Ms Esther Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Stratcomm Africa has called on government and corporate bodies to work together to support and address issues of children on the streets.
Ms Cobbah said education is vital for the socio-economic development of the country and as such there should be effective system in place to help children with learning difficulties to prevent streetism.
She made the call at a launch of a campaign dubbed: “Say Yes to Education, No to Streetism,” in Accra organised by Special Attention Project (SAP), a non-governmental organization.
Ms Cobbah said since education improves chances of leading a better life, it behooves all and sundry to say no to street life because being on the street instead of in school is not a real option for the life of anyone.
She said 90,000 children are estimated to be on the streets of Greater Accra as a result of family economic circumstances and pressure on some of the younger ones to support their siblings.
Ms Cobbah said her outfit in collaboration with African Women Development Fund undertook training on Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health for female head-porters.
She noted that children suffering from learning difficulties should not end up on the street but rather must be given opportunity to overcome these problems.
Ms Cobbah said the importance of tackling streetism should not be undermined by the many problems that confront the society; adding that each individual life that is transformed through the campaign becomes a contributor to finding solutions to national problems.
Mr Bernard Boaheng, Deputy Coordinator of SAP said the campaign is to create awareness on specific learning difficulties among children such as reading, learning and writing.
He said the project educates parents of children with specific learning difficulties and spreads the information through posters, stickers and the media to empower others to advocate better learning support for their children.
Mr Boaheng appealed to all stakeholders to support the campaign to prevent school drop-out and other social vices that tend to ruin the peace and stability of the country because children are the future leaders.
