Three organisations assist out-of-school children
The Tuma Kavi Development Association, with support from the Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC) and the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), has provided start-up kits worth GHC112, 245 for 140 out-of-school teenage girls and boys trained in various vocations in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality in the Northern Region, to start their own businesses.
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The initiative by the three child-oriented non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is to help eliminate child and early forced marriages and gender-based violence which is endemic in the municipality.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the items, 112 girls and 28 boys, have received three month’s training in pastry and soap making, hair braiding and barbering, food joint operation and ‘vulcanising’ to enable them to become self-employed and self-reliant to earn a decent living.
The project, titled: " Skills Training and Education to stop Child and Early Forced Marriages in the Savelugu-Nanton municipality," is also to help stem the migration of girls from the area to the urban centres to engage in menial jobs such as being female porters, popularly known as " Kayayei."
Speaking at the presentation ceremony at Zoggu in the Savelugu-Nanton municipality, the Executive Director of Tuma Kavi Development Association, Reverend (Mrs) Sanatu Nantogma, thanked the two Canadian NGOs for the support to empower the youth in the municipality with employable skills, especially young girls, to end the issue of early and forced marriages in the area.
Sustainability
She said their field experience revealed that lack of sustainability in some vocation programmes increased child poverty and it was likely to leave the youth without any means of earning income and consequently lead to early or forced marriage or migration to the urban areas for menial jobs.
She said they would also be linked to financial institutions, government agencies and business providers to ensure they start and steadily grow their businesses to increase their income-earning potentials.
Joint initiatives
Rev. (Mrs) Nantogma said the association, in partnership with the CCFC for the past 19 years, had worked in many areas, focusing on child sponsorship to implement initiatives in the areas of health and nutrition, education, micro-enterprise development, agroforestry, food security, water and sanitation. She added that throughout the years, over 14,000 people had benefitted from the Tuma Kavi and CCFC's joint efforts.
The Communications Officer of CCFC (Mr William Anim Dankwa) who represented the Country Director of CCFC, Mrs Gifty Akosua Baka, at the ceremony, said the project was designed to replicate and upscale the phase one segment that was implemented last year, with support from CFLI, in seven communities in the Gushegu District in the Northern Region.