Foundation assists teenage mothers
The Obaapa Development Foundation, a local non-governmental organisation (NGO), has initiated a programme to send 1,000 teenage mothers back to school from next academic year to give them a second chance to pursue education.
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The project, named 'A 1,000 Teenage Mothers Back to School Project’ (TMBTSP), is to be undertaken over a five-year period, starting on a pilot basis in five districts in the Ashanti Region before being implemented nationwide in collaboration with the ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and Education, the district assemblies and other development partners. It will sponsor 20 teenage mothers from each district and five districts in each region.
The selected districts for the pilot project are Afigya-Kwabre, Ejisu-Juabeng, Asante-Akyem Central, Atwima-Nwabiagya and the initiating district, Atwima-Kwanwoma.
Conceived some three years ago, the project, which is the brainchild of the Girl Child Education Unit of the Atwima-Kwanwoma District Assembly in the Ashanti Region, is to specifically address and reduce the menace of teenage pregnancies while encouraging girl-child education in the district.
The concept was adopted and given a national touch by Nanahemaa Adwoa Awindor, a native of the Atwima-Kwanwoma District.
Addressing a stakeholders’ meeting at Foase, Nanahemaa Awindor, who is also the Nkosuohemaa of the Afigya Kwabre District, said the first batch of students would be enrolled next academic year and appealed to all stakeholders, particularly the mothers of the teenage mothers, to help their daughters to go back to school by helping to cater for the kids to enable the girls to have enough time to concentrate on their studies.
The meeting was held to enable people in the neighbourhood to discuss the need for their ownership of the project. She sought the support of the stakeholders, particularly the district education office, the district assembly and traditional leaders, to ensure a successful implementation of the project when it takes off next academic year.
She said the foundation initiated the project upon the realisation that a number of the teenage mothers, after giving birth, were unable to continue their education and became a burden not only on their families but the society as a whole as their inability to look after their children also contributed to the menace of street children and its associated problems.
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She, therefore, appealed to the chiefs and queen mothers, as well as assembly members, to help in monitoring the girls to ensure that they made good use of the opportunity given them.
According to Nanahemaa Awindor, all the beneficiaries would be supported to finish at least secondary education and added that though the emphasis was for the girls to get educated, the project would encourage some of them to venture into some of the male-dominated technical areas such as masonry, carpentry, auto mechanic, welding and other vocations.
She said the foundation was in contact with some of the technical institutions to enrol those who would show interest in those fields.
Nanahemaa said the foundation estimated to spend a minimum of GHc1,500.00 on each girl every academic year and this would include their school fees, feeding and crèche fees for their babies.
The District Director of Education for Atwima-Kwanwoma, Mrs Felicia Opokuaa Mallet, could not hide her excitement when members of the foundation paid a courtesy call at her office before the forum and congratulated the team on the bold effort and offered some words of encouragement and support.
Ms Angelina Sarfo-Adu, the officer in charge of Girl Child Education Division, who conceptualised the project, said she hoped through such project, many of the girls would be able to go back to school and be able to finish at least their basic education.
She admonished mothers to have time for their daughters, adding that the situation where parents left home as early as 4 a.m. to their farms, market or businesses and only returned in the evening around 6 p.m. or later, was not in the best interest of the children.
She also said some of the parents who were single mothers shared their rooms with daughters and boyfriends, which exposed these girls to sexual activities.
The Chief Executive of the district, Nana Kwabena Nkrumah, pledged the assembly’s support to ensure the successful implementation of the project and said as a beneficiary of a similar project that enabled him to go back to school, he would support it to give the girls a second chance in life.