Some of the girls that underwent mentorship
Vodafone Ghana has organised a mentorship event for female students of various primary schools in Accra.
The event, which was held at the Accra Digital Centre, had an all women volunteers from Vodafone engaging the students and sharing their experiences of studying and working in a STEM field.
Hannah Ashiokai Akrong, Director of Human Resource, in a statement before the breakout session encouraged the girls to be bold and confident, knowing that they have something to offer as individuals.
She further encouraged them to follow their dreams because with hard work they can make their dreams a reality.
“We started various mentoring sessions with various ladies and today is the day we give back there are various Vodafone ladies here myself we are going to engage with the ladies for the rest of the day talking about our careers and possibilities in front of them, especially in STEM education and how we can support them and answer questions they might have as well,” she said.
Interacting with the media on the sidelines of the event, Mrs. Akrong pointed out that the aim is to send the message of empowerment and what it is that they can do in the various fields of STEM study.
She said the theme for Vodafone International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration is ‘Thrive’, with the aim to empower women to do well, feel well and live well.
“As Vodafone we want to encourage gender diversity as well so once we bring women into the organisation we look at how we are going to ensure we have an environment that they can thrive.
One of the things I am really proud of is that when our ladies come we have various programmes that a lot of other companies don’t have,” she added.
One of such programmes, she said, was the recently launched domestic violence policy that allows employees of Vodafone who are going through any form of violence to be able to take up to 10 days off work to deal with legal cases.
She said the mentoring of the girls is done across the regions and through to the tertiary level. “We have a fellowship where female engineering students are supported in their last year in school with tuition fees, books and internships at Vodafone after completion of their course. This year, we are bringing in 10 ladies and we are going to give the strong mentors,” she added.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri