Volunteer- Put a smile on a face!

Curious Minds- Ghana has for 16 years worked with young people to advocate the rights and well-being of children and youth. The organization’s work is mainly media driven with a strong emphasis on Capacity Building, Advocacy, and Communication within a well-developed organization focusing on the Local, Regional and National levels.  Curious Minds-Ghana believes in the ability and resourcefulness of young people to meaningfully contribute to issues related to their development.

“Curious Minds Central Region Chapter in Action”

In a bid to continue to ensure Children in deprived communities are supported in their academic work, the organization started an initiative to draw volunteers, mainly from SHS, Universities and Colleges of Education- from around Ghana to be part of the team teaching in these communities; the first move was successful in August 2011-thanks to all who joined in!

“Image from last years School-Outreach, Volunteer in Action”

Join us in our resolve to help create an enabling world for all children through volunteering with us this August as we complement the efforts of teachers to enhance their academic capacity.

“Volunteer in Action”

Steps to be a volunteer:
1. Cick on this link www.cmwestern.webs.com/apps/documents/

2. Scroll down to the buttom of the page, spot document and click on Download (68 KB)

3. Fill the download form online with Microsoft Word,

4. Send the filled form to curiousmindstadi@hotmail.com

WE ARE READY TO WELCOME YOU ABOARD HIS PROJECT!!! THANK YOU!!

Exercise books and other items are also welcomed… no offer is too small!

 

Dream, Engage, Hold-A-Hand, Inspire!

I found myself in Kodwo Brumpon’s car after a call heading for a school in Sakumono…Interesting, I had only heard about this great guy and his initiative in just a day from my very good friend Afiyo. what moved me- his concept was unique and was one i could relate to so much… As I grew i needed someone i could look to for words of encouragement and nurturing- YES I DID! Sad i had very few who gave me little time… what if it was consistent? what if I was empowered earlier to understand that challenges were merely tests to prepare you for higher tasks and more…

Volunteering with Hold a Hand

Hold-a-hand is a structured (school based) mentoring programme to connect our nation’s young person’s with responsible and caring adults (mentors), who will listen to them, stand by them, inspire and guide them to bring out the best in them.

In an interview with Kodwo Brumpon, I gathered that…

“…We know there are huge numbers of young persons – JHS and SHS students – out there who do not have any positive role models in their lives. They need and they crave such mentors and role models to help them shape their world view positively. They need positive and supportive adults to serve as friends and role models. They need them to tell them about life; they need you to tell them about the whats, the whys and the hows.

And unless we take action – unless we stand up and step up and engage and inspire the young persons of our nation, there are a countless number of them who will never realize their full talent and potential. And to ensure that, we need to surround our children with adults who would make them hungry for the best things in life, touch their hearts and nourish their souls.”

A Volunteer takes a Pic with Proteges

“And so, every week during the school term, hold-a-hand sends adults into schools to engage and provide the younger generation with inspiration, friendship, and any kind of support that would build them up. Each adult spends a maximum on an hour in the classroom.

All we ask of any adult is to spend an hour in a classroom interacting and inspiring the younger generation to aspire for the highest heights. We want adults who go into the classroom to talk about subjects and issues that would help the young ones unearth, attain and fulfill their purpose in life. Their presence and words are what can change a young person’s perception of life. It can make a positive difference in not just the life of a young person, but also our nation. And in the process, they would be building and strengthening youth leadership skills.”

“We believe these adults can also help connect them with resources and structured activities to help build them up. Adult engagement with the young persons can make a real difference in their self-esteem, ability to communicate and decision-making skills.”

The objectives are to expose young persons to as many professions and opportunities as abounds in our society and to build and strengthen their social and leadership skills.

Natasha Mann-Dedey a volunteer Mentor pose for shot

Hold-A-Hand targets public schools… Any public school as long as they grant us permission to come in… Our present catchment areas are Sakumono, Lashibi, Klagoon, Nungua, Teshie and Mateheko; and any school we find along the way… They are usually named after the communities…

We believe the aspirations of the young ones change positively the more they interact with adults from different backgrounds… But more importantly, they see to need to actually strive to find solutions to challenges instead of simply wanting to pursue a certain profession…

Join in from anywhere… get in touch with Hold-a-hand,

MOB: +233206350734

e-mail: info@hold-a-hand.org

org website: hold-a-hand.org

I urge you to support Kodwo and his team in every way possible to sustain this initiative…

Go ahead- take that step- Dream, Engage, Inspire!

 

Law Enforcement Agencies Equipped On Child Labour

A regional workshop to promote collaboration, coordination and networking for national level law enforcement agencies on child labour opened yesterday in Accra.

The purpose is to build capacity of law enforcement agencies and equip them on existing laws that protect the rights of children especially from child labour.

In a statement by Mr. Stephen McClelland, Chief Technical Advisor of the ILO-Ghana, he stated that data available indicated that one of every five children in the nation was a child labourer. He mentioned that Child Labour was reducing in some parts of the world but increasing in West Africa. He was hopeful that the training will go a long way to equip the agents and their agencies to contribute more towards reducing incidents of child labour in Ghana.

Mr. Eric Okrah (child protection Specialist), took participants through many of the legal frameworks; Local and International- binding Ghana, the ILO conventions 138 and 182, Criminal Offences Act, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, The African Charter on the rights and Welfare of the Child and others. He advocated the strengthening of enforcement agencies on Children’s rights. He noted that Ghana had many good policies and we needed to bridge the gap between ratifying and implementing, since it was a great challenge to the nation. He also mentioned the need to resource enforcement agencies and make provision for them in budgetary allocations.

Mr. Atukwei Sam Quaye, Cordinator of the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring System also introduced participants to the system of Monitoring, Identifying, preventing, rescuing and rehabilitating children in some Child Labour prone areas, He took participants briefly through the process of collecting data, processing and analyzing and producing information on their monitoring, he also shared best practices and successes chalked over the years. He noted that the system had challenges and that they were being worked on especially at the data collection level.

Mrs. Elizabeth Akanbombire of the Child Labour Unit of Labour Department, under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare presented concepts, incidence and child labour interventions in Ghana. She stated that Generic, Economic and Environmental Factors strongly determined and influenced the development of Children. She stated that Children acquire skills and a sense of responsibility that enhances their future as they do light work and entreated all to note the difference, and that Child labour “…is work performed by a person below age 18, which deprives the person his/her basic human rights and is abusive, hazardous, exploitative and harmful to the health, safety and development of the Child”. She shared estimates of Children in Labour, 2,474,545 children engaged in economic activities, 1,273,294 are engaged in child labour and 242,074 are engaged in hazardous work (according Ghana’s last Child Labour Survey in 2003).

Source: @instantmediagh

: www.instantmediagh.com