PAPG enrolls 50 Kayayie on health insurance scheme

The Positive Action for Porter Girls, (PAPG) a non-governmental organization based in Madina has provided health care support for porter girls known as “kakyayie” in the La Nkwantanang- Madina District of the Greater Accra Region.

The Madina based NGO on Thursday, October 21 enrolled 50 porter girls of ages from 18 years and below on the national health insurance scheme and also provided free eye screening for about 150 others.

The facility operates from a shop in the Madina market, and though faced with challenges such as space and finance, the facility provides services such as skill training in hairdressing, dress making, soap making, bead making, counseling and in-house teaching in basic English language and Mathematics for those above school going age. The facility also serves as a place of rest for the girls when they get tired from carrying heavy loads in the scorching sun.

Among the success stories of the 4 year old NGO, key among them is the enrollment of 8 of the porter girls in formal education in schools in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions of the country.

Speaking in an interview, the Chairman of the Positive Action for Porter Girls, Mr. Christian Vordzordge said aside space and money; staff of the NGO is faced with challenges such as verbal abuse by the girls in the process of trying to help them but they remain resolute in the work they have taken upon themselves.

“When you ask them to do anything, they won’t listen to you. If they litter their place of rest and you ask them to sweep, they will insult you in a language you don’t understand. At times when we organize programmes such as health talks and counseling, they will agree to go but on the day of the programme you won’t see them. You have to beg them and promise them all sort of things before you can get a hand full of them. Even with that, if it’s a two or three day programme, the day after the arrival they will pack their bags saying they want to go back. We face all these but we don’t let that bother us. We have taken it upon ourselves to do it and we will follow through to the latter” Mr. Vordzorgbe said.

Positive Action for Porter Girls was started by some Catholic Christians in Madina who saw the need to provide for the less privileged porters who had no family to cater for them as they seek greener pasture in the southern parts of the country. In 2012, the facility began full operation with documentation as an NGO registered to give care to porter girls.