As part of efforts to get teenage mothers and non-pregnancy-related girls back to school while working to equip them with employable skills for life, the Executive Director of the Centre for Rural Improvement Services (CRIS) has announced the introduction of a re-entry policy for teenage mothers in the Savannah Region.
Making the pronouncement on the floor of the house during the first Ordinary General Assembly meeting of the Fourth Session of the Eight Assembly of the West Gonja Municipal Assembly in Damongo, the renowned Executive Director, Amos Mahama Seidu, encouraged Assembly Members to embrace the policy as their own and see to the realization of its objectives in the collective interest.
He said the one-year project being funded by DKA, Austra, and implemented by the Centre for Rural Improvement Services (CRIS) will in the end lead to an increased re-entry of dropout teenage mothers and non-pregnancy-related girls in schools and their retention and completion in the entire Savannah Region.
According to him, the project will be implemented across some selected districts in the Savannah Region, particularly West Gonja Municipal and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, with a window of extension of the initiative beyond the one-year implementation period depending on the success stories and patronage.
He said that under a previous project implemented under the same policy, 140 female school dropouts were returned to school.
In responding to a question from the honorable Assembly Member for the Canteen Electoral Area on the nature of the intervention, the Executive Director indicated that the policy comes with support packages for the young girls, ranging from school uniforms, bags, sanitary pads, and books, among others.
The entire assembly lauded the initiative as worthy for the infant region.
The Assemblyman for the Canteen Electoral Area, honorable Ananpansah Bartholomew Abraham, urged his colleague Assembly Members to lend the Executive Director and his team the necessary support in their various electoral areas for the realization of the policy objectives.
He indicated that he was privileged to be part of the implementation of the policy some years ago, where he acted as a media liaison, and can attest to the many success stories and life-changing opportunities associated with the re-entry policy.
According to him, he was able to encourage most young girls through the project to go back to school, and most of them have now successfully completed SHS and further progressed successfully into various tertiary institutions in the country.
The honorable member for the Yipala/Nabori Electoral Area and the Assemblyman for the Dass Electoral Area sought clarifications and described the project as timely and worth supporting.
The Presiding Member of the West Gonja Municipal Assembly, honorable Mumuni Mohammed, pledged the commitment of the Assembly towards the implementation of the project.
