WVI supports pupils to attend school

Atampiisi (U/R), June 17, GNA - World Vision is supporting some school children in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region financially and is assisting others to generate their own income to help them to attend school, Ms Benedicta Pealore, Manager of the Bongo Area Development Program (BADP) of World Vision, said on Thursday. She said the BADP instituted a Needy Student Fund with an annual input of 10 million cedis to help students in the senior secondary school and also bought female goats for children in primary school to rear at home.

At a meeting with the children who had their goats with them at Atampiisi near Bongo, Ms Pealore said the children were supposed to be helped by their parents and older siblings to care for the goats so they could sell the offspring in times of need. She said some of the children had eight goats over the years from the mother goat and income generated from selling the male ones could help with their health and education needs.

The children, aged between five and 10 years, said their parents had taught them to peg the goats in the grazing fields every morning for feeding and send them to their pens at night. Speaking about the older children, Ms Pealore said one of the beneficiary students had gone to the university while others are in teacher and nursing training colleges. She said 140 young people had been sponsored to acquire skills in weaning, catering, dressmaking, carpentry, masonry and auto-mechanics and each given equipment and money to start their businesses.

The BADP has also recruited 140 rural education volunteers to help teach in the primary schools.