Anita Abaidoo for South Okaikoi constituency

Harriet Anita Abaidoo, former Deputy Women’s Organizer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), says streetism is a major canker hampering the development of children in her community.

Ms Abaidoo, who is the CPP parliamentary candidate for South Okaikoi Constituency, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday.

She said her intention to contest the parliamentary seat was to tackle those issues and try to send children back to school.

Ms Abaidoo said the problems facing her community were numerous and needed to be tackled with the seriousness it deserved.

She said the children are enjoying being on the street due to the money they make on daily basis and would not want to be restricted by any one.

"It was in this light that the Hart Community Development Initiative (HCDI) was formed to help send these street children back to the classroom," she said.

Ms Abaidoo said she founded HCDI two years ago to bring needy children together with their parents, interact with them and help find lasting solutions to their difficulties.

Ms Abaidoo said her foundation caters for 30 children made up of six girls and 25 boys between the ages of 12 to 18.

The Foundation has sponsored the education of a street boy and provides breakfast every Sunday for children in her area.

She said she wanted to develop the community, see to their welfare and also enhance the local enterprise by helping the unemployed youth acquire various vocation which would help them to be focused

Ms Abaidoo said she would also help empower women in her constituency to take up leadership roles, organize awareness and sensitization programmes and educate them on policy issues.

She said she would help to revive and form new neighbourhood committees and stressed the need for a community library for her community in addition to seeking free internet browsing for students in her area and also to improve on sanitation.