NGO STARTS MEMBERSHIP DRIVE IN UPPER WEST (PAGE 20)

THE Network for Women's Rights in Ghana (NETRIGHT), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has started a membership drive in the Upper West Region.
In this regard, the organisation, in collaboration with the Centre for Rural Women Empowerment and Development (CERWED), a Wa-based NGO, has organised an outreach programme for a number of women groups in Wa.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Regional Focal Person of NETRIGHT, Mrs Helen Koraneng, commended the CERWED for agreeing to put the three northern regions in its 2009 work plan.
She said by its action, the three regions would get the chance to feel the presence of NETRIGHT for the first time in 10 years.
"It is my prayer that in the near future, the Accra team will visit the region to inaugurate new members or better still, host and run a national programme in the Upper West region,” she added.
Mrs Koraneng, who is also the executive director of CERWED, called for a change in attitude towards the many negative practices that hindered the progress of women in the region.
She also appealed to women groups in the region to join NETRIGHT, since they would benefit from the educational programme of the NGO.
For her part, the Regional Director of the Department of Women, Mrs Kate Bob-Millar, called on Ghanaians not to politicise the women's manifesto documents.
"The manifesto is non-partisan and does not belong to any political party. It is rather a document expressing women's concerns on inequality,” she stated.
Mrs Bob-Millar expressed the hope that similar programmes would be replicated in other districts in the three northern regions of the country.