ACTION PLUS TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE GROUPS (PAGE 11)

Action Plus Foundation (APF), a Christian non-governmental organisation (NGO), is to support vulnerable groups and individuals in the Tema metropolis with GH¢20,000 in the next six months to undertake viable projects.
Speaking at the first anniversary celebration of the organisation which coincided with the inauguration of the Tema branch, the Chief Executive, Reverend Fred Osei Anim, said the project would entail organising training programmes for young women in employable skills.
He said the foundation would also train beneficiaries in entrepreneurial skills and support them to set up small-scale businesses to empower them economically.
According to Rev. Anim, the foundation is working in partnership with the Ghana AIDS Commission to support educational programmes to effect behavioural change among sexually active people to avoid risky lifestyles.
He said as a Christian organisation, the foundation was committed to addressing issues on poverty, unemployment, education and supporting the campaign against HIV/AIDS.
Rev. Osei Anim said a number of young women in Ghana had migrated from rural communities to the urban centres to search for unavailable jobs and, therefore, ended up in the streets, adding that there was the need for programmes to cater for the interest of such people.
He added that it was necessary to save them from engaging in anti-social vices that endangered their lives.
He hinted that research by some social scientists had established that a number of these disadvantaged women were single mothers who could not afford to provide education for their children hence their children engaging in child labour.
Rev. Anim explained that the foundation would initiate programmes to support the women on the streets to train them in fashion designing, batik making, baking and cookery, hairdressing and computing.
He indicated that disadvantaged children aged between three and 18 would be given scholarships and appealed to churches to get involved in such projects to make them successful.
Rev. Anim said the foundation had been involved in fund-raising activities to support its projects and appealed for support from philanthropists, public-spirited individuals and organisations.