By Pamela Ateka | Project Lead
UNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL!
Dear Friend,
Diana and the other girls have completed their trainings and now are fully skilled and are busy earning a livelihood for themselves and their families.
On the onset This is what we set out to do, to empower teenage mothers who had dropped out of school because of pregnancy, giving them skills helping them forge sustainable livelihoods.
That is what we want to continue to do. When you support one girl, you empower at least five other individuals, because in our country the average number of people in a household are five, therefore you help transform five lives. You unleash both your potential by giving and their potential.
This March we have already identified five girls and are in the process of enrolling them into the train 100 girl’s project for the training beginning in March –April 2020.
Impact of the project
Self-esteem and awareness
When the girls joined the program they had very low self-esteem due to the challenges they have faced all their life according to their person stories. All of them came from a single parent family (widowed mothers) and they all dropped out of school after getting pregnant. Their mothers don’t have a stable income to support their families and they have lived in poverty and had to do anything (selling elicit brew, farming others peoples land etc) to put food on the table. The experiences made them to lose confidence and hope. This project has enabled them to believe in themselves again, enhanced their self-esteem and has given them an opportunity to showcase their gift and talents of hair dressing.
Interpersonal and communication skills
Majority of them came with very poor interpersonal and communication skills due to their upbringing or having to deal with the judgmental and psychological aspect in the society as teenage mothers coming from a vulnerable background. The project has helped them to improve on their life and positive thinking skills, personality development skills, management skills, behavioral skills, including job and employability skills.
Skill development
All the girls had no prior experience in hair dressing. The six month training has given the girls transformation from unskilled, unemployed girls to potential employees or even future employers. Above all it has given them hope as a means to earn a living and support their children and siblings.
Conclusion
Empowering girls and young women is not an ‘option’ for a modern society — it should have already happened a long time ago. This project has become an eye opener to young teenage mothers and their peers because it has given them hope and opportunity to explore their potential and become an example to their communities that their dreams are valid.
When you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a you educate a family (nation).Dr James Emmanuel Kwegyir.
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