VRA

THE Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, has called on women to develop strategies to conserve energy and protect the environment from depletion and pollution.
She said majority of the country’s population were women who lived in the rural areas where activities such as deforestation, bush burning and farming were common.
Ms Dansua made the call in an address at the 10th anniversary of the Volta River Authority (VRA) Ladies Association in Accra yesterday.
The theme for the occasion was, “Energy conservation — the role of the woman”.
She said if women were educated on the effects of their activities on the environment then they would be ready to take remedial measures such as reforestation, reducing charcoal burning and monitoring the use of energy at home and in public.
She said it was appropriate to educate women on the productive use of electricity to assist income generation and improve energy technologies.
Ms Dansua said the association provided a platform for women to effectively discuss critical matters that related to the empowerment of women and children.
She said issues on child prostitution, girls’ reproductive health and human and child trafficking had become very topical, adding, “We need to go back to the basics of responsible parenting if we are to prevent some of these problems.”
She said advocacy on responsible parenting should be vigorously pursued, especially now that daily reports pointed to lack of parental supervision and responsibility in homes.
The Deputy Chief Executive of the VRA, Ms Alexander Totoe, said Ghanaian women were the primary consumers of domestic energy and the primary suppliers in the rural setting, often in the form of biofuels such as firewood and agricultural residue.
She indicated that surveys conducted around the world showed that women generally were concerned about the effects of air pollution on health and its impact on the health of their children.
She said women had a tremendous opportunity to help solve the defining issue and, therefore, called on them to cultivate the habit of conserving energy.
The President of the association, Mrs Tandy Chothia, also said the objective of the association was to unite all female employees of the authority and provide a free medium for communicating views on matters affecting their welfare and interests to management.
She commended the association for adopting a children’s ward at the government hospital in Akuse and also taking responsibility for the payment of the fees for some girls at the Mpakadan L/A primary School in Akosombo and other schools in the resettlement areas.