The project, which would be piloted in 25 communities in the district, is being implemented by the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) a non-governmental organization with funding from Star-Ghana, a pool of donor resources.

This was made known at a meeting of various stakeholders including traditional and opinion leaders of the various communities, special education teachers from the education directorate and officers of the social and community development at Akropong.

The theme for the meeting was: “Increase the effectiveness of citizen’s influence for change that advance democracy, accountability and social inclusion”.

Mrs Joyce Larnyoh, the Country Director of ICDP, in an interview with GNA, said the project objective is to empower marginalized children within the project communities to help them learn some useful vocation.

Additionally, she said, the project would also be addressing issues of parents with children with disabilities by engaging them and supporting them to ensure that such children were not marginalized in the community.

She said the inclusive education policy stipulates that children with disability and special education needs are entitled to be in the main stream education, except those with special cases who will be referred to the special schools; however, this is not the accurate situation on the ground.

Mrs Larnyoh said under the project, the capacity of stakeholders particularly teachers would be enhanced for them to appreciate prevailing trends on how to support children with special education needs in the classroom.

Madam Rose Offei, the Head of Special Education at the Presbyterian College of Education, said sign language is critical in ensuring that the hearing impaired had access to education and healthcare.

She said her outfit would support the project by providing free sign language tuition teachers in the public sector and other social workers in the implementing communities to enable them communicate effectively with people in need.