Attendees at the general assembly meeting in Damango
The executive director for Centre for Rural Improvement Services (CRIS), Amos Mahama Seidu has launched a re-entry policy for teenage mothers and girls in the Savannah Region.
As part of efforts to get teenage mothers and other girls back to school whilst working to equip them with employable skills, he announced the introduction of a re-entry policy for teenage mothers in the Savannah Region.
Making the pronouncement on the floor of the house during the general assembly meeting of the fourth session of the Eight Assembly of the West Gonja Municipal Assembly in Damongo, Amos Mahama Seidu encouraged assembly members to embrace the policy as their own and see to the realisation of its objectives in the collective interest.
He said the one year project being funded by DKA, Austra and implemented by Centre for Rural Improvement Services(CRIS) will in the end see to an increased re-entry of drop outs teenage mothers and other teenage girls in schools, their retention and completion in the entire Savannah Region.
According to him the project will be implemented across some selected districts in the Savannah Region particularly, West Gonja Municipal and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District with a window of extension of the initiative beyond the one year implementation period depending on the success stories and patronage.
He said under a previous project implemented under the same policy, 140 female school drop outs returned back to school.
In responding to a question from the assembly member for the Canteen Electoral Area on the nature of the intervention, Amos indicated that the policy comes along with support packages for the young girls, ranging from school uniforms, bags, sanitary pads, books among others.
The entire members of the Assembly lauded the initiative as a worthy one for the infant region.
The Assemblyman for the electoral area, Ananpansah Bartholomew Abraham urged his colleagues to lend the executive director of CRIS and his team the necessary support in their various electoral areas for coming up with such policy.
He indicated that he was privileged to be part of the implementation of the policy some years back where he acted then as a media liaison person and can attest to the many success stories and life changing opportunities associated with the re-entry policy.
According to him, he was able to encourage most young girls through the project to go back to school and most of them have now successfully completed SHS and further progressed successfully into various tertiary institutions in the country.
