AfriKids Ghana has donated learning materials and school uniforms worth GH₵100,000 to 182 children in need in the country’s Upper East Region.
Development Diaries gathered that children from the Kassena-Nankana and Bolgatanga Municipalities, Bongo, Talensi, Nabdam, Builsa South and Builsa North districts received school uniforms and learning materials such as exercise books, pens and pencils.
Country Director of the non-governmental organisation (NGO), David Pwalua, explained that the donation was part of the NGO’s Covid-19 relief and recovery project.
The project was launched in 2020 to support vulnerable communities in northern Ghana in the wake of the pandemic.
Nearly ten million learners between pre-primary and secondary level of education were severely affected by the Covid-19-induced nationwide closure of schools in the country in March 2020.
More than 1.6 million children of primary school age in some of the poorest and most deprived districts in Ghana have lost access to school meals, according to the Primary and Secondary Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Children in Ghana report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
For many children from vulnerable communities, including children with disabilities, the prolonged school closures have put a premature end to their education.
‘The effect of the pandemic is devastating; businesses of parents have been seriously affected such that they could not afford basic needs for their children to get back to school’, Pwalua said.
‘We know we cannot provide everything, but this is just our modest support to help the children stay in school and learn’.
He also said that through the project 30 educational and health facilities have been equipped with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) materials to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19 and other diseases.
The Bongo District Director for Education, Madison Anane Amokase, thanked the organisation for its investment in Ghana’s education sector.
Source: Ghanian Times
Photo source: AfriKids
