Community Aid for Rural Development (CARD Ghana), a non-governmental organization, has held a capacity-building seminar for members of the She Leads Social Movement for knowledge enhancement and coordination of advocacy efforts.

Dubbed "She Leads Social Movement Building Seminar," the seminar brought together members of the social movement, including girls and young women (GYW) and male champions of change (COCs), for knowledge sharing towards building a strengthened movement.

The She Leads Social Movement is a network of GYW groups and organizations with a common goal of promoting equal opportunities for GYW and addressing barriers that limit participation and decision-making.

The Upper West Regional Chapter of the movement was launched in 2023 as part of the implementation of the She Leads project in the Upper West Region by CARD Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana, with the aim of bringing together young people and youth-led and girl-led organizations to influence positive change within their communities.

Speaking at the seminar in Wa, the Acting Executive Director of CARD Ghana, Ernestina Biney, said the aim of the seminar was to educate the Movement members about the She Leads project, the essence of the Movement, and the areas of advocacy that hinge on the campaign.

She added that it was to equip the members of the Social Movement with appropriate skills to effectively carry out policy-influencing advocacy that supports GYWs in leadership and decision-making.

"We want to see them extending the advocacy to their communities or wherever they are working, speaking on issues affecting girls and women, and calling for policymakers to do something about these issues," she said.

She also indicated that the seminar was to spark the interest of members in being more active, volunteering, and committed to the movement's activities.

Felix Bagyiliko Wuurah, the Wa Municipal Director of the National Youth Authority (NYA), said social movements play a critical role in addressing the problems of society and urged the members of the movement to devise sustainability mechanisms for their activities.

He said most youth-led social movements face resource constraints, which mostly compromise and threaten the efficiency and sustainability of their activities, and thus call for diversification of activity funding approaches.

He encouraged the movement to shift away from "project funding" to "project financing" by fostering collaborations with like-minded individuals and organizations.

"It is not easy to raise funds. So what we can do is that we can do project financing and not just project funding; find collaborators, like-minded people, people that have expertise in what you want, and collaborate with them."

"In order to prevent compromising situations, we have to diversify our funding so we can get more volunteers to participate in the social movement activities," Mr. Wuurah said.

Zainab Salifu Putiaha, a participant who has since completed senior high school and been married for seven years but got the chance to enroll in a nursing college, thanked CARD Ghana for extending the She Leads project to her community, Chegli in the Wa Municipality.

She said she received encouragement and support from her husband, who is a champion of change for the She Leads project in the community, to gain admission.

She expressed joy to be beginning her journey towards becoming a Registered General Nurse (RGN) next academic year and encouraged other girls to not lose courage even if they were married.