Female Students Empowered at Madina Senior High School

Female students have been told to believe that they can excel beyond all limits and become whoever they aspire to be.

Madam Juliana Ama Kplorfia, the founder and project leader of Girls Excellence Movement (GEM), said this during an outreach event held at the Madina Senior High School (MSHS) located behind the District Police Station.

The event was an outreach program organised in the school by the non-profit organisation that seeks to inspire, educate and transform the girl-child into a woman of excellence.

The organisation also presented items including mathematical sets and sanitary pads to each participant. 

GEM has since 2016 organised of 24 outreach events to female students at various Senior High Schools.

Madam Kplorfia said the girl child has the ability to achieve everything she wanted in life adding that there is no limit to what a girl can become in today’s world.

“You should take your education seriously, you should feel responsible for every action you take; you should know how to say no when you don’t want do something. So if that when a guy calls you to somewhere- to do something you don’t want to do- say no to it,” Madam Kplorfia said.

“We have had girls telling us to teach them how to say no without hurting a guy’s feelings. And we tell them to forget about the guy’s feelings and just say no because your feelings and  your future also matters.”

She urged parents to be a source of inspiration to the girl-child by supporting them in their career goals and not push them into doing anything against their will.

“We have seen a disconnect of what the girl aspires to do and what the family thinks a female should do. So we have had a girl in one of the schools whose dream is to become an athlete and she looks up to Usain Bolt; but she says her family is against it because she will become masculine, and that is a discouraging point. So we want to fill that point and say you can also become like Usain Bolt and anybody you aspire to be,” Madam Kplorfia said.

Miss Mintah Elsie, Students Representative Council (SRC) President of the School, expressed gratitude to the organisers of the programme adding that the student body has benefited immensely from it.

She said it is important for girls to know more about themselves and how they would stand out in their communities especially as they prepare for life at the tertiary level.

“I have learnt that as a girl I should be able to say no to sex and also be outstanding and not to follow the crowd. I now know that there is no boundary to my success no matter the circumstances- if I want to achieve a dream and I say to myself that this is what I want to be, I can be able to achieve that dream,” Mintah said.

Mr Tally Ansah Asiedu, Communications Officer for GEM, said the organisation is happy with the success chalked in the organisation of the programme.

He said the girls were able to open up to them with their problems in the one-on-one session and the GEM was ready to help find solutions for them.

“It is our dream here at GEM that one day Ghana would have a female president or a vice president. That will be a great moment for us at GEM,” he said.

Credit: GNA