The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) is seeking support from the government to scale up its Learner Guide initiative in various senior high schools to ensure a smooth transition to higher levels of education and the empowerment of females.
The Learner Guide Program trains young women to mentor and support students in schools. It aims to keep girls in school and out of early marriage. It is also intended to improve learning outcomes and strengthen the connection between schools and homes.
As part of the program, the guides deliver life skills and well-being program known as My Better World, mentor and support students in their studies, and work with teachers, parents, schools, and other officials.
In Ghana, 1,122 Learner Guides delivered the My Better World modules to 122,708 students from 798 schools during the period of January to June 2024. Cumulatively, 4, 225 Learner Guides have reached 341,285 with the program since 2020.
Data shared by the organization at a Media partnership meeting held Thursday October 31, 2024 in Tamale, shows that the number of girls receiving economic support (bursary) at the secondary level is 27,406. In total 738,312 girls have been supported with bursary since the beginning of CAMFED’s operations in Ghana in 1998.
The number of enterprises by mid-year stands at 427. In total, 36,364 enterprises have been supported since the beginning of CAMFED with CAMA members as at the end of 2023 being 68,924.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the engagement, Fairuza Abdul-Rashid Safian, National Director of CAMFED, appealed to government to support the organization to scale up the Leaner Guide Program.
She stated that collaboration remained key in ensuring that a child of school going age is not left out.
“Over the next six years, we will implement a comprehensive support system targeted at the most marginalized girls, enable young women to transition to secure livelihoods and we want the government to support us in scaling up the learner guide program,” she stated.
“This is one of our Flagship programs where we believe that when you have a guide in the school to support young people, they are able to stay and succeed. So, we want to be able to embed this practice in the national education system so that at all levels they will have a guide to be able to succeed at school,” she emphasized.
She further disclosed that CAMFED has developed a new strategic plan for the period of 2024-2029, which expected to build experiences in order to set a game changing ambition.
According Madam Fairuza Safian, the organization intends to triple its impact over 30 years during the six-year period.
