Thank You, CCFC

It was some time ago that I wrote a story titled "ten year old dying slowly as a result of lump", on a boy called Abdul Gafaru Ibrahim. A year after, I have gone to check on how he is faring. "I felt so lonely and ugly", he says. "Now I am a very happy person'. "I was on top of the world when I learned that I would be able to have surgery. The possibilities for my life are so much better now, thanks to CCFC", says Abdul.

Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC) sponsored the surgery that was done on Gafaru.

Click below for full story.

http://jcnbayor.blogspot.com/2008/05/ten-year-old-dying-as-result-of-lump.html

Can Any Body Help?

These children of Tindang have no appropriate school roof over their heads. As a result, there is no school whenever it rains or when the sun is too high. See full story on http://jcnbayor.blogspot.com/2008/05/many-children-falling-out-of-loop-of.html

Christain Children's Fund of Canada (www.ccfcanada.ca) has provided numerous deprived kids with an opportunity to be in school by constructing appropiate structures for them.

It will cost about 22000 US dollars to construct a 3 class room block to accommodate over 120 children

It will cost an additional 4,900 US dollars to put up a Rain Water Harvesting Tank for use by the school children.

It will also cost 2,800 Us dollars to put in play equipment for the kids.

We are appealing to generous donors to come to the aid of the kids in Tindang to help them realise their right of education for all.

You can contact Christian Children Fund Canada in Ghana via email at infoghana@ccfcanada.ca or by phone on 002337122004.

CCFC Donates Drugs to Nine Districts in the NR

The Christian Children Fund of Canada (CCFC), an international NGO, has presented drugs worth 47, 762.6 Ghana cedis to schools, clinics and health institution in nine districts of the Northern Region.  The drugs included Albendazole for deworming 900,000 children and vitamins for 71,000 children.

 The drugs also included Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, Co-trimoxazole, Erythromycin, Chloramphenical, paracetamol among others; which went to Tolon/Kumbungu, Savelugu/Nanton, Gushiegu, Saboba, Yendi, East Gonja, Nanumba North and Nanumba South districts.

In an address the country Director of CCFC, Mrs Sanatu Nantogma, said CCFC is committed to assisting children, their families and communities. She added that they are committed to the fight against poverty by breaking the cycle and replacing it with the cycle of self-reliance. She said worms hinder the physical growth of children which inherently affects their ability to concentrate in school. Madam Sanatu said to improve school performances in the region there is the need to reduce worm infestation among children to enable them perform creditable in school.

The Northern Regional Director of Ghana Health Service, Dr. Akwasi Twumasi, said the donation will go a long way in improving the lives of the children. He expressed the hope that CCFC would get more support to the GHS to enable them de-worm children twice a year.  Dr. Twumasi urged the CCFC to consider extending their operations to the remaining 11 district in the region and called on the people of Tamale to maintain the culture of cleanliness whiles adding that adults should also de-worm more often in order to save the children from being re-infected after de-worming.

A Representative from the Ghana Education Service Hajia Zenabu Fuseini commended CCFC for the numerous interventions and support they have offered the GES. She said for the children to become responsible citizens in future they need sound education and can only achieve that if they are healthy. Hajia Zanabu thanked CCFC for the donation and called on beneficiary districts to quicken the process so that the children can be deworm in due course

CCFC builds Clinic for Kasuliyili Community

Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) in collaboration with its partner organization, Baptist Child Development Project (BCDP), has built a GH¢25,000 clinic for the people of Kasuliyili, a deprived farming community in the Tolon/Kumbungu district.

CCFC has also furnished the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound with beds, a fridge, cooking utensils, furniture and provided a Yamaha AG 200 motorbike at a total cost of about GH¢8,425 to help in its operation.

Six rain water harvesting tanks were also been built for the community amounting to about GH¢28,000 to serve more than 6,458 community members as a means of fighting guinea worm.

Mrs Sanatu Nantogmah, Country Director of CCFC speaking at the commissioning ceremony of the projects, pledged her outfit’s determination to work and reduce poverty and disease from deprived communities.

She said the CHPS compound and the six rain water harvesting tanks were sponsored single-handedly by one Francisca Young, a Canadian philanthropist and a board member of CCFC in Canada.

The Country director said CCFC in Northern Region was working with five local partners aimed at improving the living standards of the people and indicated that CCFC would create a future of hope for children.

Dr Akwasi Twumasi, Northern Regional Director of Health Services, who jointly cut the tape to commission the clinic, said the Ghana Health Services in the region was losing a lot of motorbikes through armed robberies and stressed the importance of community surveillance as effective ways of protecting property.

Madam Francesca Young, the philanthropist said more efforts were being put in place to source funding to help construct more of such compounds for other needy communities to solve their health and water needs.

 

 

 

 

 

Many Children Falling Out of the Loop of Free Education

It is the dream of every child to live life to the fullest, but some children may miss this full life because of the predicament which they find themselves. It is the policy of Ghana Government to make basic education free and compulsory for every Ghanaian child of school going age but this does not seem to apply to some categories of children. Again, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has a right to decent education but some children seem to have fallen out of the loop of this basic right. Moreover, Millennium Development Goal 2 aims at achieving universal primary education but this goal may never be attained if nothing is done for some children.

Indeed policies, privileges, rights and goals on children seem to only work depending on where a child finds him/her self. Those unfortunate to find themselves in certain conditions are not covered. Indeed, one unfortunate child is ten year old Muanla Bubunte who lives with her grandmother in Tindang village. She has lived for the past three years with her 90 year old granny, Bayelnang Poangye in their two room cottage in the middle of the village. Bayelnang comes from Saagong village but came to live in Tindang about nine years ago because of “poverty”.

Their cottage itself is nothing to write home about because it comprises two small huts made of mud and roofed with thatch; very symptomatic of absolute poor people. Muanla does not go to school, although she is of school going age and so her right to education is denied. “I would like to go to school just like other children do but I don’t have the opportunity. I want to go to school so that I can help myself in future. If I go to school, I would achieve my dream of becoming a nurse one day”, she says.

According to Muanla’s granny, Bayelnang, she needs Muanla at home to help with the household chores and to go to the farm to get some food because she has not got the strength to take care of herself. She adds that, even if she has the strength to take care of herself, she still does not have the money to put her grand daughter in school.

This is confirmed by Muanla who declares that “when I wake up every morning, the first thing I do is to go and fetch some water for the house. After that I prepare to go to the farm. Sometimes I have to travel for as far as two or three miles on foot to get to a farm. On the farm, I help the owners of the farm to harvest their crops or weed their crops in return for food or money. If I don’t do this, my grand mother and I will starve”.

On the idea of letting her grand daughter go to school, Bayelnang reveals that she is more than willing to let Muanla go to school because if she goes to school she will learn how to read and write so that she can identify the prices of items. This will prevent them from being cheated.

Another child who finds himself in a similar situation as Muanla is six year old Nilignatab Nasaam. He lives in Tindang with his father, Mwanyindo, mother, Pichaan, two brothers Konja (10 years) and Bidangma (8 years) and sister Bindinte (12 years). Unlike Muanla, Nilignatab is fortunate to be in school along with his two brothers but his sister is so unlucky as not to be in school. According to their father, Bidinte is not in school because she needs to help her mum, who is old and not strong, at home. However, Bidinte discloses that “I want to go to school like my two brothers. I also want to learn how to read and write”.

Unlike his senior brothers who are able to attend Gnani Primary school, located a little farther from Tindang community, Nilignatab is compelled as a result of distance, to attend Tindang nursery school which is located within Tindang community. He can not go to school in Gnani because he is too young to travel the distance. Whereas Gnani primary school is well endowed in terms of infrastructure and human resources (teachers), Tindang nursery school is a sorry state.

“I wish my school was as nice as the school in Gnani”, says Nilignatab, “then I would be happy to attend school every day”. His school does not deserve to be called a school at all. It is more of a death trap than a school building because the thatched roof has a gaping hole in it. As a result, the children do not go to school when ever it rains. It is a one class room space surrounded with savanna mat and which shelters about 96 children, comprising 59 boys and 37 girls. It is absolutely against the rights of these little children to be crammed into such a ram shackled shelter for a class room.

In Tindang itself, there are about 201 children of school going age, of which 85 are boys and 116 are girls. About 40 percent of the children in Tindang are not in school and majority of them are girls. Again, about 80 percent of the children in school are boys and the remining number are girls. Additionally, about 30 percent of the children in school attend school in Gnani and 70 percent attend Tindang nursery school.

It is no surprise that these interesting statistics emerge from Tindang community. It is a community located within the larger community of Gnani, which has a total population of about 4010 within about 550 households. Tindang itself has a population of about 1198 people within over 120 households. The staple food of the people is Tuo Zaafi (a local maize meal) and their main occupation is peasant farming. The major ethnic groups in Tindang are the Dagombas and Konkombas.

Majority of the inhabitants in Tindang are women and children and most of the women are aged above 50. Out of a female population of about 821, about 300 are aged above 50. Moreover, most of these older women have no surviving spouse. The community itself is referred to as Tindang Witches Village but ideally it should be referred to as Tindang old women’s Home/community. Because of the name attached to the village, the inhabitants face a lot of stigmatization, humiliation, segregation, indignity, isolation and vulnerability. Women, aged between 50 and 65 who have no surviving spouse are usually accused of having ‘witchcraft’ and excommunicated to a village such as Tindang to be ‘cleansed’ of their supposed witchcraft. Thus they are treated as outcasts along with all those who associate with them including their grand children. A large majority of these unfortunate widows live in compound houses comprising two small huts built with mud and roofed with thatch. Their grand children, mostly girls, are sent by their relatives to live with them in order to serve them because of their frailty. As a result, very few of these children have the opportunity to attend school.

CCFC is planning to come to the aid of these unfortunate women and children of Tindang with a child alert project in order to ensure that they enjoy a life worth living. This means ensuring that all the children of Tindang not only have access to education but also have a decent environment in which to learn. It also means empowering the older women to enable them send their wards to school.

Malaria Kills a Child Every Thirty Seconds

The Country Director of the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada CCFC, Mrs. Sanatu Nantogma has said that her organization is dedicated to the fight against Malaria especially among Pregnant Women and Children less than five years.

She said “malaria kills a child in every thirty seconds, while five hundred million people are infected and over 1 million die out of the disease per year”, adding that “it is the vision and strife of CCFC and our partners worldwide to create a future of hope for all children”.
Mrs. Nantogma said these at a durbar to mark World Malaria Day at Kasuliyili in the Tolon Kunbungu District. World Malaria Day is celebrated annually, on every 25th April, in order to provide education and understanding of malaria as a global scourge that is preventable and is curable. The burden of malaria is heaviest in sub-Saharan Africa but the disease also afflicts Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and even parts of Europe.
World Malaria day is an opportunity for malaria-free countries to learn about the devastating consequences of the disease and for new donors to join a global partnership against malaria. It is an opportunity for international partners, companies and foundations to showcase their results and reflect together on how to scale up what has been proven to work. This is thus a day in which organisations tell their own chapters of the powerful malaria story; a story of triumph and struggle; a story that grabs the world's attention to point it to the heart of the problem and engage the global community in becoming part of the solution.
The Country Director said together with five partners; Assemblies of God Relief and Development Services AGREDS; Markaz Al Bashara; Tuma Kavi Development Association; Presbyterian Farmers Training Programme and the Ghana Baptist Convention, in nine districts in the Northern Region, CCFC hopes to transform impoverished neighborhoods into fully functioning sustainable communities through continuing the fight against malaria.

She said CCFC and their partners have been fighting against Malaria through residual spraying, distribution of Insecticide Treated Bed Nets, anti-malaria drug therapy, construction of soak-aways, clean up exercises and advocacy programmes.

The durbar was attended by the Regent and people of Kasuliyili, a representative each of the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, CHRAJ, World Vision Ghana and the Ghanaian Danish Community Programme in Tolon Kumbungu District.

In an address presented on behalf of the District Chief Executive, Wahab Suhuyini Wumbei, a principal local government inspector of the Tolon Kunbugu district, Abdulai Zakaria indicated that six thousand two hundred and fifty eight Ghana Cedis from the District Assemblies Common Fund has been allocated to support various malaria programmes.

Mr. Wunbei said ten thousand Ghana Cedis from the Assemblies own internally generated funds are being spent in Environmental Health and Sanitation programmes for this year alone. He cautioned Communities to take preventive measures against malaria saying; “prevention is always better than cure”.

Rain Water Harvesting changes the life of a Child

Thirteen year old Sherifa Dawuda of Dapkemyili in the Presbyterian Farmers’ Training and Child Development Program (PFTCDP) no longer has to worry about waking up at 4 am in the morning to start looking for water. She can now sleep to the fullest before preparing for school every morning.

She has clean water right in her home and so she does not need to walk for a mile in order to fetch unwholesome water from the community dam. The class four pupil of Dakpemyili Presbyterian Primary School is happy to have a Rain Water Harvesting Tank (RWHT) built for her family by CCFC and PFTCDP.

“I don’t have to worry about waking up early to go the dam to fetch water. Every day when I wake up, I go straight to the tank to fetch water for the home and then there is enough time left for me to prepare for school”, she says. “I am no longer to school and so my academic work is improving’, she adds.

The family of 9 comprising the father, Dawuda Napari who is a farmer, the mother, Grunpaka Dawuda, a petty trader and five other children are very glad that CCFC has come to their rescue. Grunpaka reveals that “I spend less time looking for water now a days so I now use the time that I have for profitable economic ventures. My family no longer has any water related health problems so we don’t have to spend my little income on hospital bills anymore. Not only does the water harvested from rain taste very nice but it has prevented any of us from getting guinea worm. Guinea worm used to be our main health problem but now it is a thing of the past.

Dawuda recalls that before the RWHTs were provided, the water from their community dam used to dry up most of the times so they had to travel long distances in search of water which wasted a lot of time. Now they have clean water all year round and no more vomiting and nausea emanating from drinking unwholesome water from the community dam. He states that because there is clean water available, all his five children are now in school.