By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Feb. 13, GNA — Hundred children of fishers in five fishing communities in Tema and its environs are to receive technical and vocational education as part of the Alternative Meridian Ports Services (MPS) Livelihood Project.
The beneficiary communities are Nungua, Sakumono, Tema, Kpone, and Prampram, which were affected by the Tema Harbour expansion project.
A total of 500 people are to benefit from the project, with 100 trainees being trained for nine months each year for five years.
As part of the project, Global Communities Ghana and the Ghana TVET Service engaged the beneficiary communities at the Tema Canoe Basin on Wednesday.
Mr. Adjetey Tawiah, a member of the Tema Chief Fishermen’s Committee, disclosed that the agreement signed between MPS, and the communities was in two phases. In the first phase, the company presented US$600,000 and fishing gear to the fishermen in the affected communities.
Mr. Tawiah, who also serves as the secretary to the affected communities, added that the presentation was to equip the fishers to travel extra miles on the sea to get good catches, adding that an amount of US$400,000 was being used to sponsor apprenticeship programmes for the children of the fishers.
He said the selection was based on the number of canoes in each community, with Tema being the largest fishing community, with more participants than the other four communities.
“The harbour expansion has affected us as fisherfolk because the place the harbour was built was the exact place we got more catch anytime we went fishing. Due to that, our daily bread has been taken from us as communities forever. In view of that, the World Bank came into agreement with these communities to support us by finding alternatives that could generate money for the people,” he said.
He added that they found the intervention worthwhile as it will help them cater for their families and secure their children’s future, adding that they have therefore enrolled their children in the programme.
Mr. Ebenezer Amar, a consultant to the selected communities, indicated that the training programme which was supposed to be taken in three years, had been compressed to nine months, indicating that the participants would also be given internship opportunities after the training.
He advised the participants to take the training seriously to better their lives and the communities at large.
Nana Kweigyah, the National President of the Canoe and Fishing Gears Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG), commended the MPS for the initiative and admonished beneficiaries to attach utmost importance to their studies.
He stressed that children of fishers transitioning to fishing is now a fisheries sustainability issue of great concern; therefore, such children must seek other employable skills to be able to find decent work outside fisheries for the benefit of their fishers; adding that, such programmes were helpful.
GNA