By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Nov 8, GNA – Some families in the Tamale Metropolis have lauded the ANZANSI Study project for helping them to develop a savings culture to raise the needed resources for the sustenance of their families.
They also expressed joy that the project had helped them to improve their relationships with their children as they regularly shared their concerns with them to find reasonable solutions together.
They shared their experiences at a stakeholders’ meeting on the ANZANSI Study project in Tamale to discuss the contributions of the project to supporting girl-child education.
The meeting was attended by families that participated in the study, school teachers, facilitators of the study, representatives of the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Gender, Officers from Agricultural Development Bank, media practitioners, Northern Regional Queen Mothers Association President (Yelzoli Gaa Naa), the in-Country Multiple Principal Investigator of the study, staff of BasicNeeds-Ghana and BIBIR Ghana amongst others.
Dr Alice Boateng from the Department of Social Work, University of Ghana, who is also the in-Country Multiple Principal Investigator of the ANZANSI Study project, made a presentation on families’ experiences with the ANZANSI Study and shared the findings of the study with participants.
She indicated that results showed that both caregivers and adolescent girls found that the intervention filled a significant gap for families and said it was, particularly promising as a preventive effort to curtail adolescent girls’ unaccompanied migration for child labour.
Madam Medere Abukari, a mother of five children from Wurishe, a suburb of Tamale, said, “As a family, we were not saving anything from our trading activities, and it was affecting us. At times, we were not able to meet our basic expenses.”
She added “However, as a result of the ANZANSI Study project, we now make savings from our meagre incomes. This is helping us to pay our children’s school fees on time and meet other household expenses.”
Madam Fati Issifu, a mother of two children, who resides at Changli, a suburb of Tamale, said, “I thought saving money at the bank was the preserve of big business people. However, the ANZANSI Study project taught me that was not the case. Now, every month, I save a small amount of money from selling groundnuts. This is helping me a lot.”
The ANZANSI Study project was a two-year initiative, which sought to examine whether an innovative combination intervention could curtail the unaccompanied rural-to-urban migratory patterns and involvement in child labour among poverty-impacted Ghanaian female youth in the Northern Region.
A key component of the project was family-level economic empowerment intervention aimed at creating and strengthening financial stability using matched children’s savings accounts and microfinance in poor households.
Another component was multiple family group intervention focused on addressing family functioning and parental beliefs around girls’ education, gender norms, and child labour.
Through the project, which was implemented in the Tamale Metropolis and Sagnarigu Municipality, some families were supported to open savings accounts where they regularly saved funds to support their girls to go to school.
The project was implemented by BasicNeeds-Ghana in collaboration with Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Department of Social Work, University of Ghana, and BIBIR-Ghana, with funding from the National Institutes of Health of the United States of America.
Madam Niamatu Iddrisu, Girls Child Education Coordinator at the Tamale Metropolis, expressed gratitude to partners for implementing the project, which would ensure sustainable improvement in the livelihoods of the beneficiaries.
She urged the beneficiaries to sustain the savings culture to continue to support their children and families.
Mr Kingsley Kumbelim, a Project Officer at BasicNeeds-Ghana, and Ghana Coordinator of the ANZANSI Study project, said the project had addressed the issue of migration particularly amongst the females from the north to the south in search of greener pastures.
He said the project had also contributed to improvements in girl-child education and strengthening of families’ relationships, adding “Girls now are focused on their education. The families are also supporting the girls compared to previous times.”
Mr Joseph Charles Osei, Director of BIBIR Ghana advised the beneficiaries to continue to implement and sustain the lessons learnt during the project for their benefit.
GNA