NGO cannot recruit street children in Upper West Region

Wa, June 11, GNA - The Youth Alive, an international non-governmental organisation dedicated to providing humanitarian services to vulnerable groups in the Upper West Region, has ran into financial difficulties, making it impossible for it to recruit street children for vocational training. As a result, vulnerable children and youth who trooped to its training centre on daily basis to request for various levels of support and training are turned away.

Mr. Conrad K. Balig, Programme Manager of Youth Alive, made this known during the passing out 25 people, made up of 20 female and five males, at the NGO's Training Centre in Wa. The youth underwent four-year training in weaving, dressmaking, hairdressing carpentry, motor and car fitting. They were provided with working tools, equipment and materials to establish their own shops and also help train some other children in society. He said there was the possibility that those children would adopt behaviour that would be detrimental to society if they were left to go on the streets without any skills. Mr. Balig said the NGO and its development partners, COMIC RELIF/ AFRUCA, were committed to working to reduce the number of children on the street in the north through capacity building and the provision of formal education. He said at present, the organisation was supporting 270 children and youth from the region to undergo vocational training. Out of that number, 83 youth are undergoing vocational training in various fields, 187 children are in basic, junior high and senior high schools, seven are in the universities and two each in teacher training colleges and polytechnics. Mr. Balig said 74 youth had been provided with vocational skills and had become self-employed. He appealed to the district assemblies in the three northern regions to support the NGO financially to enable it to build the capacity of more vulnerable youth with vocational skills.

Mr. Mahmud Khalid, Upper West Regional Minister, said the issue of streetism and its associated problems had wider social consequences for society and that should be a concern for all, especially parents. He urged parents to send their children to school and support them to acquire formal and vocational education. Mr Khalid expressed regret that some parents lured their children out of school to engage in "kayayie" porter businesses and warned such parents to discourage that practice or when caught they would not be spared. He appealed to the graduates to form cooperatives to qualify for government credit facilities to expand their businesses.