Mr. Valentine Domapielle, Upper West Regional Director of Education said on Wednesday that no nation could develop progressively without the active participation of its women in the development process.

He said the ideal practice in development effort should be that men and women coming together and working collectively towards development without stereotyping and discriminating on gender differences.

He explained that societies that had degraded their women to the background killed their initiatives and brought about inferiority complexes among them.

Mr. Domapielle said this in a speech read on his behalf at the 2015 Regional Girls Camp in Wa, which was on the theme: “Transforming girls into future leaders and entrepreneurs”.

He encouraged the girls to believe in themselves and endeavour to venture into men dominated jobs fields such as engineering, mechanization, piloting and the sciences and even contest for the presidency position.

Alhaji Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister, who addressed the girls, said the youth form the foundation upon which the progress of Ghana depended.

He said the progress of Ghana or its retrogression rested heavily on the shoulders of the youth, especially the girl-child.

“The kind of citizens we will have in future is a reflection of the training and attitude we instil in the girls today,” he said.

Alhaji Sulemana said government would continue to adopt policies to encourage girls to attend and stay in school such as the distribution of sanitary pads, free school uniform and sandals and scholarships for the brilliant but needy students.

The Regional Minister, who hails from the Sissala West District, pledged to pay the school fees of any of the girls who passed for the Basic Education Certificate Examination but was unable to pay for her fees.

He said he has instituted an Educational Development Fund in the district and had so far spent about 75,000 Ghana Cedi in sponsoring students who could not afford to pay for school fees.

Mr. Abubakra Adamu, Stages Projects Coordinator of Plan Ghana, said the organisation’s strategic goal for the next five years was to ensure that girls and boys live healthy lives to access quality education in a safe and resilient environment in the region.

He said Plan was working with other partners and government to fight gender discrimination, promote girls rights and also enforce laws against violence in schools, promoting other methods of discipline and raising awareness of sexual exploitation.

Mr. Abubakra said under its Household Economic Security and Health project, about 1,250 youth in various skill areas such as batik, tie and dye, soap making, baking, bee keeping, guinea fowl rearing, phone repairs and supplied them with some startup kits as capital to start their own business.

The Girl-Child Education Unit of the Ghana Education Service organised the camp for 200 basic school girls drawn from the Sissala West District.

Plan Ghana, a Child Centred Community Development Organisation sponsored the girls’ camp.

The girls would have their hands on activities such as beads making, sewing, cookery and artworks.

Resource persons would also take them through the English language, mathematics, science and Information and Communication Technology to expose the subjects to the girls during the eight days camping period.

The Camp would enable the girls to undergo some form of training to address