Take advantage of current educational opportunities to better yourselves- Chief Justice to Kayayei

Head porters, sometimes referred to as kayayei, have been exhorted by Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo to take advantage of the current educational opportunities in order to better themselves.

She counselled the young ladies to look past the kayayei occupation and to utilise some of the government’s and non-governmental organisations’ educational options.

During the Orange Girls’ Justice Club officers’ swearing-in event at the CMB and Madina Markets, the Chief Justice delivered a speech.

Eleven executives from the Madina and CMB markets were appointed to oversee the club’s operations. For the previous sixteen years, the Chief Justice’s Mentoring Programme has been in place.

The original idea for the programme was to mentor young girls into becoming influential people in society and, more importantly, to emulate the then Chief Justice, Justice Georgina Wood.

The programme’s objective has since moved towards encouraging both male and female students from second-cycle schools and the orange girls to take an interest in law and how it affects their society.

Following the successful implementation and an in-depth assessment of the programmeme over the years, Chief Justice Torkornoo introduced the enhanced Justice’s Mentoring Programme as part of her programmeme towards contributing to the development of the youth in Ghana.

Justice Torkornoo counselled the incoming executives to put the needs of the members ahead of their own by involving them regularly in club leadership decisions.

She claimed that these chances would enable the young women to later explore other interests of their own.

The Chief Justice encouraged the head potters to apply for mentoring programmes because judges from the several courts served as their mentors and could help them with a variety of adult difficulties.

udge Olivia Anku Tsede, a Justice of the Court of Appeal and the Chair of the CJ Mentoring Programme, stated that the club offered underprivileged teenage girls a life-changing chance to acquire education, advocacy skills, and empowerment.

She claimed that the group has assisted head porters in raising awareness of their rights, speaking out against discrimination against them, and challenging social norms that continued to marginalise them.

She revealed that two head porters who took part in the programme had been accepted into the Accra Technical University and the University of Ghana, respectively.