Accra, Ghana, December 24, 2018//- SpreadAid International, a student based NGO that has its main focus on kids and youth and seeks to “Put smiles back on the faces”, is empowering the Ghanaian youth in spite of its limited resources.
Senior officials of SpreadAid International disclosed this in an interview with African Eye Report in Accra, Ghana.
Setting the tone for the discussion, a board member of Spread Aid International, Ms Mawuenam Priscilla Aheto said: “SpreadAid International undertakes various projects every year including visits to deprived communities, organizing conferences and seminars to build up its members and youth”.
One of the major projects of the NGO is “Project 5000” which looks at distributing exercise books , teaching and learning materials, playing materials, among others to schools and students in deprived communities in the country.
She added: “Under this project, we visit less privileged schools in the country, and provide them with basic teaching and learning tools to aid in their education.
We have been to 12 schools in nine regions of the country. And this year, we went to the Ashanti Region where we impacted the lives of over 1,000 students at a grand durbar”.
Even their parents were also impacted. We gave them books, refreshment, recreational tools including footballs, skipping ropes, hand-washing techniques. We also educated them on career choices relating to their talents, among others”.
And then, we recently went to a school in a village in Keta where we had to cross the river to reach the school and did similar activity there, the board member added.
So far, 12 schools throughout the nine regions out of 10 in the country have been visited and over 2,000 lives have been imparted, Ms Aheto disclosed.
Still on the education, she noted that the NGO has the Build the Child Today and Save for tomorrow conference which they organize for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which is the main examination to qualify students for admission into secondary and vocational schools in Ghana, and is written after three years of junior high school education.
The aim of the conference, according to Ms Aheto is to prepare the BECE candidates for the exams as well as life after the BECE.
“We organize this conference two consecutive times-one at Mallam and the other one at Ashaiman. Through these conferences, the performances of students have been improved since the conferences”.
For support for orphanages, Ms Aheto stated: “We also visit orphanages and give them basic equipment or materials that they need from foodstuffs, clothing to play materials, among others. As usual, we spend time with the kids and impart knowledge into them and encourage them to be good citizens of the country as well”.
Furthermore, she said: “We have Spread Talks which we organize for young entrepreneurs in Ghana. This year alone we had over 100 participants and it has been running for three years now, this year being the third year.
The first edition was in 2016, we had the second one in 2017, and then the third one in September this year where we had the like of Kafui Danku, actress coming onboard as speakers and other resourceful young entrepreneurs”.
So, that is basically about what we do. We also do collaborations. We collaborate with a number of individuals and institutions to undertake projects for the benefit of the youth”.
On his part, the Executive Director of SpreadAid International, Dzagbletey Faith Adabah Julius who elaborated more on the vision and mission of the NGO, said: We hope to unearth leaders through conferences, workshops and seminars aimed at bringing out the talents in the youth for self and national development”.
“We also hope to homing the ‘less privileged’ and Street children through visits to Children Homes to make donations and also spend time to communicate with them”.
Improving Teaching and Learning Methodologies in elementary schools through the use of inexpensive materials to make learning more practical and appreciable, is one of our objects, Mr Adabah stressed.
“The main aim of Spread Aid is that we believe in the youth. We believe that our future today and our future tomorrow depend on what we do for the young ones today”.
“We believe that when children are given the opportunity they can also make it in life.
Looking at the global vision, one important thing that we see is quality education because if we want to give our youth good healthcare, if you want to give them good food to eat-all that is important that we educate them as well”.
African Eye Report
