The ECOWAS Commission through its Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF), has launched an initiative to provide hot meals to schools in deprived communities to help increase enrolment and provide quality education in deprived communities in the Upper West Region.
The three-year project is being implemented by the Millennium Child Support Group (MCSG), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in partnership with the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), with funding from the Spanish Cooperation through the ECOWAS’ RAAF.
In all eight schools in three districts of the region, four schools in the Sissala West, three in the Jirapa Municipal and one school in the Nandom Municipality are benefiting from the project.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MCSG, Mr Godfrey Ato Parker, said the programme was anticipated to improve health outcomes, boost academic performance and enhance overall community wellbeing by ensuring that every student receives a nutritious meal during school hours.
“We believe that every child deserves access to quality education and nutrition regardless of their background or circumstances, our hot meal programme is designed to help bridge the gap in nutrition and education, and we are excited to see the positive impact it will have on these young lives in the communities”, he stated.
He expressed worry about the number of school dropouts in the area and assured that the organisations would do everything in their power to eradicate the menace in order to ensure that more children return to the classroom.
“We realised that some of the children in these communities were not attending school but as soon as we started the programme there was some improvement in the numbers,” he said.
Mr Parker indicated that the initiative was to help deal with absenteeism of school children who had to go home for lunch during break time and never return to continue with their school lessons for the remaining hours of the day.
‘’Our aim is to encourage and boost school enrolment and attendance, increase students participation in school programmes and keep the students motivated by providing hot meals to children in deprived schools who are not covered by the Government school feeding programme in the region’’, he explained.
Moreover, he noted that the food would be sourced from the various communities to promote the local economy through agricultural production.
The CEO added that considering the environment where the schools were located, there was the need for everyone to give a helping hand in order to promote quality education across the communities.
FROM RAFIA ABDUL RAZAK, WA
