Engage Now Africa (ENA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has donated nose masks and hand sanitizers to the Asogli State and the Ho Municipal Hospital to help to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
The donation was part of activities to mark the World Literacy Day celebrations. The items were produced by beneficiaries of the NGO’s adult literacy programme.
Madam Cecilia Amankwa, the Country Director of ENA, said the coronavirus pandemic necessitated the production of essentials, which were being given out to support preventive measures in public places. “This year, because of the COVID-19 we shifted some of the training to liquid soap making, hand sanitizer and facemasks production.
They have been able to produce some quantity and want to donate to the Palace and the hospital,” she said. Madam Amankwa said the theme for this year’s celebration was “Literacy Teaching and Learning in the COVID-19 Crisis and beyond.”
She said the learners in the Volta Region had undertaken public education programmes in collaboration with the Ensign College of Public Health, and Health 2Go, within communities in the Ashanti, Eastern, and Volta Regions.
The NGO also embarked on cleanup exercises at Akoefe in the Ho Municipality, Amelorkope in Central Tongu District, and at Akatsi and Adafienu.
Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of Asogli State, commended the NGO for its exploits in adult literacy and called for an upgrade of its entrepreneurial skill component. He said beneficiaries must be trained in financial discipline and skills that would enable them to sustain their businesses to help address the daunting rate of unemployment in the country.
“Your training is not done until trainees could start their jobs. There you would make a big difference,” Togbe Afede said. Mr Francis Kobla Woma, the Volta Regional Supervisor of the ENA, said the NGO had about 3,000 adult learners in the six districts in the Region.
He said learners were trained for a year and a half in basic literacy skills to properly position them to acquire better livelihoods, and that ENA’s four-year operation in the Region had witnessed the tremendous transformation.
Engage Now Africa, in partnership with UNESCO Ghana and the Non-formal Education Division of the Ghana Education Service on September 3, launched this year’s International Literacy Day at Tomefa in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
GNA