By Samuel SAM
The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) Association (CAMA), a network of young girls and women, through its comprehensive initiative has supported a total of 56,758 boys and girls’ return to school.
CAMFED/CAMA supported their education and renovation of schools, with more than five regions benefitting from the programme. The regions include Central, Ashanti, North-Eastern, Upper East and Upper West.
With support from CAMFED-Ghana, a pan-African movement, empowering girls as change-makers, a total of 3,500 boys and girls received assistance through the CAMA fund. Additionally, 4,608 out of 8,350 school-leavers in 2024 participated in entrepreneurship fairs and skills training programmes.
The association also donated school uniforms to children at Kalongo Primary School in Ashanti Region and exercise books to some schoolchildren at Pasoro D/A JHS.
Other support provided by the association include renovating school facilities at Sagnarigu, Bawku West and Tamale Metro; career guidance and mentorship to some young boys and girls; health screening at Gomoa West; as well as donations of school-going items and cloths in the Ashanti Region.
There were also clean-up exercises at Sissala East, Cape Coast and Savelegu, among others.
These were announced at the CAMFED Association National Annual General Meeting (AGM), which took place at Mariam Hotel in the Sagnarigu municipality of Northern Region.
The event, dubbed ‘Advancing the CAMFED guide programme – strategies to achieve its targets’, brought together some CAMA members from sister-countries and Ghana who are entrepreneurs to network, mentor and also explore innovative approaches for CAMA sisters in guide-roles to thrive and inspire others to sign up.
National Chairperson-CAMFED Association, Ramatu Abubakari, said the CAMFED guide programme is at the heart of CAMA support.
The guide programme is a transformative initiative providing mentorship, guidance and practical support for young girls and boys to ensure they stay in school, succeed academically and transit into other pathways, she said.
Executive Director-CAMFED Ghana, Fairuza Abdul-Rashid Safian, noted that the six-year development aims to implement a comprehensive intervention that supports marginalised girls and empowers young women – enabling them to secure good livelihoods.
The development plan – January 2024 to 2029 – is focused on unlocking new resources for girls’ education, unleashing new potentials through young women’s leadership and igniting new action to accelerate change.
“We are committed to mobilising funds in empowering more girls and marginalised young women in the country, particularly in the rural communities,” she stated.
Over 70,000 young girls have been empowered across Ghana in their respective fields by the organisation, she said.
In the years ahead, “We will work to ensure that girls and young women are capacitated and provided with the knowledge and skills to become economically independent and be positioned to contribute meaningfully to their families, communities and nation at large,” she added.
National Secretary of the Association Shakiru Ali Pelpuo noted that the Association embarked on some community sensitisations, donated sewing-machines to school dropouts at Savelegu and mosquito coils to vulnerable people at Gushegu district as well as the Village of Hope Christian Hospital at Agona East district.
