As part of activities to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day celebration, the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) embarked on an outreach program to train young ladies in some selected Junior High Schools (JHS) and Senior High Schools (SHS) on ICT career and leadership.
Globally, March 8 is set aside every year to celebrate women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. It is also a day that marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. This year, the theme for International Women’s Day was ‘Breaking the Bias’.
AITI-KACE’s mandate is to coordinate and oversee an ICT system that produces globally competitive research and Innovation through quality-oriented and demand-driven learning for national development. Included in our mandate is to bridge the digital divide in ICT and electronics through individual and institutional capacity building.
Speaking about this initiative, the Director-General of AITI-KACE, Dr Collins Yeboah-Afari, said as a promoter of IT, AITI-KACE decided to work with the mission ‘Forge women’s equality in tech’ and the best time to do this is to start training them in their earlier stages.
“In this world that patriarchy has dominated and somewhat threatened the growth and development of women, we are comforted and encouraged by the many Ghanaian women today who through their perseverance and determination are getting rid of the obstacles, climbing the ladders, shattering the glass ceilings and scaling the walls. AITI-KACE saw it fit to educate, inform and enlighten our female future leaders on the need to be wholesomely equipped in the area of ICT relevant to their career choice. The interactive session was designed to achieve a greater degree of success in their pursuit of higher education and serve as a guide in their career path,” Dr Yeboah-Afari stated.
A team of female lecturers and staff from AITI-KACE took the opportunity to visit De Youngsters (Adenta and Nima branch) and Flagstaff House Basic School to train and mentor the young ladies in the area of ICT. In total, over 352 female students took part in the training and mentoring session which took place in the three schools.