By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, July 24, GNA – Children Believe, an international non-governmental organisation, has outlined its plans for the 2023/2024 fiscal year, announcing that it will execute some projects in health and education to improve access to quality healthcare and education, especially for children.
The projects to be executed include the construction of eight Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and rehabilitation of one primary school block in three regions.
Mr Pascal Gyireh, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Children Believe, who announced the plans, said five of the ECD centres would be located at Wungu, Wulugu, Kurugu, Jawani and Naameboku in the East and West Mamprusi Municipalities of the North East Region, and one each at Abulu in Kassena-Nankana West in the Upper East Region, Zang in the Yendi Municipality, and Nyerishegu in the Kumbungu District, as well as the renovation of a primary school block at Zagyuri in the Sagnarigu Municipality of the Northern Region.
He was presenting the plans at an annual stakeholders’ forum organised by Children Believe in Tamale to evaluate its activities and interventions on beneficiary districts and communities under the 2022/2023 fiscal year.
The forum dubbed: “Children Believe’s Best Practices Sharing and FY24 Kick-off Forum with Stakeholders and Partners”, was also to strategise and solicit stakeholders’ inputs into its intended plans and activities for the 2023/2024 fiscal year.
It brought together various stakeholders and other local partners including AG CARE, Norsaac, Baptist Relief Development Agency, Markaz Al-Bishara, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service and traditional authorities in the Northern, North East, Savannah and the Upper East Regions.
Mr Gyireh said “We are constructing two boreholes in the North East Region under our grant project, five KVIPs and urinal facilities for five kindergartens in the North East and two KVIPs for Kpachiyili and Zugu in the Northern Region.
He said; “we will provide 10,920 teaching and learning materials to beneficiary schools, 688 furniture and round tables, 246 dual desks, 940 infrastructural materials and 122 physical education materials”.
He said two computer laboratories would be built for Gbungbalga Primary and Junior High School and Adibo cluster of public schools in the Yendi Municipality.
He added that “Each of the laboratories will be equipped with 12 desktop computers, LCD projector and an internet router while two teachers from each school will be trained to manage the facilities.”
Mr Samuel Oppong Kwabiah, Country Programmes Manager, Children Believe, shared activities undertaken by the organisation during the 2022/2023 fiscal year, saying seven Child Welfare Clinics were constructed in the regions over the year.
Mr Kwabiah said this was to improve access to antenatal and postnatal care services for mothers and their babies in the communities.
He said “We also carried out Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights education across the programme schools and communities reaching out to about 11,159 adolescents comprising 5,045 boys and 6,114 girls.”
He said Children Believe further strengthened and formed 294 Village Savings and Loans Association groups whilst members of the groups were supported with 212 bags of subsidised fertilizer to help them in their farming activities.
He said the organisation also provided 1,555 dual desks, 514 chairs and 89 round tables to kindergartens while an additional 19 chairs and 12 desks for teachers were also provided to schools in the districts and communities.
Mr Kwabiah said 6,408 teaching and learning materials including school bags, exercise books, pencils, mathematical sets, crayons and rules were supplied to beneficiary schools.
He added that “We constructed six classroom blocks, seven toilet facilities and seven urinal facilities for basic schools.”
He said the organisation also built the capacities of 263 teachers comprising 135 males and 128 females to enable them deliver child-centred standard-based curriculum to children.
Mrs Esenam Kavi De Souza, Country Director of Children Believe said “We believe in starting right with the child, hence most of our efforts in the year under review have been tailored towards providing enabling environment for children’s growth and development.”
Mr Alhassan Alidu Junior, Sagnarigu Municipal Director of Education, who was represented at the forum, commended Children Believe and partners for complementing government’s efforts in improving ECD in the country.
He called for more collaborations with the various stakeholders and non-governmental organisations to help address the infrastructural challenges confronting ECD in the country.
GNA