The Northern Region has undoubtedly the highest illiteracy rate in the country. Among the reasons for the inevitable record of ignorance poverty and inadequate teaching and learning facilities at most communities in the area. It is to reverse this lamentable situation that the Regional Advisory, Information and Network Systems (RAINS), a Tamale based NGO, in collaboration with HOPE for Children, a United Kingdom charity organisation are complementing the government’s efforts to brighten the future of poor children in the area through the provision of teaching and learning materials. According to the country representative of HOPE, Madam Mahamadu Azara, her outfit had for the past five years collaborated with RAINS to extend services including relief efforts to a number of community based organisations, women’s groups and other excluded sections of the society. Madam Azara who was speaking during a presentation of school uniforms to some deprived pupils at Savelugu, also mentioned the provision of teaching materials such as books, school sandals and uniforms, recreational facilities and the paying of school fees as some of the interventions in the education sector. “We have also offered income generating activities for over 400 under privileged women, supplied artificial limps. Paid hospital bills and supported orphanages among other interventions,” she revealed. Other activities include workshops on child rights, violence against women, HIV/AIDS sensitization, human trafficking, environmental protection and sanitation. Madam Azara stated that last year alone, the organisation spent 385 million cedis on the development projects in 65 needy beneficiary communities in the country. “We believe that investing in the welfare of children and women represents an important investment any nation can make,” she explained. Madam Azara added that HOPE also held the conviction that effective and appropriate safety net schemes would extend hope and opportunities to several excluded groups, including orphaned and destitute children. The programme manager of RAINS, Alhassan Musah said over the years, his organisation had invested much in education to improve on the dismally low enrolment of girls in schools and the high drop out rate of children. Source: Daily Graphic