A two-year project to take at least 500 out-of-school children off the streets of Greater Accra and Kumasi in order to improve their wellbeing and livelihoods has been launched in Accra.
The initiative by the Father Campbell SVD Foundation, a charitable non-profit organisation, targets adolescents, 15 to 17 years, to provide them with literacy, numeracy and essential life skills for a nine months period after which they would be transitioned into formal or technical and vocational institutions, as well as various apprenticeship programmes.
With funding support from the World Bank to the tune of $6 million, the project is being implemented under the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) Ghana Education Outcomes Project (GEOP), which was launched in January last year, with the goal of returning 70,000 out-of-school children across the nation back to the classrooms.
Launching the initiative dubbed: ‘GEOP Lot 7B,’ the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Mrs Mamle Andrews, said the intervention was to reduce streetism in Ghana and offer children a better standard of living.
According to her, beneficiaries would be awarded a proficiency certificate at the end of the programme to serve as basis for their move to higher horizons and help them achieve their dreams in life.
Mrs Andrews entreated the learners to take full advantage of the programme to transform their lives and not to be distracted by the desire for money on the streets.
“You are the maiden group on this project and the learning outcomes you demonstrate will provide grounds for our development partners to continue investing and scale up this project to impact more lives.
You are the future of this nation so work hard to position yourselves to help develop our dear nation. With determination and commitment, you can achieve your dreams,” she explained.
A Senior Educational Specialist at the World Bank Ghana, Eunice Ackwerh, making reference to data from the 2021 population and housing census (PHC), which estimates 1.2 million children between ages 4 and 17 being out-of-school in Ghana, with 610,000 aged 15 to 17 years, said the GEOP Lot 7B project was timely to address the challenge.
“The World Bank is delighted to be part of this programme which will bring real change in the lives of these children and I believe with the hard work of all key stakeholders, this project will achieve great results,” she added.
For his part, Reverend Father Campbell, a retired parish priest of Christ the King Catholic Church in Accra, stated that the project was an extension of his charitable works to support the needy and vulnerable in society having come from the same background.
He said the growing number of street children in Ghana, especially in urban areas like Accra was not only an infringement of the rights of children but a developmental risk.
Father Campbell then appealed to all kind-hearted or benevolent Ghanaians to support the project, saying; “we need your assistance to get more of these children off the streets and get them education, get them a home, get them a place where they can work and together provide a brighter future for our children.”
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
