Girl child education is key to women empowerment - Ms Frimpong

Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Candidate for the Abirem Constituency, has pledged to focus on girl child education and skills training to reduce teenage pregnancies and child marriages, when given the nod.

She said girl child education both formally and informally was critical to help reduce the high teenage pregnancy rates and this was often linked to child marriages and high school dropouts.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency under its “women’s profile” an initiative to give voice to the female Parliamentary contestants, Ms Frimpong, who is als the Eastern Regional Minister, said education and skills training were self-sustaining development projects, which would enhance the development of women and the entire society.

Ms Frimpong, who in 2012 lost the contest to Ms Esther Dappah, the incumbent Member of Parliament, expressed hope of winning this time because of the good leadership and developmental projects made by President Mahama.

She said politics was all about development and President Mahama has shown that irrespective of political affiliation and location, every Ghanaian deserved a share in the national cake of development projects adding “that is the basis for his second term and my election to Parliament come November 7”.

Ms Frimpong appealed to all people in the constituency especially women, to see her as their own and vote massively for her to continue with the girl child projects she started as a District Chief Executive for the area.

The candidate was the DCE for the Abirem Constituency and the Deputy Minister respectively for the Eastern Region.

She served as Deputy Minister under three successive Ministers including Ms Helen Ntoso, now Volta Regional Minister, Mr Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff and Mr Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, now in the office of the President.

Due to hard work, she was appointed as the substantive Regional Minister in February.

It would be recalled that in 2012, she defeated two males at the NDC primaries as the DCE to contest for the Parliament seat.

And after a fierce contest which was nicknamed the ‘women’s war’, she lost to Ms Dapaah.

Ms Frimpong, who holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Ghana and Bachelor of Art in Social Science from the University of Cape-Coast and married with three children.

She initiated the Eastern Region Girls Education Support Project in 2014, following a GNA report that about 14,000 school girls were made pregnant in the Region over a given period.

Currently, 100 girls from two deprived communities in the Upper-Manya Krobo and Abirem Districts have benefited from the project with free school bursary including books, school bags and sanitary pads sponsored by the Chinese Embassy.