Political Participation & Leadership
Ghanaian women have been advised to come together as one voice to promote issues concerning their rights to better their lot.
Ms. Brigitte Dzogbenuku, Founder of Mentoring Women-Ghana, said that until Ghanaian women realized the need to form alliances to campaign against issues that infringed on their rights, such as war crimes, maternal death, among others, men would continuously make polices that would not be in their favor.
She noted that such policies had led to the little attention given to roles played by women in the society and facilitated their being neglected to the background.
She cited that out of the 13 Commissioners who were recently inaugurated to be members of the Peace Commission, only one was a woman.
Ms. Dzogbenuku made these statements in Accra at a ceremony to launch this year's Mentoring Walk project.
She stated, "Women should not sit back, keep quiet and hope they will recognize our worth. We need to stand and make our voices heard, claim the spaces; and not only a few of us, but a movement to support other women in leadership position."
Mentoring Walk in support with TV3, Rufus 1 Diva Club, Joy FM, Allure Ghana Limited UT Bank, SC Johnson, Coca-cola and Zain has over the years built a movement of women who can influence policies on women's health, human rights, general livelihood and economic empowerment.
It has also brought together women in leadership to establish mentoring relationship with aspiring young professionals to dialogue on issues and choices relevant to their lives and careers.
The mentorship period involves a 'Shadow Week' which gives opportunities to the mentees by spending a number of working days understudying their mentors at work.
The mentees are exposed firsthand to the various aspects of the lives of women in leadership, business and politics.
Group networking sessions during the period give both mentors and mentees an opportunity to assess the program for themselves and also give feedback and affirm what they had achieved during the mentorship period.
This in turn provides solutions that are innovative, motivational, enlightening and functional to the concept of mentoring in Ghana.
The series of Mentoring Walk is a direct and growing outcome of the Fortune-a United States Department Global Women Leadership Mentoring Partnership (GWLMP) in collaboration Vital Voices Global Partnership (VVGP).
Launching Mentoring Walk-2011, Ms. Adwoa Bame, the Executive Director of Women's Initiative for Self Empowerment (WISE), noted that, mentoring was important for women especially those in the developing countries since in this 21st century, development revolved around women.
She therefore encouraged those who have benefited from the previous walk to also be role models to their peers and also aspire to leadership positions in all endeavors.
A beneficiary of the Mentoring Walk, Ms. Amable Agbanu, was grateful to the organizers of the project. She disclosed that with the knowledge and experiences acquired during her mentorship period, she and her mentor, Ms. Vivian Nuhu, former Public Relations Officer of Wildlife-Ghana would soon established a Non-Governmental Organization called the Young Agriculturalist Club aimed at encouraging the youth, especially women to go into agro business.