Need for collaborative effort to address child streetism – SOS Villages
Mr Alex Mar Kekula, the National Director of SOS Children’s Villages, Ghana, an NGO, has called for a collaborative effort to address the problem of street children in the country.
He said the increasing rate of child streetism is becoming an acceptable norm and urged all stakeholders to work together to ensure that children enjoyed meaningful lives.
The National Director made the call in Accra at the launch of the 45th anniversary of the Village on the theme: “45 Years of Working in the Interest of Children: No Child Should Grow Up Alone”.
The organization over the years has pledged to care for the vulnerable children by providing them with support in the areas of basic care, education, good nutrition, healthcare and human rights.
Mr Kekula said the initiatives were possible through quality leadership underpinned by the values of courage, commitment, trust and accountability.
“As we celebrate this milestone, we aim to stay visible, engage, capture hearts and minds, nurture relationships, sustain and improve gains. We believe every child should grow up in a family with love, respect and security,” he added.
He said the organization would continue to give hope, sustain smiles and offer underprivileged children a chance to a happy childhood and a promising future.
The organization has lined-up programmes to celebrate the anniversary such as a hike to promote networking between Ghanaian and Dutch citizens, health walk, community engagement, to be climaxed with the Patron’s fundraising event to be hosted by Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady.
Mr Isaac Ackon, the Director, SOS Children’s Village, Tema, said the organization had branches in Tema, Asiakwa, Kumasi and Tamale, running two major programme-the Family-like Care and the Family Strengthening Programme.
The Family-like Care runs a long-term care targeted at orphaned, abandoned and destitute children who have lost parental care and 584 children have so far benefited from the programme.
Also, the Family Strengthening Programme, which is a community intervention geared towards supporting vulnerable families to be self-sufficient and to enable them cater for their children, have over 5,000 children and 644 guardians as beneficiaries.
Mr Ackon said the organization also ran specialized projects like Save my Mother, cervical cancer screening, quality education project, no business as usual project, sustainable livelihood, end child marriage now, among others.
Mr Isaac Tetteh and Mrs Helena Gaisie, philanthropists, unveiled the anniversary logo and expressed the desire to continue to support the organization to execute their vision of building families for children in need and to shape their future.
SOS Children Villages was established in Ghana in 1974 by an Austrian philanthropist to offer support services to the needy and poor in society.
Source: GNA