Nangodi community gets early childhood centre
An early childhood development centre valued at GH¢38,000 has been inaugurated at Nangodi in the Nabdam District in the Upper East Region.
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The facility was provided by ActionAid, a non-governmental organisation, with the ultimate aim of helping to reduce the amount of time spent by women in caring for children to allow them to participate in other economic activities that could support their respective families.
About 30 children will be catered for by caregivers at the centre and they will be provided with daily meals to make them comfortable, while their mothers engaged in income-generating activities to help reduce their poverty levels.
Project
The facility is under ActionAid's five-year project on Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights (POWER).
The main objective of the project is to contribute to the economic empowerment of 6,000 rural women in Ghana, by supporting them to increase their incomes and be self-reliant, reduce the drudgery of unpaid care work and promote credible and sustainable livelihoods.
At the inauguration of the centre, the Programme Manager of ActionAid, Ghana Mr Sulley Alhassan, indicated that about 1,376 women in the Upper East Region have been empowered and freed from their household activities and caregiving roles to allow them time to engage in productive ventures such as petty trading and dry season farming that would enable them to earn incomes and support their families.
"The introduction of child care centres is to help facilitate the reduction of workload burden in taking care of children and about five of such centres have been provided in the Talensi and Nabdam districts," Mr Alhassan said.
Policy
He further stressed the need for policies to be designed to recognise the roles of women and girls in the provision of unpaid carework and help redistribute unpaid carework among women, men and other family members and thus lay the foundation for true gender equality.
The Senior Policy Advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, Madam Johanna Spreeuwenberg, observed that if men would collaborate with women in unpaid carework, households would be healthier, happier and more prosperous, healthier and happier.
