The Ministry of Roads and Highways has donated GH¢100,000 to support the Ga Mantse Foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at empowering vulnerable young people and communities in the Ga State and Ghana as a whole.
It was in response to an appeal by the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, to the ministry and corporate Ghana to support the foundation in expanding its interventions in education, skills development and the welfare of vulnerable groups.
It will particularly be used to improve the welfare of children, especially girls and other vulnerable groups.
Courtesy call
The Chief Director of the ministry, Samuel Kwasi Akuaku made this known when the Minister of Roads and Highways, Governs Kwame Agbodza, led a delegation from the ministry and the Ghana Highway Authority to call on King Teiko Tsuru II, at his palace in Accra last Wednesday.
Mr Akuaku stated that all staff of the ministry will make an annual contribution towards the foundation.
“All staff of the agencies under the ministry will contribute their quota, which will be submitted to support the foundation every year,” he said.
Promoting enrolment
King Teiko Tsuru II said the Ga Mantse Foundation had identified some key development pillars that required urgent attention.
He said aside from the many projects that the foundation had undertaken recently with the Latter-day Saints Church, building and refurbishing the Mantse cluster of schools and the provision of a 14-seater place of convenience in 10 schools within the catchment area, it had also committed to promoting the enrolment of girls to achieve parity with boys.
He said the foundation was focused on ensuring that girls had equal opportunities in their transition, retention, completion and academic achievements.
He further stated that the foundation was working to establish training schools to equip young people with vocational and entrepreneurial skills to enhance their prospects for employment and self-reliance.
“We are also looking at building training schools to provide skills, vocational training and entrepreneurial skills,” he added.
Supporting vulnerable girls
King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II said the foundation had also been supporting girls who became pregnant while in school, with the aim of enabling them to return to school after childbirth.
“When these girls get pregnant, we try to visit them. It is the work of our queen mothers to go within the catchment area and make sure that, just after delivery, they are returned to school or regularised to go back to school,” he said.
He also expressed concern over the high prevalence of foetal alcohol syndrome in the Ga state as most of the girls who became pregnant were rejected by their families and “may not even have the capacity to attend antenatal care”.
“As a result, some of these children, when they are born, have a slight defect and they become children with special needs, and these are children that we need to specially care for.
The Ga Mantse Foundation has taken it upon itself to look at all these issues.
“We also have 1,000 scholarships every year that are given to these children to make sure that they are in school and in a proper state and provide school starter packs to 10,000 children to enable them to return to school.
“These are some of the reasons why the Ga Mantse Foundation is looking for partners,” King Tackie Tsuru II stated.
