UNICEF, KOICA 'Better Life Por Girls' Improving School Enrollment

Many girls in communities of Krachi East district in the Volta Region are yet to enroll in school due to poverty and lack of decent learning environment.

Despite various social interventions put in place by UNICEF and the Korean International Cooperation Agency and government, many young girls are unable to complete Junior High School.

The situation, according to UNICEF country representative Ann-Claire Dufay in an interview with Joynews at the Yariga number 2 M/A Basic School, has assumed worrying heights.

“Poverty in the region is high and it’s affecting education of children especially girls. It was very clear that poverty is affecting their education. Because some of the girls were saying how their parents cannot afford to buy text books” said Ann-Claire Dufay.

Krachi East is one of the twenty five districts in the Volta Region. For decades, the lack of decent employment and income earning activities has contributed to majority of adolescents in the region suffering from exploitative forms of labour. It is also one of the districts in the country with high rates of child marriage and teenage pregnancy.

“….Some of the parents will like their girls to leave school and marry a man because they think that will be cheaper and that continuing their education will not lead anywhere”, that’s according to UNICEF country representative, Anne-Claire Dufay.

To help reduce the situation and also improve the lives of the many girls in the Volta Region, UNICEF and Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) rolled out a project called Better Life for Girls in Ghana in 2017. The project is jointly implemented with government of Ghana. The project which targets poverty ridden communities in the Northern and Volta Regions has seen slight improvement in school enrollment.

“….So the Better Life for Girls programme that is sponsored by KOICA and implemented by UNICEF and the government of Ghana is actually trying to improve the situation of girls by promoting education” Anne-Claire Dufay says.

Records available from the 2017 the Ghana statistical service survey, pegged the poverty rate of the Volta region at 33%, translating into one out of every three individual in the region living below the national poverty line.

It is for this reason that the 5.2 million dollar fund, according to Country Director of KOICA Yukyum Kim was a resource that could not have been used in a better way than the Better Life for Girls in Ghana project. The allocation by the Korea International Cooperation Agency is to support interventions in the Volta region particularly Krachi east district.

“…KOICA as an organization are trying to boost the gender equality and contribute to the improvement of mainstream gender issues in schools in our project……so that is why we came in to support the UNICEF Better Life for Girls programme with an amount of 5.2 million dollar”, that’s according to Country Director of KOICA, Yukyum Kim

“….We started in 2017 and it’s a three year program that will end in 2020”

Joynews’s interactions with some of the beneficiaries of the Better Life for Girls in the Yariga Number 2 M/A Basic School, revealed that many of the girls, prior to the programme were assisting their parents with their farm work, waiting for the day and time they will be given out to marriage

“…I have learnt to focus on my education and also stay away from any sexual relationship that will destroy my future”, says Nnyona Millicent, one of the benefiting girls.

UNICEF, KOICA and government of Ghana are optimistic the Better Life for Girls program will be expanded to cover more areas in the region and for that matter, the country, in order to offer broader opportunities for young girls and boys to explore their full potentials.