Accra, July 13, GNA – Read for Wealth Ghana, a Ghanaian non-profit organization, would by the end of this year construct a school that would educate porters, popularly known as ‘Kayaye’ and their children in Accra.
“So far we have registered about 700 and provided them with identification cards, introduced them to banking and carry out periodic health screening on them.” Mr. Richard Asante, Chief Executive Officer of the organization, told the GNA, after one of their health screening sessions. He said the situation where some politicians capitalized on their plight to score political points was unacceptable. “When you call these poor girls and provide them with one meal a day for three months or more do you expect them to be better off in life?” he asked.
“That practice, which is becoming trendy, must stop.” Most of the young girls you see as porters could move on to do better jobs for a living, given the needed push, he noted, explaining, “that is why my outfit is not leaving them after providing them with meals, but doing everything possible to ensure their safety and care.” Mr. Asante said his outfit had also acquired a place to educate the porters on job creation and apprenticeship. Their accounts are with the Amalgamated Bank, he said, stressing, we would soon enrol them in school to learn how to handle their trades and provide free education for their children. “There is the need to give education to their children, who are unaware of the plight of their mothers, to make them useful citizens in the future.” He said in the interim, his outfit had arranged with the various nurseries where the children of the porters would be schooled until their school was ready. They have also negotiated with the Madina Health Centre to register them under the National Health Insurance scheme where they would be offered free medical treatment.
