Police Church Begins Volunteer Programme


Rev. C/Supt. Frank D. Twum Baah Chaplain of the Ghana Police Church Accra counseling school children on the need to be respectful, law-abiding and studious .

The Ghana Police Church, Accra has rolled out a year-long volunteer programme dubbed, Volunteer50.

Under the programme, individual members of the church are challenged to live out the church’s motto: ‘Love and Help Each Other,’ and perform 50 cumulative hours or more of volunteer services during the anniversary year.

To begin this volunteer initiative, some members of the church, led by the Chaplain, Very Rev. Chief Supt. Frank D. Twum-Baah, visited the Special Attention Project (SAP), a non-profit organization and the Amrahia Community School, an International Needs Ghana (INGH) sponsored programme, all in Accra.

Briefing members of the church, Ishmael Hammond and Evans Perry-Quao, Social Workers at SAP, said SAP was established seven years ago to identify and offer support to street children with specific learning difficulties such as Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Dyspraxia and Autism through individualized education in mathematics, reading, writing and spelling.

The children are also given computer and practical lessons to explore their talents in vocations such as beadmaking and bakery and are given two square meals a day while at the Child Support Centre.

The Founder and Project Coordinator, Margaretha Ubels, a Dutch, who has lived in Ghana for 14 years, said she realized that knowledge of Special Learning Disabilities in Ghana was minimal.

She was also touched by the plight of children, who through no fault of theirs, ended up on the streets as a result of the special learning disabilities.

She therefore established SAP to create awareness on other forms of disabilities apart from the traditional disabilities (physical disoooobilities, hearing and vision loss) and to reintegrate neglected children with such conditions into their families and schools.

Through its awareness programmes, SAP has advocated an All Inclusive Education Policy to inculcate other forms of learning difficulties into the Ghanaian educational curriculum. This is yet to be passed into law.

Madam Ubels appealed to the general public to support the organization either in cash or kind.

At the Amrahia Community School, Comfort Takyi, Senior Programme Officer and Joyce Odame, Programme Manager for Child Rights at International Needs Ghana (INGH), said INGH established the school in 1993 as part of their programmes to support children living in deprived communities.

Some interventions of INGH for the school include provision of trained and graduate teachers, text books and a subsidized school feeding programme.

They mentioned the lack of potable water, computers and a fence wall as some challenges of the school and appealed for support.

Members toured the school’s premises and interacted with staff and pupils.

The Very Rev. Chief Supt. Twum-Baah advised the children to be respectful, law-abiding and studious.

The Ghana Police Church, Accra, as part of measures to give back to society, intends to support SAP, INGH and other organizations through volunteer activities and donations through out the year.

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