Girls Empowerment Mission-Ghana (GEM-GHANA) on Saturday, July 2, 2022, donated some items to the Tamale Children’s Home in Nyohini. The outreach, which is the second of its kind by GEM GHANA seeks to strengthen ties with the orphanage, while offering material support to the home.

The Executive Director of GEM-GHANA, Mr. Abdul Rafiiu Alhassan disclosed to the public that the goal of their yearly donations is to put some smiles on the faces of our underprivileged children, who have same rights as children living with their parents/guardians. According to him, he grew up in the community of the orphanage and used to play inside the home so he knows how it is to be there. He also said their organization is ready to support the children with skills training for their personal development. He and other members at the event called for more support to the facility. The facility urgently needs water so the Executive Director appealed to the public (both home and abroad) to support the Home with a bole-hole either hand-pump or mechanized. The facility also needs a fence wall prevent people from encroachment. There is the need for a dinning hall and recreational equipment for the children to keep them active and improve their health to have sound minds.

Away from the donation, GEM-GHANA spent some time with the children and had fun with them. The donated materials consisted mainly of bail of clothes, toiletries, liquid soaps, bleaches, etc. Some cooked food and drinks were served to the children as their dinner.

The following NGOs were invited by GEM-GHANA to help grace the donation event; Real of Science Advocacy and Research Center (ReSARC), The Empowered Female Foundation (TEFF), Dagbon Excellence Foundation (DEF) and Tiyumba Hope Foundation (THF). GEM-GHANA’s media partner, Sagani TV, a television station in Tamale was also present to cover the event as part of its corporate responsibility.

GEM-GHANA expressed their gratitude to the organizations that honoured its invitation and added that all things being equal, the donation event will be a yearly affair.

The 2022 Menstrual Hygiene Day was marked across the world under the theme “Making Menstruation A Normal Fact Of Life By 2030” and GEM-GHANA also observed the day with thirty (30) menstruating girls from Zogbeli JHS “A” in the Tamale North Sub-metro area.

The event was graced by students, teachers and GEM-GHANA members who served us resource persons on three (3) topics relating to Menstrual Hygiene Management. the topics are :

1. “Meaning of Menstruation and Menstrual Cycle; i. Signs that you are in your Menses ii. Signs of problems with your Menstrual Cycle”
2. “Cultural Beliefs and Restrictions on Menstruating Girls; i. Role of Parents/Teachers towards Menstrual Hygiene Management ii. Role of peers towards Menstrual Hygiene Management”
3. “Types of Absorbents Used during Menstruation; i. Menstrual Waste Disposal Techniques ii. Consequences of Improper Menstrual Waste Disposal”

These topics were presented by three (3) different resource persons using a projector. They allowed some questions from the girls for clarifications. After the presentations, a pack of YAZZ and Softcare Sanitary pads were donated to each of the thirty (30) participating girls. Snack was also serve to all present at the event.

The Programs Manager of GEM-GHANA, Mr. Zakaria Yussif thanked the school management for receiving us and helping us to organize a successful event. The lead teacher also expressed their gratitude to GEM-GHANA for choosing their school out of the many schools for the program.

GEM-GHANA partnered with Learner Girls Foundation (LGF), an NGO in Paga, Ghana to train sixty (60) girls in Basic Robotics on 16th July, 2021 at Navrongo Senior High School (NAVASCO), in Navrongo-Ghana. The goal of the training is to inspire, educate and empower these adolescent girls to take interest in the study of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) education and to take up future careers in those fields to help close the gender gap in those areas.

The girls were drawn from three (3) schools within Navrongo to meet at NAVASCO for the one day training. The Founder of LGF, Miss Kumuriwor Alira Bushiratu praised the girls for turning up for the training and expressed hope that the event will benefit them greatly. She encouraged the girls to take their studies seriously to make their families proud of them in future. On his part, the Executive Director of GEM-GHANA, Mr. Abdul Rafiiu Alhassan thanked LGF for agreeing to a partnership to touch the lives of underprivileged girls, who have great potentials to rise to become whatever they want to be. He also encouraged the girls to listen carefully to their teachers in the classroom in order to understand the concepts being taught them.

An invited Guest, Dr. Pedavoah Mary Magdalene, who is one of the few women Lecturers in the Biochemistry Department of the CK. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, shared her experience as a woman pursuing higher education in STEAM. She added that with all the challenges, if she has made it, then they the girls too can make it and better since she also came from an underprivilege family and deprived area. She also encouraged the girls to take their studies seriously so that they can make good grades into universities to study STEAM programs.

An old girl of the NAVASCO, Dr. Patience Afulani, who is based in the US, paid the school a visit and heard of the program so she decided to come and share some words of encouragements with the girls. She took them through her experience study STEAM programs dominated by men but at the end, she has made so said the girls can also make it, if they are serious with their studies.

The training went on well and ended well with participants happy and excited. The representative of NAVASCO at the program, thanked both organizations for teaming up to organise such an informative and educative training for the girls. He also expressed a desire that the training could be a regular program on our calendar.

GEM-GHANA in partnership with a Pakistani based social enterprise call Aurat Raaj, organised a day’s Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) education for forty (40) adolescent girls in Excellence Academy Junior High School to provide the girls with some information and education on Menstruation. The two organisations also donated forty (40) packs of YAZZ Disposable Sanitary pads to the participants.

The objective of the MHM education is to promote the best personal hygiene practices amongst adolescent girls during their menses. Also we took the opportunity to introduce to the girls Aurat Raaj’s Chatbot on menstrual hygiene management widely used in Pakistan by many girls and women. The link to the chatbot is https://www.auratraaj.com/englishmhm/

The girls and staff expressed their appreciation for our kind gesture towards touching the lives of underprivileged adolescent girls.

GEM-GHANA, on the 12th of June 2021 organised a one day STEAM training activity on Robotics for 30 girls offering Science program in Tamale Senior Secondary School. The training was part of a series of trainings to be done to inspire young girls take interest in studying STEAM related programs leading to STEAM Careers. Trainers, took the participants through the training.

The invited guests at the event took time to offer some Career Guidance and Counseling to the participants in their respective STEAM fields. Dr. Mary-Magdalene Pedavoah, (Chairperson, Board of Directors – GEM-GHANA), Dr. Hawawu Hussein, (Member, Board of Directors – GEM-GHANA), Dr. Abdul-Nashirudeen Mumuni, (Member, Board of Directors – GEM-GHANA) and Dr. Mohammed Abdul Muhsin Zambang (Lecturer, Tamale Technical University) all took time to provide some information on Science programs that leads to STEAM careers. They also encourage the young girls to take their studies seriously to enable them pass their examinations and climb up the academic ladder to land good jobs in future that will reduce the wide gab that exists in gender employment.

The facilitators of the robotics training, Mr. Ushawu Ibrahim, who doubles as GEM-GHANA, Chief Digital Officer and the CEO of Electronics Technologies Consult (ETC) and Mr. Simon of ETC, then took their time to meticulously take participants through the building and programming of basic robots to perform specific tasks. The training is usually a hands-on activity that demands the participants put into groups for effective participation. The hands-on nature captured the attention of all the participants including the invited guests, who volunteered to join the groups to add their experience and to provide some guidance and leadership to the groups

Mr. Ushawu also took some time to share a few words with the girls; he said the world is fast moving to digitalization and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) so there is the need for young girls to get themselves ready to enable them face the challenges ahead.

At the end of the event, the Executive Director of GEM-GHANA added his voice to the call of the guests to the participants to take their studies seriously to prepare them to become responsible future leaders.