VOCATIONAL TRANING & HEALHCARE 4 30TEENAGE MOTHERS

The Savannah Kids Education Project was started by Oluu Mahamadu. He got the idea after several years of volunteering in orphanages and social service programs where he developed an understanding of the needs of children growing up in impoverished families. The program began as a means of linking children who had been forced to work on the streets in order to eat, with families in developed countries who would sponsor them through school. The program helps to pay the children’s school fees and affords them an allowance for food, so they no longer have to work to eat. The program also promotes frequent correspondence between the family and the sponsored child.

Oluu has done a good job of keeping the organization progressive but has begun to understand that the reason the children are forced to work it because their families are unable to generate enough income to support them. Therefore, in November he is launching a micro credit program to the organization to enable the mothers to start businesses and teach them about savings and financial planning so they can prosper and independently support their families. S.K.E.P. also works with volunteers, placing them with various educational organizations, such as a vocational rehabilitation center for disabled people and a local school for the deaf in an effort to offer support to these marginalized populations. The organization is a good example of taking a progressive and evolving approach to the complicated issues of poverty.

Denise and four other In-the-Field Travelers are currently in Ghana before they are making their way to Mali and Burkina Faso. They'll be visiting more than 30 GlobalGiving projects in the next month. Follow their adventures at http://itfwa.wordpress.com/.