10,800 "Kayayeis" get Free Health Care

Kumasi, Sept. 17, GNA - Street Children Development Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has registered 10,800 porters (Kayayeis) in the Kumasi Metropolis for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Mr. George Baffour Owusu-Afriyie, Executive Director of the NGO, said their insurance premiums were paid between, year 2006 and 2009. He made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi on Thursday. Mr Owusu-Afriyie said the NGO worked closely with the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) through the assembly's Street Children Project.

He said his Organization was committed to the job of helping to care for the socially disadvantaged and the poor. He encouraged corporate bodies to partner government to address the high rate of rural-urban migration in the country, a major factor responsible for the growing number of street children particularly in Accra and Kumasi.

He called for job creation in the three northern regions by investing in irrigation projects.

Mr Owusu-Afriyie said by so doing young people from this part of the country would have no incentive to travel down south to engage in "Kayayei" business.

He said a study carried out by the NGO shows that there are more than 20,000 female porters aged between 12-40 years in the Kumasi Metropolis. Their increasing population is fuelling the springing up of slums.