A section of the beneficiary girls of the STAGE programme
A total of 2,182 out-of-school girls have graduated from an Accelerated Learning Programme implemented by Link Community Development in four districts in the Upper East Region under the Strategic Approach to Girls’ Education (STAGE) being implemented in the region since 2018.
The girls, drawn from the Nabdam, Bawku-West, Kassena-Nankana West, and Bongo districts are aged between 10 and 15 and were taken through preparation classes in numeracy and literacy.
The other girls aged between five years to 19 years also received training in some life skill sets in addition to numeracy and literacy.
The project seeks to support less endowed girls in deprived communities to get some vocational training to be able to earn income for themselves and support their families.
There is also another angle of the programme that provides a 10-month education to the beneficiary girls, who want to be supported to get integrated into the mainstream school.
The graduates included girls looking forward to being integrated into the mainstream school and girls who have completed vocational training and are ready to start working with the skills and knowledge acquired.
The Project Coordinator at Link Community Development, Faara Joachim, said the project was run in all the beneficiary communities and districts concurrently.
“In each of these districts, 100s of girls benefited from the project. In the Nabdam District, 222 girls benefited, Bawku-West District had 478 girls benefiting, the Kassena-Nankana West had 867 girls and in the Bongo District a total of 615 girls benefited,” he stated.
According to him, the project, which should have been completed long ago, was suspended for a while due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He advised the beneficiaries and their families to see education as the ultimate in the development of every human and a tool for community and family development.
Some beneficiaries, who spoke with the DAILY GUIDE at a graduation in Zebilla in the Bawku-West District, said they were happy to get back to school, whilst some expressed delight for having been offered an opportunity to acquire life skills to help brighten their future.
One of them, Rosefina Azure said, “… I stopped going to school because there was no one to help me. I did not have books, bags, and even school uniforms so I stopped. After this training, we have been given books, bags, school uniforms and they have promised to help us to stay in school if we try our best to learn hard.”
FROM Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Zebilla