools and the education of the rural girl to completely change the current cycle of under-achievement that existed among girls in the rural areas.
�CofA attempts to break this cycle by creating and increasing access to information and education for school girls in rural areas and their families to help them make better life decisions, thus becoming more independent and achieving a better quality of life.
�We urge government and child-centred civil society organisations to help empower adolescent girls and bring to an end all cycle of violence against the girl child,� the statement said.
CoFA is a registered charity organisation in Ghana, established in 2005 by three Ghanaian professional women to help adolescent girls in rural areas to break out of the spiral of poverty and under-achievement.
The organisation has trained over 200 rural girls from the Central, Western, Greater Accra, Volta and Eastern regions at its annual Summer Camps aimed at raising the consciousness of the girls to alternative life cycles.
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