GIVE US TEACHING AND LEARNING AIDS — NR CHILDREN APPEAL (PAGE 11)

CHILDREN in the Northern Region have made a passionate appeal for the provision of teaching and learning materials in their respective schools to facilitate their studies.
They have also entreated the government and other stakeholders to ensure that measures are put in place to encourage teachers to accept postings to deprived communities while more classroom blocks are constructed to accommodate the growing number of pupils in those areas.
The children, some of whom are from selected schools in the Yendi Municipality, Saboba, Gushiegu and Nanumba North districts made the appeal separate an interviews with the Daily Graphic in Yendi, during the celebration of the International Day of the African Child.
It was organised and sponsored by the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) with support from its partners. It was on the theme “listening to our children talk”.
As part of the celebration, schoolchildren from the Yendi, Gushiegu and Demon-Kpalba Area child development programmes sang, performed plays and traditional dances to highlight issues about children.
They equally bemoaned inadequate provision of infrastructural facilities that adversely affected child survival and development in deprived communities of the region.
The children further expressed regret that such facilities as computers, school buses, bicycles, electricity, potable water and health facilities were non-available in some schools and communities, thereby making it difficult for them to contribute meaningfully to the development of their respective communities.
The children expressed concern about the inability of some parents to support girl child education in their respective communities due to poverty.“It is necessary for schoolchildren, particularly girls, to be provided with bicycles and school buses for instance, to encourage them to go to school”, they pointed out.
The Country Director of the CCFC, Mrs Sanatu Nantogma, noted that children in Africa faced challenges such as poverty, disease, abuse, conflict and social exclusion.
“Children’s life chances are limited and they are exposed to violence; they are equally deprived of education, abused, exploited vulnerable to malnutrition, and such diseases as HIV/AIDS” she pointed out.
Mrs Nantogma therefore assured children that the CCFC “would stop at nothing to ensure your fundamental rights are guaranteed”.
She further intimated that her outfit would partner “like-minded organisations which have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to meet our mutual goals”.
The Programme Leader of the Yendi Area Child Development Programme, Mr Theophilus Dokurugu, observed that children in Ghana had been given the opportunity to grow into responsible adults.
The Child Development Specialist of Tamale Office of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Madam Amama Kaleem Habib, identified teenage pregnancy, high infant mortality and school drop out rate, child trafficking and abuse as some of the challenges children faced in Northern Ghana. She, however, intimated that the UNICEF and its partners were working hard to help address some of the issues.
The Yendi Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Mahama Walvis Hudu,entreated parents and society to support the development of children.