Insight Foundation, a youth development oriented NGO in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service and Action Aid Ghana, has launched its maiden regional Model Girls Essay Writing Competition with the theme: "Promoting Girls Empowerment through Innovative Ideas".
The topic for this year's competition is "The prevalence of teenage pregnancy has become very common in the Ghanaian society, especially among youth who are at the Primary and Junior High School (JHS) levels of education. In your view, discuss the causes, effects and suggest solutions."
In a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency on Friday, Mr Andrew Dowuona, Executive Director, Insight Foundation, noted that the Model Girls Essay writing competition concept was conceived to highlight challenges in girl's education.
"It is to serve as a platform, which would give girls the chance to analyze themselves from their own perspective and recommend how best their challenges could be solved while rewarding them for their ingenuity, creativity and unique writing skills"
He said over the years there had been extensive advocacy and actions to end gender stereotyping, discrimination, violence and economic disparities that disproportionally affected girls, citing the creation of the Model Girls Essay Completion as one of the means of addressing the issue.
He noted that women, especially girls formed one of the greatest agencies for socio-economic change hence the need to protect their rights.
"It is our belief that some innovative suggestions will come out of this exercise that will help to protect the rights of girls to education."
The Model Girls Essay Writing Competition would be an annual event and opened to young girls between the ages of 10-14 years.