17 Female undergraduates attend mentors programme

Thursday, June 19, 2008 (Daily Graphic Pg 11)

By Rebecca Kwei
SEVENTEEN young women from various tertiary institutions in Ghana are taking part in a mentoring programme to encourage them to make active decisions about their careers.
The programme, the second to be held by the Ghana Women’s Voices (GWV), an NGO, is to provide an opportunity for young females to work with women of influence.
The two-week programme, which was launched on Monday, June 16, 2008, is on the theme: “Mentoring , a tool for investing in women and girls to improve their lives”.
Last year’s maiden programme attracted 12 young ladies from various tertiary institutions in the country.
The mentoring programme is the brain child of Nana Yaa Appiah, the Executive Director of GWV, who, having participated in a mentoring programme: ‘Vital Voices’, for young women leaders in business in 2007 in the USA, was inspired and motivated and felt responsible to set up a similar programme to open doors for other young females.
The mentoring programme is being implemented on mentor-mentee relationship such that women who have established themselves in their individual professions will mentor the younger ladies to ensure maximum learning experiences.
The mentors chosen from an extensive network of professional bodies include judges, businesswomen, lawyers, IT specialists and civil engineers.
Each mentee is paired to a mentor from whom she is expected to learn during the programme to build their entrepreneurial and personality skills.
They will also learn about opportunities that exist in higher levels of decision-making and to be the tool of change.
According to Nana Yaa, the objective of GWV was to inspire, motivate and empower young women between 16 and 35 years.
This, she said, could be achieved through the development of business and entrepreneurial skills by exposing them to diverse opportunities within the private sector.
She noted that last year’s edition of the mentoring programme was very successful and the mentees also used the experience they gained to mentor their peers.
“The programme will also ensure that women who are making strides in all walks of life to ensure economic and psychological empowerment can be identified to be role models for young Ghanaian women,” she said.
Additionally, Nana Yaa noted that the programme was an effective and innovative method for empowerment of young women in business and entrepreneurial life in Ghana and also to communicate to them the diversity of opportunities available for them in the private sector and the advantages of achieving job satisfaction.
She mentioned the exponential ripple effect resulting from women helping other women to grow and was thankful to all partners of GWV who, according to her, “belong to a strong force that believes that investing in women and girls is very important to improve their lives”.
In a message of support, Dr Chris Anderson, the External Affairs Director of Newmont Ghana, was emphatic that Newmont Ghana put top priority on the need to invest in women and girls in order to maximise the wealth of potential that they possessed.