Media personality Doreen Avio has paid a visit to the Luom Presbyterian Basic School as part of the International Day of the Girl Child celebrations.
Her visit to the school located in the Shai Osudoku district of the Greater Accra Region was to, among other reasons, extend help to the students, especially the girls and talk to them about the importance of education.
The host of JoyNews’ ‘Let’s Talk Showbiz’ observed with worry the challenges facing students, a situation that prevents them from accessing quality education, feeding and infrastructure.
She, therefore, called on organisations and philanthropists to support girls in schools located in rural areas.
“Some of us complain daily about the hardship in Accra, Kumasi and major cities across the country. But from what I observed during my visit to the school, I realised that people in rural areas are mostly sidelined and left out in terms of development.
“I believe there is more to be done to support the Luom Presbyterian School, for instance, because they lack almost everything a school needs to thrive. The girls here lack sanitary products, among others.
“This should be a wakeup call to stakeholders and I hope my visit here would highlight their challenges,” Doreen Avio told MyJoyOnline.com in an interview.
The International Day of the Girl Child is observed globally on every October 11. The observation supports more opportunities for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based on their gender.
This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care and protection from discrimination, violence against women and forced child marriage.
Through her Doreen Avio Foundation, the host of #MatterDey on Hitz FM partnered with the School Support Programme (SSP) to engage the JHS 3 students ahead of their Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).
She also interacted with the headmaster and his deputy to find out some of the challenges of the school, which include desks for their classrooms, washrooms and lack of transportation for students who travel long distances to access education.
Later in the day, the students gathered under a shed for the talk.
Doreen Avio also used the opportunity to educate the students on the importance of education and encouraged them to take their studies seriously.
She also advised them to stay away from sexually-related activities and focus more on their books since most of the students were in adolescent age.
The students who were so excited about the conversations asked pertinent questions about how they could achieve academic excellence, among others.
In a lovely fashion, Doreen and the school children had some refreshments after which was a distribution of sanitary pads for the girls amid the skyrocketing prices of the products on the market.
The teachers and students expressed profuse delight in the kind gesture shown by Doreen Avio. They asked that she visits them more often and also call on organisations to also support them.
Below are more photos from the visit:
