Wednesday, 14th September, 2022

Page 8
AfriKids Ghana, a Child
Rights Organisation,
has launched a fiveyear
strategic plan
aimed at contributing
to achieving inclusive development
and growth of children in
Northern Ghana.
The initiative dubbed, “One
million smiles”, would focus on
building strong partnerships
among key stakeholders, to build
resilient and enabling communities
for the sustainable growth
and development of children in
320 communities in six districts
in the five regions of the North.
It would also empower communities
to protect and uphold
the rights of children against
harmful practices, provide access
to inclusive and quality education
and quality healthcare delivery,
to help the country’s efforts
Health
towards attaining the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).
The beneficiary districts include
Binduri and Builsa South in
the Upper East Region, Mamprugu-Moagduri
in the North-East
region, Lambussie-Karni in the
Upper West region, Gushegu
Municipal in the Northern region
and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba in the
Savannah Region.
Mr David Pwalua, the Country
Director, AfriKids Ghana, revealed
these at Bolgatanga during the
launch of the 20th anniversary of
the organisation.
He said despite the efforts
made towards achieving the
SDGs particularly goals three
and four which put emphasis on
access to quality education and
health, there were still huge gaps
and varied challenges confronting
the growth and development
DAILY ANALYST Wednesday, 14th September, 2022
Child Rights Organisation
launches five-year strategic plan
of children.
He said a baseline research
conducted by the organisation
and the works done in the past
revealed that many children
continued to experience violence
and difficulties in accessing quality
education and healthcare.
Mr Pwalua said despite the
target of meeting the demands
of the SDGs and Ghana being
the first Country in the Sub-region
to ratify the United Nations
Convention on the Right of the
Child, a lot was still required
from stakeholders to collectively
address the challenges facing
communities.
He said the strategic plan
aimed at ensuring that families
and young people had secured
livelihoods to meet the needs of
children, protect them against
exploitation and other harmful
practices.
“What is going to be different
is that we are going to constructively
build proper partnerships
to work together to undertake
projects to empower mothers
in particular because we believe
that when our women are
economically sound, they will be
able to take care of the children.”
He said due to the fundamental
issue of poverty, “we are not
able to prioritise our needs, so,
we have seen experienced people
having their girls drop out of
school to marry, people preferring
to educate the male children over
their daughters, withdrawing
children from school especially
during the rainy season to go take
of cattle or work but we believe
that the rights of the child must
be upheld.”
Mr Edward Azure, the Upper
East Regional Director, Ghana Education
Service, noted that apart
from the child protection component,
AfriKids had over the years
contributed immensely to the de-
velopment of education through
a number of interventions.
He called on all stakeholders
to support the implementation
of the project to ensure that
children were protected against
violence, while having quality
healthcare and education.
As a child protection organisation,
the AfriKids Ghana had
over the years worked to end the
killing of deformed children,
locally known as ‘spirit children’
and contributed to the elimination
of the practice of Female
Genital Mutilation in many
communities in the Upper East
Region.
Izwe Savings & Loans
Supports Chiraa Hospital
with medical equipment
Visually impaired students
receive financial support
A
total of 28 visually
impaired pupils
and students in the
Northern region have
received financial
support to cater for some of their
educational needs as well as help
to transport them back to school.
Each of them received an
amount of GHc250.00.
Due to the lack of a school
for the blind or an integrated
school in the region to admit
them, the beneficiaries face the
daunting task of travelling to Wa
in the Upper West region every
term to attend the Wa School
for the Blind to acquire formal
education.
This places enormous
financial challenges on their
parents, who already find it
difficult to adequately cater for
their educational needs hence
the decision by the Centre for
Active Learning and Integrated
Development (CALID), a nongovernment
organisation, with
support from Vibrant Village
Foundation, to extend the
financial support to them.
Mr Mohammed Awal Sumani
Bapio, Executive Director
of CALID, speaking at the
Disability Centre in Tamale to
present the financial package
to the beneficiaries, said it
was to alleviate some of their
challenges.
He said: “We worked with
the Ghana Blind Union over a
year ago on a health project, and
we realised that they also have
key challenges in the area of
education as well.
“They do not have school
in the region for their visually
impaired children. The children
travel to Wa every term to attend
school. They also do not learn
or read during vacation because
they do not have brail” hence our
support.
Mr Bapio appealed to the
Government to build a school for
the blind in Tamale to cater for
blind students in the region such
that they would not have to be
travelling to and from Wa every
term.
He also called on government
and other stakeholders to
support in brail to enable the
beneficiaries read and learn
whilst on vacation in the region.
He commended parents
of the beneficiaries for their
commitment to send their
visually impaired children to
school saying their efforts must
be emulated especially when
there were other parents, who
decided to hide their special
needs children.
Madam Hanifa Fuseini,
Northern Regional Assessment
Officer in-charge of Intellectual
Disability, Northern Regional
Directorate of Education,
expressed hope that the Ghana
Education Service would soon
designate a school in Tamale for
inclusive education to admit
blind students in the region.
Mr Imoro Mohammed,
Northern Regional Secretary,
Ghana Blind Union, said
hundreds of visually impaired
children in the region could not
afford formal education because
their parents did not have the
means to send them to the Wa
School for the Blind.
Mr Yakubu Haruna, a
smallholder farmer from
Lamashegu, a suburb of Tamale,
whose two children, a 15-year-old
form one girl, and a 10-year-old
class two boy, were part of the
beneficiaries, said the financial
support from CALID was a great
relief to him.
Mr Haruna said he was
wondering how to afford his
children’s transport fares and
other items to enable them to go
back to school adding “So, I am
very grateful for the support from
CALID.”
Madam Sumaya Fuseini,
a resident of Sognayili in the
Sagnarigu Municipality, whose
10-year-old daughter was a
beneficiary, also expressed
gratitude to CALID for the
support, which would go a long
way to lessen the burden on her.
Izwe Savings and Loans
has presented hospital
equipment to the maternity
ward of the Chiraa hospital
in the Sunyani West
Municipality of the Bono Region.
Chiraa is a heavily populated
community which shares
boundaries with four districts in
three regions of Ghana. The only
health center in the community,
upgraded to a hospital last year,
also serves as a referral point to
over a dozen communities.
For years, the Chiraa Hospital
has lacked facilities for quality
healthcare. The situation has
affected the work of doctors and
nurses as well as quality of care
provided to patients, especially at
the maternity ward.
As part of Izwe’s Corporate
Social responsibility initiative, the
institution has donated hospital
equipment to improve healthcare
delivery at the hospital. The
donated items included an
autoclave (a machine for
sterilizing medical equipment),
medical screens, metal cabinets,
office desk and chairs, curtains
and bedsheets with pillowcases.
The company also painted the
maternity block.
Hospital Administrator Mabel
Tweneboah stated: “It’s going
to help us a lot. Being the only
government hospital on the
Sunyani-Techiman stretch, most
referrals from other districts for
healthcare delivery are directed to
this facility.”
While thanking Izwe
for their support, the Chiraa
hospital administrator also
appealed to other organizations
and individuals to emulate the
gesture of Izwe Savings and Loans
for effective healthcare delivery
at the Chiraa hospital.
“We are grateful and
appreciate what Izwe has
been able to provide for us. We
will put them to good use. We
thank them very much for this
beautiful presentation,” Madam
Tweneboah added.
About Izwe Savings and Loans
In the last 10 years, Izwe
Savings and Loans has been
committed to delivering bespoke
financial solutions to its clients.
At the core of its mandate is
improving lives and delivering
social upliftment in Ghana while
generating solid financial returns
through innovative financial
solutions and services
Izwe is a subsidiary of Izwe
Africa which was originally
founded in South Africa in
2004 with its headquarters in
Mauritius and subsidiaries in
Kenya and Zambia. Izwe has, for
the last 10 years, worked towards
uplifting people for the greater
good of the country.
This year, Izwe has dedicated
GHS150m to support Small &
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and
ready to scale up where needed.
If you are an SME in need of
financial assistance, text SME to
4993 and let’s talk business.