The Baobab Children Foundation has marked its 20th Anniversary with a call on parents to have a paradigm shift towards vocational training and technical education.
This paradigmatic shift would ensure that more qualified Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) graduates would gladly accept vocational education, which would enable them to be self-employed after school.
Delivering a speech during the ceremony, the Founder, Madam Edith de Vos, explained that the focus of the Foundation was to empower the less privileged in society.
She said: “We are creating jobs; we are empowering the less privileged; we train them and help them to take care of themselves and their families.”
She added that the initiative was also helping the communities within their catchment areas, where almost all the student who come to the centre for training hailed from.
Call for government’s support
Madam Edith appealed for government support for the Foundation, by helping with teaching, learning and training materials, as well as the provision of food for the students.
Income generating activities
She disclosed that the Foundation had embarked upon a social business at the Baobab House in Cape Coast to generate enough funds to support the school.
According to her: “We have started Baobab Adepa Organic Farms to train people to promote organic farming and to get income, through selling Moringa powder from our 20,000 trees in Ghana, as well as abroad.”
The Foundation, which is in the process of securing organic certification, plants organic vegetables for sale, and also supply the Baobab Restaurant and the school kitchen with healthy vegetables.
Baobab’s CSR.
The Administrator of the Foundation, Alhaji Issaka, stated that since its inception, the Foundation had immensely contributed to the communities in its catchment areas.
He said Baobab, as a responsible institution, offered support in the areas of health, environment and education, through its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) policy.
He continued that Baobab had financed the education of a lot of pupils in both private and public schools at the first and second cycles to the tertiary levels.
“I am particularly glad to say that some of them have completed their tertiary education, while others are at various levels,” Alhaji Issaka stated.
He added: “I am extremely happy to announce that those who opted for apprenticeship have all become master craftsmen, who are training others.”
The ceremony, which was attended by chiefs, opinion leaders and government functionaries, was also used to graduate those who had successfully completed their courses.
Background
A German woman, Edith de Vos, who has over 25 years teaching experience, established the Baobab Children Foundation in 2001.
It is meant to provide financial support to the needy but brilliant pupil who desperately need material and financial supports in both the public and private schools within the Kissi and Kwahinkrom communities.
It eventually became a school with a desire to create avenues for the less privileged to make a good living through quality vocational training.
As a non-formal vocational inclusive school, the Baobab School for ‘Trade and Arts’ trains illiterate youth, early school dropouts, and those who are physically challenged to acquire employable skills.
