I Made It begins with a selection process, after which students go through various training levels and need to MAKE IT to each level. In 2020 for example, we selected twelve (12) students in their first year to join the programme. By the third year, only six (6) had Made It to the tertiary level. 

 

Georgina, who belongs to the third cohort of the programme and is currently a BSc midwifery student at the Presbyterian University, shared her experience; “The selection process was not easy. We went through a series of exercises to nurture and shape our lives, and I am privileged to MAKE IT to this level.”

 

Character building lessons, community services, vacation literacy skills and educational trips are four modules governing the I Made It programme. Although we have managed to take the girls in each cohort through most of the programmes, the three years at the SHS level is not enough for the students.

 

It is for this reason and many more that we have decided to start the programme at the basic education level. At the basic level, many pupils drop out of school due to poverty or prevailing circumstances in their environment. 

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Sardia, a female porter (Kaya yoo in the local dialect) at the Mallam Atta market in Accra is 24 and already a mother of three children. She lamented, “When I was a child, I was eager to complete my basic school education, but I dropped out of school to be married off to an older man because my parents could not afford my education.” She is currently unable to continue with her work as a female market porter because she has to stay at home to take care of one of her children who is disabled.

 

Christabel is 9 years old. Her single mother leaves the house at 2am each morning to sell sachet water at bus terminals. She has to make some money to give it to Christabel and her siblings before they can go to school in the morning. This disrupts their education because the day she does not get the required amount, they would not be able to go to school. 

 

Sometimes, the girl child in such circumstances, falls prey to unscrupulous men, young and old, who engage them with sex for pittance. They end up getting pregnant as early as in class six and drop out of school.

 

To help tackle these issues, SFCG is now working with selected children in three basic schools in two fishing communities in Accra, Ghana.

Due to insufficient funds, we have selected only few children to take them through the I Made It programme. They will be mentored, nurtured and empowered to be resilient, responsible, resourceful and responsible for at least six years before they follow their DREAMS to tertiary institutions.