CAMFED provides scholarships to 16,600 girls in 2012

The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), a non-governmental organization is supporting a total of 16,600 female students across four regions of the country in 2012 by providing them with scholarship packages, uniforms and footwear to ensure their development.

The package, which also includes notebooks, sanitary pads, soap and dry food rations, would guarantee the education of the beneficiaries, who were from less privileged homes and deprived communities to gain access to quality education to transform their lives.

The support was also to ensure the retention rate of 98 percent for Junior High School in beneficiary communities and 99.9 percent for the Senior High Schools for girls on the CAMFED programme.

Mrs. Dolores Dickson, Executive Director of CAMFED-Ghana disclosed these in Tamale on Wednesday during the opening ceremony of the CAMFED 2012 Annual General Meeting of the NGO, which brought together stakeholders of the organization.

The AGM, which was on the theme; “Driving up educational performance: our impact as stakeholders” brought together District education Committees, CAMFED alumni (CAMA), Mother Support Groups, teacher mentors and some Directors of the GES to take stock of the past programmes and achievements.

Mrs. Dickson said the successes of the organization could not have been possible without the hard working staff and stakeholders and commended them for their dedication, adding that, “As stakeholders in education, it is essential for us to do self-reflection at some point to see how our actions are impacting on quality education”.

She said the year under review saw the continuation of the annual science, mathematics and technology camps, saying that, more females under the CAMFED sponsorship had progressed from second circle to the tertiary level.

Mrs. Dickson however lamented that the NGO due to its good works, had attracted numerous applicants and was struggling to cope with the demands for tertiary education support against the backdrop of increasing tertiary fees resulting in cutting down the numbers.

Mr. Charles Atia, Head of Operations at CAMFED-Ghana said the NGO has grown since 2008 with its operations extending to four regions and 30 districts, from the initial one region and eight districts. He said the staff strength had also improved from only five to 28 in 2012.

He said the funding had also grown from 609,587 dollars in 2011 to 6,196,990 million dollars in 2012, which enabled it to increase its partner schools from 242 in 2008 to 716 in 2011.

He mentioned The MasterCard Foundation, DFID Ghana, Google, Credit Suisse, Craig Silverstein and Marple Trust Fund as the donors.

Mr. Atia said 1,184 businesses have been set up by young women with seed capital from CAMFED whilst many others had received training in business enterprises.