Bolgatanga, Nov 2, GNA - ActionAid Ghana, an NGO working with the poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice, on Tuesday pledged to continue working with the people of the Upper East Region in the next five years.

At the Regional Launch of its 20th anniversary celebrations in Bolgatanga on the theme "ActionAid Ghana, 20 years fighting poverty together," Mr James Kusi-Boama, the Regional Programme Manager, said the mission of the NGO was to work with the poor and excluded to eradicate poverty and injustice.

He said there were still people in the Region who went to bed hungry, women and children who faced all forms of violence every day, people living with HIV/AIDS and a degrading environment that threatened survival.

ActionAid had for the past 20 years worked in education, health, agriculture and helping women and children fight for justice and the eradication of traditional practices that affected them, he said.

The NGO has built 34 schools, three nurses' quarters, one clinic, two teachers' quarters, seven dams, 22 grain and seed banks, three tube wells, six KVIP toilets and provided seven grinding mills for women's groups in the region.

It trained 140 volunteer teachers under its Rural Education Volunteer Scheme, to teach in schools that had less than the required number of teachers.

Mr Kusi-Boama said the NGO was bringing positive changes in the lives of the people it worked with.

She said the annual girls' camp had changed the lives of over thousand girls by exposing them to the possibilities of what they could achieve with hard work, focus on their education and dreams for the future.

Mr Kusi-Boama said in agriculture, the NGO had supported over 7,00 farmers with seed to improve food security, provided 17 communities with grain banks, donkey carts and ploughs for 46 farmer groups, and trained and supported many more farmers with logistics to adopt soil and water management.

He said in the next five years, the NGO would continue to work for women's rights and gender equity, right to education and a right to food.

It would also work to empower the people to be able to participate in local governance and work on climate change.

"We are looking at working more with young people, building their capacities for critical thinking, problem solving, seeing themselves as agents of change and having the confidence and determination to drive home their agenda", he added.

Mrs Lucy Awuni, the Deputy Regional Minister who launched the celebrations, urged the youth and the poor to take advantage of the activities of the NGO to improve their lives.

She commended ActionAid for its work in the region.