League of Young Female Leaders hosts Tamale Story Summit

The League of Young Female Leaders hosted the first ever Tamale Story Summit on October 11th, the annual UN sanctioned International Day of the Girl.

The event brought together 70 girls from Ghana Senior High School, Tamale Senior High School, E.P Junior High School and Zogbeli Junior High School together with 10 dynamic mentors.

The special guests for the occasion were Ms. Amoafowaa Cecilia Sefa; Teacher, Blogger, a Published Writer And Founder of the Autism Help Foundation and Ms. Nyabu Adeline; a Teacher and Girls Empowerment enthusiast.

The event started with a welcome message from the Executive Director of the League of Young Female Leaders, Ms. Hikmat Baba Dua who gave glaring statistics of the education status of girls around the world and why girls education and empowerment are crucial on the development agenda.

The girls engaged in different activities with support from 10 facilitators. Participants were divided into seven (7) groups and each group assigned a facilitator to complete their first activity of the day.

Each group came out with a master piece to recognize the strength of women and girls, and the importance of this day through poetry, creative arts, short stories and songs. Groups then took turns to share what they worked on together and to discuss the benefits of going through the process.

The core activity for the day was the “strength webs” which was done immediately after a fun-filled energizer called “step forward if you can”.

The activity allowed the girls not only to celebrate their own strengths, but also recognize and celebrate their connections to other girls and women. It also revealed great strengths girls are endowed with.

This activity was followed up with the “How my strength inspires” activity. This activity supplemented the Strength Web Activity.

Participants took strengths they identified and how they use it to impact others and their communities and they engaged in discussions of the activity. They took time to listen to Memory Banda’s speech against child marriage.

It was a solemn moment for the girls as the teenager presented to them the bare facts of child marriage in Malawi and in her own home.

They gave her a standing ovation as a sign of their commitment to stand up for themselves.The summit lasted for 4 hours and each girl and facilitator received a stand up for girls certificate.

The celebration modeled positive actions that all people can take to honor the stories of girls and women, and inspire individuals, schools and communities around the world to join the Stand Up for Girls movement.

The Tamale Story Summit was supported by Lit World International and Global G.L.O.W under the “Her Story” Initiative.

In the “Her Story” Initiative, girls build powerful mentor and peer relationships that support them as they share their stories with others near and far, strengthening their own lives while changing the world.

FACILITATORS/MENTORS FOR THE DAY INCLUDED; Marian Darlington, Saadatu Lawal Garbey, Fatima Mohammed, Kathleen Mahamoud, Zeinab Denderi, Portia Dery, Zainab Muzzammil, Iddrisu Rafai, Samiha Yunus and Love Nyaaba.