Norsaac, a civil society organisation (CSO), has engaged officials from the Planning Unit of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council to enlighten them on the concept of its Promoting Adolescent Safe Spaces (PASS) project, in Tamale.

The engagement also brought together representatives from state institutions working in the area of children and adolescents welfare, including, the Ghana Health Services, Ghana Education Service, and the Department of Social Welfare.

It was meant to persuade participants to adopt the concept of the PASS project in their activities, and also seek their collaboration to successfully implement the project to help enhance the well-being of young people in its operational areas.

The PASS project is a five-year project which begun in 2019 and sought to roll out interventions that would aid the growth and development of young people to help them realise their potentials.

It is being implemented in 15 communities each in Kpandai and Tolon, and 10 communities in the Tatale-Sanguli districts of the Northern Region, 10 communities each in the West Mamprusi and Mamprugu Moagduri districts of the North East Region as well as 10 communities in Bole District of the Savannah Region.

It is jointly funded by UNFPA and UNICEF through their Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage and offers a framework for promoting the rights of girls to delay marriage, addressing the conditions that keep the practice in place, and caring for girls already married.

Madam Nancy Yeri, Girls and Female Empowerment Manager at Norsaac, who made a presentation on the PASS project, said it focuses on enabling girls at risk of child marriage to choose and direct their future and support households to demonstrate positive attitudes towards adolescents girls.

“It aims at strengthening the systems that deliver services to adolescent girls by seeking to ensure laws and policies that protect and promote adolescent girls' rights are strictly enforced”, she noted.

She said since its inception, the project had carried out various strategies, including Girl Led Programming, Boys Supportive Programming, Mural Painting Strategy, I care for adolescent strategy, and Girls Network strategy.

These, she added, were geared towards enhancing the livelihoods of young people in the implementing regions.

Madam Yeri, therefore, encouraged participants to adopt the concept of the PASS project in their activities to complement their efforts in achieving the social wellbeing of young people.

She said, “For us at Norsaac, we have worked on these modules and have achieved some desirable results, and we believe that when these institutions pick up these concepts they could provide the necessary support to our young people”.

Participants at the meeting commended Norsaac for undertaking the project and said they would collaborate with the CSO and work together to address challenges that affect the overall growth and development of adolescents.