OVC Connexions Ghana, a registered Non-Profit Organization, has commenced its education support programme of extra tuition for 100 school children for 2024 academic year at Oyibi in the Kpone Katamanso Municipality.
The programme, ‘Read, Feed and Lead’, which targets orphans and vulnerable children and poorer communities dotted around the country, gives the children 40 weekly sessions of reading and Maths tutorials on Saturdays with free snacks and lunch.
The Saturday classes, which are held between 0730hours and 1200hours, saw the basic school children received exercise books, notebooks, shoes and school uniforms.
At the opening day session, the children were registered into their various classes and assigned teachers with same programme being replicated in Ekon, a suburb in Cape Coast for 80 children.
The classes go on for 40 weeks every Saturday in the year and it will continue till the last meeting in December.
The format is such that programme runs for 10 weeks, the children break for two weeks and
come back to continue the same process until December.
Mr Eric Amano-Mpianim, National Coordinator, who presented the learning materials to the pupils, said the Kpone Katamanso Municipality had been identified per data as place with high number of Orphans and Vulnerable Children who are at risk of losing education.
‘We use a 14-point criteria termed as ‘vulnerability criteria’ to select these children. We consider children who are full orphans (both parents are deceased), half orphans (one parent deceased), children whose parents or mother is a teenager or sick and children born out of wedlock, amongst others,’ he said.
Mr Amano-Mpianim said most children were not doing well because of lack of access to books and no supervision at home, adding that the organisation’s aim was to see children off the streets and orphanage homes.
‘That’s why we bring them together every Saturday to instill discipline, self-believe and reading habits in them. Once they do well in school they will love to go to school,’ he add
ed.
After December, Mr Amano-Mpianim, together with community leaders, Assembly and Unit Committee members, identify these needy children with the help of their relatives for the next academic year.
The ‘Read Feed and Lead’ programme was started in 2021 as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic in cushioning the vulnerable children. In June this year, OVC Connexions will be starting same programme for 70 children at Nkrakan.
Source: Ghana News Agency
