The President of Ghana, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills (centre)meeting Plan Ghana staff

4 June 2009: The President of Ghana, Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, has praised Plan’s management and staff for their good work during a visit to Plan Ghana’s offices in Tumu.

Plan Ghana was the only non-governmental organisation the president visited in both Sissala East and West as part of his tour of the 3 northern regions to see what needs to be done on the ground.

Highly commended

This visit shows that Plan’s work is highly recognised by the government and President Atta-Mills’ visit was designed to find out more about the programmes Plan runs in Ghana. After being briefed by programme manager, Richard Boadu, the president said:

“I am very happy for the good work Plan Ghana is doing in this area to uplift the living standards of children and their families. I commend you highly for that. I hope you will keep it up and possibly expand your programme to cover more districts in the region. Keep the good work up Plan Ghana.”

School enrolment boost

Among Plan’s notable achievements over the years is the increase in school enrolment figures from 60% to 95% due to a collaborative partnership with 300 communities to improve 180 school facilities in rural areas. In remote communities, conditions have been improved with increased access to useable water from 27% in 2003 to 73% in 2008.

Plan has also been instrumental in the facilitation of scholarships to more than 3,000 students, training of more than 1,000 teachers in rural areas and also spear-headed a birth registration drive with registration jumping from 17 % in 2003 to 62% in 2008.

Pioneering work

Plan Ghana has also pioneered the participation of children in international programmes including the Commonwealth games in Australia in 2005 and UN Session on Children 2006. Plan also engineered the sponsorship of 6 child ambassadors to the US.

Plan started operations in Ghana in 1992 in the Bawjiase programme area and now operates directly in 5 regions of the country.