NGO inspires women to accept leadership challenges

Women have been asked to change their attitude and mindset so that they could play responsible leadership roles to bring about positive changes in their communities.

The abuse of the rights of women among others and the huge contributions of women to social progress were often taken for granted because women were not inspired to articulate their problems to generate support from other groups of people.

Mrs. Helen Koranteng, Executive Director of the Centre for Rural Women Empowerment and Development (CERWED),

Non-governmental organization (NGO) operating in the Upper West Region, said this at a one-day workshop for women leaders in the area at Wa on Thursday.

The women included gender desk officers, political party organizers disabled and other identifiable women's groups.

They discussed the needs and demands that would help improve the standards of living of women and socio-cultural practices that adversely affected the development of women.

The workshop was the third in a series organized by CERWED in collaboration with Foundation for Security and Development (FOSDA).

After the workshop, the needs and demands of the women in the region would be collated for submission to national policy makers including Members of Parliament and the political leadership in the region to serve as a reference document in the formulation and execution of policies.

Mrs. Koranteng stated that through responsible leadership of women, the conflict situations and extreme poverty facing the people of the region would reduce and in the long term disappear for good.

She urged the people of the region to take advantage of the relative peace that was prevailing in the region to work hard to change the ranking of the region as the poorest in the country.

She observed that political bickering was increasingly tearing apart the peaceful and united citizenry that once existed in communities in the region and this had weakened community mobilization for productive work.

GNA