Providing School Supplies to 100 Children in Ghana

Thank you very much for your kind support for ACE. My name is Yuki Akahori. I am SMILE Ghana Project Manager. 

 ACE is implementing the "Smile Ghana Project" in Ghana's cocoa-producing regions to protect children from hazardous labour and support their education. In the two communities where the project operates, residents are working to create a "Community Activity Plan" to ensure that children do not have to work on cocoa farms. 

What is a Community Activity Plan? 

In January of this year, we conducted a workshop to create Community Activity Plans in the two communities where the project is active. A Community Activity Plan outlines the necessary activities and their implementation plans to address child labour within the village (community).  

Creating such plans is one of the indicators for Child Labour Free Zones (CLFZ). Our project aims to use these activity plans to help the community residents create an environment where they can continuously protect children. 

Our project provides school supplies to children from economically disadvantaged families and supports school meals from Wednesday to Friday each week. However, we are hoping that the community residents will continue these activities without us after the project is finished. We truly believe that children will be able to attend school instead of working by sustaining these activities. 

Challenges and Solutions for Addressing Child Labour Issues in the Villages 

The workshop included village elders, members of the Community Child Protection Committee(CCPC), school teachers, School Management Committee (SMC) representatives, and PTA representatives.  

In response to the project staff’s question about the challenges the village faces in addressing child labour, residents discussed the following issues: 

• Insufficiently developed environment for children to enjoy their time at school. 

• Lack of teacher accommodation in the village, causing delays in class start times due to teachers commuting from outside the village. 

• Low awareness among some residents about the dangers of child labour and the importance of education. 

• Few opportunities to discuss the difficulties parents face in raising their children. 

• Limited opportunities to understand the challenges children themselves face. 

To address these issues, the following activities were proposed for inclusion in the Community Activity Plan: 

• Pooling resources among residents to increase the number of days for school meals funded by the community. 

• Providing school supplies to economically disadvantaged children. 

• Constructing teacher accommodation. 

• Repairing desks and chairs for children in village schools. 

• Continuing awareness campaigns about the dangers of child labour. 

Municipal staff also attended the workshop to explain available municipal grants that could be utilized when implementing the Community Activity Plan. We also suggested that residents could raise funds to establish a community fund to finance these activities. We aim to provide some initial operating funds from the project and to ensure that the fund is sustained solely by community donations by the end of the project. 

Although the workshop ended with the proposal of activities, residents are working on a detailed activity plan that includes who will be responsible for each activity, deadlines, budget requirements, and funding sources. They are taking steps to create an environment where they can continuously protect children. 

Rice Cultivation Training for Supplemental Income 

To ensure that children do not have to work on cocoa farms, it is also crucial to improve the income of cocoa farmers, who are the parents of these children, so they can continue to buy educational necessities for children. 

Starting this month, the project will provide rice cultivation training for the parents of children from impoverished families. We have invited officials from the district’s agricultural department to teach a wide range of practical knowledge about rice cultivation, including land preparation, seedbed management, and pest control. 

By improving household income through this training, we aim to ensure that each household is able to pay for their children's school supplies and meal costs, as well as contribute to the community fund. We also plan to conduct cocoa cultivation training next month. 

These activities are supported by your donations. We hope to continue protecting the school lives of children, and we appreciate your ongoing support.