By Samuel SAM
The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a pan-African movement supporting girls to become change makers, has revealed that it is working with the Ministries of Education in five African countries to integrate the Learner Guides Programme (LGP) into national education systems to meet the needs of vulnerable children.
The move seeks to alleviate poverty and prevent teenage pregnancy among young girls in its operational countries – Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The LGP encourages the association, which constitutes a network of young girls and women, to return to their former schools to help vulnerable girls learn, thrive and create a better world for themselves and their communities.
It believes this would help enhance quality education across the six African operational countries in nurturing future leaders to contribute to national development.
The LGP is CAMFED’s flagship programme aimed at scaling the impact of girls’ education and women’s leadership across Africa. It ensures young women in the association are supported by the programme to return to their local schools as mentors and role models.
The girls benefit from self-development, life and learning skills training as well as vital sexual and reproductive health information and psycho-social support.
At the CAMFED Ghana National Annual General Meeting held in Tamale on the theme ‘Advancing the CAMFED guide programme: Progress review, key learning and strategic next steps’, Nana Badiako – representing the Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES) – commended the organisers and implementation partners for the numerous initiates to salvage the plight of marginalised girls in society.
“Your programmes are the key that unlocks the potential, skills and knowledge of the young girls to thrive in the rapid development of Ghana. Investing in the future of our young children makes them have the hope of a better tomorrow to be able to contribute to the socio-economic growth of the country,” he added.
Former Deputy Director of GES and Co-Chair of National Advisory Committee, CAMFED, George Boateng, highlighted that the GES is working with the management of CAMFED and other stakeholders to ensure the up-scaling of the programme to complement the educational curriculum to enhance quality education in the country.
He stressed the need for pragmatic proposals that would address issues affecting the education system in Ghana, especially for the girl-child.
The Chief Executive Officer of CAMFED International, Angeline Murimirwa, said the commitment of the initiative is to invest in the education of young boys and girls and that there is a need for African governments to prioritise the education of their citizens.
For her part, Executive Director of CAMFED Ghana, Fairuza Abdul-Rashid Safian, mentioned that a total of 36,364 enterprises have also been supported to expand their operations so far.
She said the partners would work to ensure that girls and young women are provided with the right knowledge and skills to become economically dependent and be positioned to contribute to their families, communities and nation at large.
“We will continue to intensify our campaign to ensure that children in Ghana are provided with the resources for their education,” she added.
