Wa, Sept. 7, GNA - ActionAid Ghana, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to improving the performance of girls in school, has organised a one week Regional Girls Camp for 278 basic school girls in the Upper West Region.

The camp is aimed to provide the opportunity for the girls from deprived communities in the region to develop self confidence.

The camp is on the theme: 93Empowering Girls through education: - The role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Mr. George Dery, Senior Programme Officer of Action Aid Ghana, said violence against girls in school was a disturbing issue that needed to be tackled.

"Sexual harassment and other abuses by teachers and others and developement of school girls for marriage at the community level are on the ascendancy and this calls for concerted efforts from stakeholders to address the practice," he said.

Mr. Dery said this had in a way contributed to high school dropout among young girls and unless something drastic was done about it the dream of gender parity in basic education would be let down.

He said since the inception of the programme in 2001, 230 girls from deprived rural communities in Sissala East, Jirapa and Lambussie/Karni Districts had benefited from it.

Mr. Dery said the camps had helped improved personal hygiene of campers and their active involvement in extra curriculum activities like sports, debates and drama as well as improved retention among campers.

He said his outfit had collaborated with the Girl Child Unit of Ghana Education Service to establish the first ever boys camp in Accra to rollout boys to become advocates of girls' rights in schools.

Mr. Dery gave the assurance that ActionAid Ghana would continue to strengthen its working relationship with the Ghana Education Service, district assemblies and Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service to ensure that the rights of girls to education was protected, promoted and fulfilled.

Alhaji Issahaque Salia, Upper West Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, said parents' preference for boys in education to that of girls should stop.