Ho, June 11, GNA - Mama Atrato II, Queenmother of Ho Dome on Friday urged young women in the Asogli Traditional Area to be ambitious in their outlook to life.

Mama Atrato, Chairperson of the Asogli Traditional Council's Committee on Women and Children was addressing a stakeholders forum to find antidote to lack of purposefulness among girls in the traditional area. The forum brought together queenmothers of eight divisions in the area and church elders of the various religious institutions in Ho. Mama Atrato urged young women to focus on personal improvement and avoid activities such as drunkenness and excessive fun, which are distractions from preparations towards a secure future.

"Pregnancy should not be an end to your education", Mama Atrato urged.

She appealed to mothers to strive to educate their daughters if their husbands are not willing to do so as there are several avenues open to women in their various communities to earn respectable income, which men could not do.

Mama Atrato urged mothers not to plead illiteracy and their own lack of support to deny their daughters the opportunity for securing a brighter and better future for themselves.

Mama Atrato expressed fears that unless the trend of delinquent girls in the traditional area was arrested, its future would be bleak. She therefore, advised queenmothers and church leaders to show personal and collective interest in efforts at improving the situation. Mama Atrato appealed to NGOs to take up the challenge of helping young women in the area to improve as their priority projects and social responsibility.

Miss Araba Tachie-Menson, a women's activist impressed upon women that their prayers for God's intervention in the lives of their children, especially their daughters needed to be marched with personal efforts and hard work.

She said their roles as mothers in the development of their children should therefore not be taken for granted and shifted to the government and men.