The first batch of six children of the Ghana Junior Ambassador Project of Plan Ghana and Diaspora Africa Forum, with support from the Columbian Government, will next month embark on an educational tour of Columbia.
Of the total number of children selected through a highly competitive and rigorous process from the Upper West, Eastern and Central regions, 50 per cent are girls.
The children would undergo a 10-day thorough training in Accra to equip them with various skills to enable them to articulate issues affecting children in their communities, districts, regions and the nation before departure to Columbia.
They would spend two weeks in Columbia.
The project aims at identifying and grooming children from deprived rural communities as agents of change within their communities.
Mr Prem Shukla, Plan Ghana Country Director, said at the launch in Accra on Monday that the Ghana Junior Ambassador Project sought to empower Ghanaian children to be instrumental in improving their lives and communities by educating and informing people in the Diaspora about their country, her culture and humanitarian needs.
He said this unique project was also targeted at providing children with the much needed platform to enable them to communicate their concerns, create awareness about poverty and challenges children in Ghana faced especially those in the rural areas and what Plan Ghana was doing to address them.
He said the children, on their return, would be expected to embark on a development project in their respective communities.
Mr Shukla said: “I will like to seize this opportunity to express my profound gratitude to the Embassy of Columbia for coming on board this project to help in the fight towards empowering marginalised children from rural Ghana.
“I am optimistic that this would be the beginning of other future collaborations.
“Indeed, this educational tour to the Diaspora by our child ambassadors is a sure way of broadening their horizon and encouraging them to aspire to greater heights in society.”
The Country Director appealed to corporate Ghana to come on board and support in cash or kind for a noble course.
Mrs Claudia Turbay, Columbia Ambassador to Ghana, said her Government would bear the expenses of the junior ambassadors in Columbia.
She said the junior ambassadors would tour some educational facilities in the cities of Bogota and Cartagena, and would have the privilege to meet the Columbian Minister for Culture and Tourism.
She said at the end of the day, the tour would make a positive impact on the lives of the children, and they would be highly inspired to impact on their communities back home in Ghana.
Dr Erleka Bennett, Head of Mission of the African Union Diaspora African Forum, said Ghana was blessed with very bright children and all they needed was exposure.
Ms Angela Naa Afoley Odai, Consultant at the Diaspora Africa Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, said the Child Ambassador Project was a worthy course, which government would continue to support.
