Help a Needy Child International (HANCI) – Teenage Girls Project (TGP)- has given hope to abandon teenage mothers in the eastern parts of Freetown by providing skills training and other educational materials for them.
Presenting millions of Leones worth of training materials to beneficiaries yesterday at HANCI’s Kissy-Bye Pass Road office, the TGP coordinator Mrs Cecelia Mansaray explained that the beneficiaries of the TGP which was being sponsored by Help and Homes for Children, UK (HHC) “are teenage mothers who have been abandoned by their parents as a result of their pregnancies; and female dropouts who have engaged the dehumanizing profession- prostitution.”
The reason for targeting teenage girls in the eastern part of Freetown, she explained, “is because this area is notorious for teenage pregnancy.”
The TGP coordinator emphasized that, “our operational area starts from Up Gun and ends at Old Wharf at Wellington,” adding that the project is a pilot project which started early this year with 50 teenage mothers.
Mrs Mansaray explained that HANCI was working towards helping needed children who “we provide with materials to help facilitate their learning and making them self reliant.”
The TGP coordinator further explained that apart from those trained at the HANCI centre they had also sponsored other teenage mothers who were now attending vocational schools where they were been taught gara-tie dyeing, catering and other skills.
Mrs Mansaray stated that apart from empowering teenage mothers through education, they also provided medical facilities for both teenage mothers and babies; daycare centre for their kids, and providing feeding and clothing for them as well.
In an interview with Awoko after the presentation, HANCI’s Regional Coordinator, Peter Brima Kargbo, explained that apart from counseling and training teenage mothers “we also train parents of teenage mothers to accept their daughters after their pregnancies.”
Mr Kargbo said, “we also empower parents by giving them grants to take care of their children”.