'Welfare of the girl child would be my focus' - Aspiring Asembly Member

Ms Harriet Odame an aspiring assembly member for Larteh Nyiresi electoral area, in the Akuapem North municipality has said that the welfare of the girl child would be her focus, when given the nod.

She indicated that in spite of the free basic school education, most children were denied education under various circumstances.

She said the rate at which children were involved in petty trading especially in semi-rural communities such as her electoral area indicated that more needed to be done.

Ms Odame, a mother of four girls told GNA that her interest in contesting for the assembly member position was to have the platform to galvanize the needed support to address this worrying situation.

She was speaking in an interview with the GNA “Women’s Profile” an initiative to project the women contesting in the District level Elections (DLE) and the 2020 Presidential and parliamentary elections.

Ms Odame mentioned that most parents were not living up to expectation and pledged that when given the nod, she would partner with the assembly to enact bye-laws that would ensure that every parent to sends the girl child to school whether biological or not.

She said most girl children involved in such trading at the expense of schooling were often not living with their own parents and said she would use the social structures to sensitize her people on the importance of the education.

The aspirant noted that another challenge she had identified was that most of the mothers were single parents who had no sources of income and so find it difficult to cater for the welfare of their children.

To address that, she said she would engage with Non-Governmental organizations (NGOs) to train such women in business ventures such as soap and beads making as well as pastries to generate income.

Ms Odame, a caterer/businesswoman, is contesting for the first time with two men and has called on women in the area to throw their weight behind her to ensure that come December 17, she became their representative for transformation.