Secured Livelihood

Poverty is a problem governments all over the world are trying to reduce if not completely eradicate. The level of one’s education in a developing country like 

Ghana is to a large extent influenced by the poverty history of his or her family.

A brilliant child from a wealthy family could climb the academic ladder to the best of his ability. However, a brilliant child from a poor family may not be able to do that because of financial constraints. 

For such a child, that is the end of the road for him as far as his ability to secure a decent employment in future is concerned. Such persons become liabilities on society.

In Ghana for instance, the Junior High School was among other things aimed at equipping the pupils with some technical skills so that those who could not continue to the Senior High School could pursue technical education. Unfortunately, this policy has failed for two obvious reasons. 

To begin with, over ninety percent of the schools that must teach the technical skills do not have practical workshops, let alone the tools and equipment to teach. It is therefore not surprising that most of these pupils graduate from the Junior High Schools without seeing a “saw”. 

Secondly, most Ghanaians unfortunately look down on technical and vocational education. They think such courses are for the “not too brilliant”, “dull” or “academically poor students”. In the end, these same people who look down on vocational and technical education become dependent on society if they are not able to go beyond the Junior High School.

Some of them engage in all sorts of social vices including scamming or internet fraud, drug trafficking, armed robbery, prostitution and land guard activities (people hired by others to terrorise land developers).

Apart from the above problems, there are other inadequacies associated with the Ghanaian educational system. According to statistics available from the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), since 1998 up to date, an average of 38.99 percent of candidates who sit for the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) fail to get admission into Senior High Schools or Technical Schools because of poor grades. That is the end of their academic progression. Because at this stage they have not acquired any employable skills, they do not get any meaningful employment. They thus become a burden on society. This state of hopelessness can perpetuate their vulnerability and could even lead to an upsurge in criminal activities.

It is in view of this that “Free World Foundation” is soliciting support for its project dubbed “SECURED LIVELIHOOD”. The project is aimed at creating a spirit of independence and self-reliance among vulnerable people through promoting apprenticeships and facilitating the transfer of vocational life skills such as tailoring and dressmaking, carpentry and joinery, hairdressing, mechanical and electrical engineering and batik tie and dye making.

You can support this laudable initiative by sponsoring an apprentice or by donating refurbished tools to support this programme.

Please contact us by sending an e-mail to damghana@yahoo.com / freeworldghana@gmail.com  or by calling us on +233(0)24-452-9178 / +233(0)26-641-2241 / +233(0)20-871-9647  for the necessary arrangements. You can also visit our “SUPPORT US” page for instructions on how you could assist us.