Sunyani, March 02, GNA - An 86-year-old woman, Mrs. Comfort Asare, has advised girls and young women in the Brong Ahafo Region to embrace education as an important tool that could help them to develop as individuals and the region.

She told them to be mindful of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and described it as "a dreadful and horrible thing to have befallen the present generation".

Mrs Asare, who said she served on many regional committees including the regional planning committee, regional charter committee and the regional probation committee before and after independence, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency.

Mrs. Asare wondered why most girls in the region preferred to learn trades like hairdressing and dressing making after completing junior secondary or senior secondary instead of pursuing higher education. She urged parents, especially mothers and school authorities, to sustain the interest of girls in education.

"It is time girls and young women in this region change the wrong perception they have about education and take it serious to help build confidence in themselves and help lift the region's image". Mrs. Asare served as a member of the Sunyani Prisons Welfare Board and was president of the Sunyani Hospital Visiting Committee. She expressed regret about the missing spirit of voluntarism among the people and appealed to the youth in particular to rekindle that spirit "as in the days after independence".

She said as the regional women's organizer of the National Council for Women in the early 60's, she used to organize women to undertake clean up exercises, visited hospitals, orphanages and prisons where they checked on the proper upkeep of the inmates.

Mrs Asare urged the leadership and members of women's organizations not to see their associations as mere social organizations but to consider it as their duty to the nation.

Mrs. Asare, who worked with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, expressed gratitude to God for allowing her to witness the golden jubilee celebration and appealed to all and sundry to fully participate in it.