The Girls Education Initiative of Ghana, (GEIG) has celebrated its 6th anniversary with a fundraising event to finance the education of some underprivileged Junior High School girls in Accra.
The founder of the organization, Elizabeth Patterson said the goal of the fundraising is to reach out to more underprivileged girls and provide financial assistance to them to higher education and professional opportunities.
She indicated that GEIG has over the years assisted more than 36 young girls through various levels of academic studies in about four regions and efforts are being made to extend the reach of the project.
“It is our 6th-anniversary celebration of the GEIG. We’ve supported over 36 girls in our years and today we’re fundraising to support girls for the rest of the year. We’re hoping that through events and individuals we could get more support to be able to support more girls and travel to other regions and districts,” she said.
She added that GEIG is hoping to extend is programme to the Central Region in 2020.
“We cover Ashanti and Greater Accra and last year we travelled to the Western Region. We’re hoping to go into the Central Region this year.”
So far two girls supported by Girls Education Initiative of Ghana have entered into University pursuing degree programs while more than 10 are currently studying in various Senior High Schools in the country.
“We’ve graduated three girls from two-year HND programs. We currently have another two girls at the University of Ghana finishing up their degree programs. We have at least 14 girls who will finish Senior High School next year and they will transition to tertiary this year and after that, we have 14 who will go to Senior High School this year and I think that is a lot,” founder Elizabeth Patterson said.
She called on the public and corporate organizations to support the project to ensure that young girls whose education who are at risk of having their education truncated due to financial impediments, get the needed support to stay in school.
The fundraising event which was held in Accra saw the sale of some products made by some beneficiaries of the GEIG’s programme.