Thirty street girls trained in bread baking

Tamale, Sept. 4, GNA- An NGO in Tamale, "Timari-Tama" (We have hope) Rural Women, has trained 30 street girls in bread baking and production of confectioneries under the "Street Children" component of the Ministry of Manpower Development and Employment's poverty reduction programme. The girls, who came from various communities in the Northern Region to seek "greener pastures" in the South, were brought home from Agbogbloshie in Accra, where they ended as porters (kayayei). The seven months' training also enabled them to benefit from moral and religious counselling, as well as lessons in personal hygiene, the dangers in teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

Hajia Amina Adam, Executive Director of the NGO said street children is a source of worry to all Ghanaians and it is to address this problem that the government with the support of the World Bank initiated the "Street Children Programme". The programme, she said, was aimed at providing the children with the necessary training to equip them to lead responsible lives.

Hajia Adam urged parents to ensure that their daughters go to school to acquire knowledge and skills just like the boys saying, "we are in a changing world where every child should be given equal opportunity to education".

She said: "Our girls should not be pushed into early marriages but must be encouraged to pursue education to the highest level". "Women promote development in every society. Development can only be realized when our girls are educated alongside their male counterparts. This way, we can reduce ignorance, poverty, illiteracy and many other set-backs in our communities", she added.

Hajia Adam urged the trainees to be interested in the physical and spiritual development and improvement of their families and communities. They should also be actively involved in creating awareness on sexually transmitted infections, especially the HIV/AIDS, to help contain the spread of the disease.

Hajia Adam advised the beneficiaries of the programme to be enterprising and live exemplary lives in their communities to encourage their peers to emulate them.

She said: In this way, you will be discouraging the urge for them to migrate to the urban centres only to live on streets ".

The Executive Director announced that the trainees would receive a start-up capital of 300,000 cedis each as a loan, which they would be expected to start repayment two months after benefiting from the facility.

Alhaji Inusah Abubakari, Focal Person on the Street Children Component of the Programme at the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, said the Assembly was currently offering skills training and formal education to 350 street children in the Metropolis.

He said the government has contracted a six million-dollar World Bank loan to facilitate the programme, which would focus on four areas of poverty measurement, nutrition, food security and street children. Alhaji Abubakari urged the service providers to use the funds allocated to them for the intended purpose.

He urged parents to take active part in the poverty reduction programme by encouraging their children to stay at home and help to address the problem.

He called on the trainees to help break the cycle of poverty among the communities.

Hajia Adisa Munkaila, a Member of the Council of State and the guest of honour at the ceremony told the girls that when they get married, they should educate their children to avoid going to the streets. She urged them to be role models in their various communities by being of service to mankind and leading lives worthy of emulation.